Industrial papaya drying includes hot air drying and microwave drying, which are analyzed for advantages and disadvantages. Compare them and then choose the suitable method for your drying business.

1. Analysis of Industrial Papaya Drying
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I. Introduction of Papayas
1. General information
Papaya is a native to tropical regions of Americas and cultivated originally in
Southern Mexico. Nowadays, it is cultivated in most tropical regions of the world.
Generally, the papaya fruit is melon-like, oval to nearly round, somewhat pyriform, or
elongated club-shaped, and it has a unique and exotic sweet taste.
2. Food value
There are a lot of antioxidants in papaya. Also, vitamin C, vitamin A and certain
minerals are rich in papaya fruit. Papaya also has some substantial minerals such as
potassium, magnesium, calcium and so on. The following figures represent the
minimum and maximum levels of constituents as reported from Central America and
Cuba.
Food Value Per 100 g of Edible Portion of papaya
Constituents Fruit
Calories 23.1-25.8
Moisture 85.9-92.6 g
Protein 0.081-0.34 g
Fat 0.05-0.96 g
Carbohydrates 6.17-6.75 g
Crude Fiber 0.5-1.3 g

2. Ash 0.31-0.66 g
Calcium 12.9-40.8 mg
Phosphorus 5.3-22.0 mg
Iron 0.25-0.78 mg
Carotene 0.005-0.676 mg
Thiamine 0.021-0.036 mg
Riboflavin 0.024-0.058 mg
Niacin 0.227-0.555 mg
Ascorbic Acid 35.5-71.3 mg
Tryptophan 4-5 mg
Methionine 1 mg
Lysine 15-16 mg
Magnesium _
Phosphoric Acid _
II. Why to Dry Papaya
Papaya is the perishable food. Drying is the most common processing technology to
preserve papaya by removing most of its water. The lower water content slows the
rate of respiration, enzymatic action and overall deterioration rate, makes products
less susceptible to decay and much easier and less expensive to store and transport.
Papaya is very suitable for drying, and dried papaya retains delicious taste and its
nutritive value.
III. Papaya Drying Method
Typically, only the flesh of the papaya is dehydrated. The seeds and skin are
discarded by automatic machine, and the fruit is cut into whatever shape is desired.
Usually, cubes or slices are preferred, since they dehydrate faster than halves.
Generally, there are some kinds of processing methods for dried papayas, the details
of the different processes will be showed as below.
1. Solar Drying
The drying using solar energy has been used since antiquity in order to preserve foods.
The simplest method for solar drying is to lay papayas directly upon a flat black
surface and allow the sun and wind to dry them.
Solar drying works best in a hot, dry climate. When drying papayas in the sun, place
the prepared papayas in the sun for the first 2 or 3 days, then move them to a
ventilated shady spot to complete drying. If you live in a location with a high relative
humidity, solar drying may take too long to produce a high quality product.
Advantages: simple drying way, less equipment required and low cost. And also help
imperfectly ripened papaya get further maturation.
Disadvantages: Drying process can not be controlled. Long drying period, higher
labor cost and larger drying area, vulnerable to other kinds
of environmental contamination and limited by climatic conditions. So natural drying

3. is gradually replaced by manual drying.
2. Conventional hot air drying
In this type of drying, the heat needed for drying is provided by convection with hot
air in direct contact with the papayas. The most common of these dryers used for
fruits are hot air drying oven and continuous belt dryer. The hot air drying oven
adopts hot air circulation with high temperature resistant axial flow fan and automatic
temperature control system. The papaya pieces are put on the trays, then put trays in
the trolleys, at last push trolleys into the drying oven. The continuous belt dryer is
formed by an endless belt on which the papayas to be dried is placed and carried
through a counter-or co-current flow of hot air.
Advantage: the ease of automatic continuous operation minimizes labor requirement.
Less working area with large production capacity, no contamination during drying
process, free from environmental impact
Disadvantages: low drying efficiency and long period drying makes taste, flavor and
color get worse.
3. Microwave drying

4. If you think conventional drying of foods is a slow process, you can attempt to
enhance this process which has been made widely in industry. Microwave drying is
adopted as efficient drying equipment by more and more consumers in the market.
For more information about microwave drying machines, you can visit the “Drying
Equipment” of our website.
Advantages: the drying speed is very quick and it can improve the quality of products
dramatically. it characterizes high efficiency, even heating, easy to control, and
convenient installation and maintenance etc. In addition, microwave automatic
temperature vacuum drying equipment still has the functions of sterilization and
disinfection. It possesses power linearity adjustable, intelligent control, and
environment & temperature controllable. finished papayas are safe and healthy, and
their quality guaranteed period can be prolonged.
Disadvantages: due to short drying time error of 1-2mins will result big difference,
resulting in over-drying.
IV. Packaging and storage of dried papayas
Suitable packages for dried papayas include air tight jars, plastic or glass bottles or
plastic bags. Fill containers as full as possible to remove air before sealing, and
consider heat-sealing or vacuum scaling plastic bags to extend shelf life. Avoid metal
containers and keep packaged products in cool, dark place during storage.
Check packages a few days after dried papayas have been scaled inside, if there is any
condensation inside the container, then the papayas need further drying. Shelf life is
typically one year when products are properly added and sealed in air tight packages.