Monte Carlo Modelling of a Vegetable Tray Dryer

The objective in food dehydration is to dry the product to a specified uniform moisture content. In practice, a distribution in final moisture content is unavoidable, arising from the intrinsic variability of food properties and the probabilistic nature of the food drying process. For commercial dryers there are significant costs associated with this deviation in final moisture. To investigate the variability in the dehydration of vegetables, a model of a tray dryer was constructed, based on the empirical Page equation. It was solved using the Monte Carlo technique by describing the initial moisture content and the drying rate with probability distribution functions. A series of experiments were conducted to provide constants and statistical data for the model and to validate it. The utility of this approach is illustrated by applying the probabilistic drying model to quantifying and optimising the final moisture content distribution.