F

d Science

Dehydration Lab Report

Mui Roong Mind Pin Section 1005

January, 14-15 2016

Introduction
Dehydration is the process that use dehydrator to evaporate water from food.
This process will help you to keep your food last longer, prevent bacterial growth, make
a new flavor of food and reduce your food weight. Since dehydration have to remove the
water out from food, the dehydrator which is the machine to dehydrate the food have to
provide the heat and circulate throughout the food because water has high heat of
vaporization. It can make water evaporate if it has enough amount of heat provide to the
water to break the hydrogen bond in it. Is it easy to remove all of the water from the
food? To answer this question you need to know about the type of water in the food.
There are three types of water in food. Free water or bulk water is the water in food that
each water molecule is surrounded by other water molecule. Free water can easily
remove such as water in orange that we can squeezing and it will flowing from the fruit.
Second type is capillary water or trapped water. Capillary water is water that stuck in
small tube between food component because capillary force. This type of water is able
to remove from food but harder than free water. The last type of water is bound water.
Bound water is water molecule that connected with other nutrient molecule in food. This
type of water is the hardest water to remove from food. Dehydrator can evaporate water
from food but we do not know how much is free water, capillary water, or bound water.
How we know how many percent of the water in that fruit? We can know it by calculate
moisture content. After we finished dehydrating food, we calculate moisture content of
the sample. Moisture content is the percentage of water that can be evaporated out from
food whether it is free water, capillary water or bound water. To calculate the moisture
content, (This is the formula to calculate percent of moisture content)
Mass of food before dehydrated - Mass of food after dehydrate
Mass of food before dehydrated

x 100

In this experiment, we want to know how to calculate moisture content of the food
so, we get some fruits (orange and strawberries) then weight and dehydrated them. So
after finished dehydration, we can calculate the moisture content of the fruit that we
dehydrate by using the formula.

Materials
rries

e
Strawb

Ora

nge

ard
o
B
g
n
Cutti

ife
n
K

le
u
R

Dehydrator

aper

Wax P

ni
o
r
t
lec

ce

lan
a
B
c

procedure
Part 1: January, 14 2016
1. Prepare the fruit sample.
2. Cut your fruit sample as thin as you can and cut it into equal pieces. Each member
must have their own fruit sample.
3. Cut a wax paper into a small pieces to fit your slice.
4. Mass your fruit sample on electronic balance (in grams) with the wax paper and
without the wax paper.
5. Record the mass in your data table and dont forget the units.
6. Make an observation and draw a picture of your fruit sample in your notebook. Then
measure your fruit sample thickness in centimetre with a ruler.
7. Place each slice of fruit sample on a rack on the dehydrator. Make sure the fruit is
spaced evenly apart.
8. Leave it for 4-24 hours at 70 degree celsius.

Part 2: January, 15 2016

1. Obtain your fruit sample from the dehydrator.
2. Mass your dehydrated fruit sample on electronic balance (in grams) with wax paper
and without wax paper.
3. Record mass in your data table and dont forget the units.
4. Make an observation and draw a picture of your dehydrated fruit sample. Identify and
describe the characteristics of your dehydrated fruit sample compare to original sample.
5. Calculate the percentage of moisture in the original sample.
6. Find the average of moisture content percentage for your group and compare it to
other groups.

Data Table: strawberry

Mass of sample before
dehydration (g.)

Sample

Paper
First Sample 0.12g.

Mass of sample after

dehydration (g.)

Paper
+

Moisture
Content %

Strawberry

Strawberry

Paper
+

Strawberry

2.82g.

2.97g.

0.55g.

0.30g.

89.36%

Strawberry

Second
Sample

0.15g.

3.62g.

3.77g.

0.58g.

0.43g.

88.12%

Third
Sample

0.16g.

3.09g.

3.28g.

0.51g.

0.36g.

88.34%

Fourth
Sample

0.17g.

2.59g.

2.73g

0.44g.

0.30g.

