Effect of Temperature and Drying Time on Some Nutritional Quality Parameters of Dried Tomatoes

The causes of losses of farm produce are linked in many complex ways to beliefs and attitudes that underlie traditional ways of managing the past harvest system. Vegetables such as tomato, okra, onion, pepper and their likes are perishable crops which deteriorate few days after harvest. The nutritional values of the dried vegetables examined was assessed using the method prescribed by AOAC. The drying was done at temperature of 300C for 1 hour and 6 hours while another drying was done at temperature of 900 C for 1 hour and 6 hours. The values of the moisture content, vitamin C, protein and �-carotene before drying were 93.2%, 55 mg/100ml, 0.38 g/100g and 32.59 g/100g, respectively. The 22 factorial designs were employed in the plus and minus levels of X1, corresponding temperature at higher level and lower level, respectively, and the plus and minus signs of factor X2 represent the drying time at higher level and lower level, respectively.