Potato flour is obtained through drying, being a widely used ingredient in sauces, bakery, extruded, among other products due to its versatility and potential to form pastes and gels. Drying is a long process and increase its temperature can be interesting to accelerate processing. However, drying process conditions can be a determining factor in both pasting and gel properties of these flours. Therefore, the objective of this work was to evaluate the convective drying at high temperatures, and how it can modify the properties of potato flour. The potatoes were washed, peeled by hand, sliced (5 mm) and convective dried at two temperatures: 40 °C (D40) and 100 °C (D100). Subsequently, the dried potatoes were milled and the properties of their paste and gel were evaluated, being also compared with in natura potatoes (IN). The pasting properties were obtained by Rapid Visco Analyzer and the gel strength using a Texture Analyzer and a penetration assay. Convective drying at 100 °C dried four times faster than at 40 °C. Page Model adequately described the drying kinetics, being “k” parameter five times higher at 100 °C in comparison with 40 °C. All the treatments showed a super-diffusive behavior, with no differences in the “n” parameter. D40 showed a higher peak and final apparent viscosities in relation to fresh potatoes and D100, with D100 presenting lower values for all parameters, being characterizing by a low consistent paste. D40 gel was stronger to those obtained from fresh sample and D100. In conclusion, the high temperature was able to accelerate drying, but jeopardizing paste consistency and gel strength.
Acknowledgments: FAPESP 2019/05043-6; CNPq 306557/2017-7 and 132297/2019-1; CAPES 001.