88.42%

Average Moisture Content = 88.56%

Data table: Orange

Sample

Mass of sample before

dehydration (g.)

Mass of sample after

dehydration (g.)

Paper

Orange

Paper
+
Orange

Mind

0.72g.

19.90g.

20.60g.

4.02g.

3.34g.

83.21%

Mui

0.69g.

21.36g.

22.04g.

4.57g.

3.92g.

81.65%

Roong

0.67g.

20.87g.

21.47g.

4.43g.

3.78g.

81.88%

Average Moisture Content = 82.24%

Paper
+
Orange

Orange

Moisture
Content %

discussion
1.Why did the weight of the sample decrease? Explain.
According to the 5 properties of water, which is water has high heat of
vaporization, it can be evaporated by heat. When we put the fruit in the dehydrator, the
water in the fruits were evaporated by the heat that is provided by machine. So, when
water that also has weight was evaporated (was moved out), the weight of the fruits is
decreased.
2. Each group member should comment on the changes they observed from the wet to
dry sample.
Roong: The shape of orange is round and wide (8.3 cm.). At first, when we just
cut the slices, the fruits thickness is not the same (measure around the slice 0.5-1 cm.),
and can see easily. The outer skin is very orange and the inner skin is yellow. For the
pulp, when compared to the outer skin, its more pale. The texture of the skin is rough.
It isnt hard and also isnt soft. The pulp is very juicy, which can be recognized by
touching or cutting. In the middle of the fruit, it has a small hole that link and weld lines
between pulp and the pulp together. For my sample, some of the lines were broken apart
while I was cutting. So it has some space between the pulp. After we finished the
dehydration, the skin and the pulp are thinner, smaller, harder(crisp). The skins color is
darker, also the pulp. The fruit still remained some of water in it, which can see by sight.
The line that was broken apart are expanded and when I ate it, the taste is very bitter but
for the other sample it is sweet and sour,
Pin: The observation before dehydrate, The length of the first sample and second
sample were 1.2 inches, and the third sample and fourth sample were 1.3 inches. The
color of them were bright red. The skin was rough. The taste was sour, sweet and much
water in my mouth. The observation after dehydration, all of them is changing.The length
is shrinking which is 0.9in ,and 1.2in. The color was brown. The skin was withered. The
taste was very sour, and very sticky.
Mui: The shell texture of wet sample of an orange was very rough and it has a
bright orange color. The skin was very white and the shape of the pulp was a triangle.

There are a small line between the pulp. It has a free space in the middle of the circle.
The thickness of an orange was 0.5 cm, the width was 8.8 cm and the height was 8 cm.
After dehydration for 24 hours, in contrast, the size of an orange was decreased. The
thickness was decreased into 0.3 cm, the width was 7 cm and the height was 6.7 cm.
The shell texture was very pale and it has a small dot inside. Pulp still be a triangle shape
but it changed the color into bright yellow. The color of the shell was more orange but the
texture still the same and free space in the middle was bigger than before dehydration.
Moreover, after dehydration, it looked more crispy but it still was a round shape. It taste
very sour and when I chewed it, it was very sticky.
Mind : Before dehydration the shape of the orange is quite round, the color of the
outer skin is orange for inner skin is light yellow. The skin of it is not smooth. It has some
spot on it skin. The pulp of the orange is moist and full with juice. The height of the
orange is 8 centimeters, the width of the orange is 8 centimeters and the thickness of the
sample is unequal but the average is about 0.5 centimeters. At the center of the orange
has a space between each lobe. After dehydration the orange, the shape of the orange is
quite oval, the color of the outer skin is still orange but the inner skin is darker yellow and
the thickness of this layer is decrease. The skin is shrink in size. The pulps of the orange
is still have orange color but it look more solid and dry. It is very easily divide from the
orange skin. The height, the width and the thickness are decrease. The height of the
orange is 7.3 centimeters, the width of the orange is 6.3 centimeters and the thickness of
the sample is unequal but the average is about 0.3 centimeters. The space in the center
of the orange is wider. The taste of it is sweet and sour. The texture of it is chewy and a
little bit hard at edge.
3.Do you think your sample needed more time to dry? Why or why not?
Strawberry: Yes, it is. Because strawberries still have water.In actual, it has water

