CHARACTERISTICS ABSORPTION AND MODELING OF UNRIPE PLANTAIN CHIPS

Abstract

In this study,  water  absorption characteristics  of dried  unripe  plantain chips  were investigated by soaking in distill water at 20°C, 30°C and 40°C. The data generated were fitted into three models namely Peleg, Weibull  and  exponential.  The  statistical  criteria  used  in  evaluation  of  the  models  were  coefficient  of determination (R²), reduced chi-square (χ²), mean bias error (MBE) and root mean square error (RMSE). The result shows that temperature did not affect water absorption properties initially, but it did affect it as re-hydration  progressed.  The result of R² shows that Weibull model has the highest value of 0.979 and exponential model has lowest value of 0.653. Therefore, Weibull model was adjudged to have successfully fitted water absorption of unripe plantain chips.