Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2018) 7(7): 2754-2764 2754 Original Research Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2018.707.322 Effect of Hot Water Blanching Treatment on Quality of Dried Potato Slices D.C. Kapadiya 1* , J.M. Makavana 2 and M.K. Kathiria 3 1 Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, CAET, JAU, Junagadh, Gujarat, India 2 Department of Renewable Energy Engineering, CAET, JAU, Junagadh, Gujarat, India 3 School of Science, Engineering and Technology, Durham College, 2000 Simcoe Street North, Oshawa, Ontario, Canada *Corresponding author ABSTRACT Introduction The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial nightshade Solanum tuberosum. The word "potato" may refer either to the plant itself or to the edible tuber. It is the world's fourth largest food crop, following maize, wheat and rice. According to FAO (2008), Potato is consumed by more than one billion people in the world. It has since spread around the world and become a staple crop in many countries. It is grown in more than 100 countries. Potato has high level moisture content, hence it is perishable crop. Major potato producing states are Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Assam, Haryana, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. The main varieties of potato grown in Gujarat are Kufri Sindhuri, Kufri Chandramukhi, Kufri Jyoti, Kufri Badshah, Kufri Jawahar, Kufri Pukhraj, Kufri Lalima and Kufri Lauvkar. Potatoes are ready to harvest in June-July. The average world farm yield for potato was 17.4 tonne/ha, in 2013-14 and 45.3 million metric tonne potatoes were produced in India (Anon., 2014 a). International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 7 Number 07 (2018) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial nightshade Solanum tuberosum. Potato has high level moisture content, hence it is perishable crop. Blanching is an unit operation prior to freezing, canning, drying in which fruit and vegetables are heated for the purpose of inactivate enzymes; modifying texture; preserving colour, flavour and nutritional value; and removing trapped air. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of pre-treatments on quality of dried potato slices. Potato slices ware subjected to various pre-drying treatment viz., blanching in hot water at temperature, i.e., 60, 70, 80, 90 and 100˚C and blanching time, i.e., 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 and 5.0 min. Based on the above study, it may be concluded that treatment B5 (70˚ C temperature + 2.0 min. blanching time) was found to be best among all the treatment with optimum recovery of potato slice, shrinkage percentage, rehydration ratio, reducing sugar, sucrose and total phenol. Keywords Hot Water Blanching Treatment, Dried Potato Slices Accepted: 20 June 2018 Available Online: 10 July 2018 Article Info