92 percent but I got 89 percent in the average of 4 samples. All strawberries can dry
more.
Orange: Yes, it is. Our sample still remain some of water in it which we can see

easily by sight. Also when we compare to the actual moisture content (standard moisture
content when the orange is evaporated), the percentage of the actual one is 87% while

our groups sample got 82.25% (in the average of 3 samples) so, the fruit can be more
evaporated to make it dry and crisp.
4. How did the average moisture content of the other fruit sample compare to your group
Pineapples have moisture content at 84.79%, bananas have moisture content at
72.74%, apples have average moisture content at 82.77%, Oranges have 82.25%, and
strawberries have 88.56%. The fruit that contain the most moisture content is strawberry.
The fruit that contain the least moisture content is banana.
5. Why did some samples dehydrate more efficiently than others (For within your group
and also between different group)
The sample that dehydrate more efficiently than other is Minds sample.
Because the sample was placed it different area in the dehydrator, and the thickness of
each sample was unequal, each sample have different percent of dehydration. In
different group, the fruit can dehydrate differently because the type of the sample that
dehydrated. Each type of fruit have different amount of water. If the fruit contain more
water, the dehydrator will dehydrate better than the fruit that have less water. In each
fruit, it might be different type of water. If the most water in that fruit is free water, it will
dehydrated more efficiently than other kind of fruits. If the most water in that fruit is
bound water so it is not easily to remove all of water molecule from the food and it might
take longer time to dry as efficiently as other fruits.
6. Research advantage and disadvantage to dehydrate food products and explain.
Include APA citations.
Dehydrated food have many advantages such as, its easy to be transported and
can be prepared faster because dehydration reduces amount of water in food product
which cause the weight loss. They will last longer because the bacteria, mold, and yeast
need to be grow with water but dehydration reduces the amount of water. For
disadvantage, the preservative which is salt, added in dehydrate food can cause high
sodium and because of this reason, hypertension, coronary heart disease and other
kidney disease. Moreover, it is very expensive because need it need to be taken many
methods to make it. Because it contains high calorie and high sugar so it can make you
fat.

Bibliography :
Stein,N.11/29/2015. The Disadvantage Of Dehydration Food.Retrieved from
http://www.livestrong.com/article/318585-the-disadvantages-ofdehydrated-food/
Quality for keeps: Drying Foods(05,2015)Retrieved
from http://extension.missouri.edu/p/GH1562
Bruso,J.10/30/2015.Advantages & Disadvantages of Freeze-Dried. Retrieved from
http://www.livestrong.com/article/509074-advantages-disadvantages-offreeze-dried-food/

conclusion
In this dehydration lab, we use an orange and strawberry as a fruit sample. We
put the fruit sample into a dehydrator and waited for about 1 day. We learned from this
experiment that water in an orange was bulk water because it is easily to remove.
However, it still has some water in an orange after dehydrated. We also calculate the
moisture content in fruit sample but it was lower than what we have expected. The
average moisture content of an orange was 82.24% and average of strawberry was
88.56%. This might different because of the time that we leave the fruit sample in
dehydrator was too short. If we have an opportunities to do fruit dehydration again, we
will use the same fruit sample but we will increase the temperature in the dehydrator and
we will leave it longer. Lastly, the moisture content in food tells us the percentage of
water in food which is important for us. This is because of our body need to consume
high amount of water per one day. If we know the moisture content in food, we can
identify the proper food to consume in one day.

Work Log
Name

Section

Yes/No!

Mind

Introduction Paragraph 1,2 / Discussion 2,4,5

Yes

Mui

Procedure / Conclusion / Discussion 2

Yes

Roong
Pin

Introduction / Discussion 1, 2, 3
Material / Data Table / Discussion 2, 3, 6

Yes
Yes