Article Details

The Murasaki-29 sweet potato, characterized by its rich phenolic content and high sugar levels, is prone to spoilage due to its high moisture content. To address this, Osmotic Dehydration (OD) was investigated as a precursor to drying to economically extend the shelf life of the sweet potato by reducing moisture content while preserving nutritional quality. The effect of varying sugar concentration, temperature, and immersion time on the OD characteristics of Murasaki-29, as indicated by the performance ratio (Pr) was investigated while Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) modelling was employed to predict the OD process. Experimental results showed that while increased sugar concentration improved Pr, rising temperature negatively impacted Pr. The effect of increased time on OD characteristics was not consistent, with initial increment but later decrement. Among the tested ANFIS model configuration, the 2-trimf-ANFIS model achieved the highest accuracy with a correlation coefficient value (R) of 0.9904. The model’s performance showed that ANFIS is a valuable tool in predicting OD processes. This study contributed to understanding the Murasaki-29 sweet potatoes OD processing, provided details into process characteristics and modelling, and suggested the need for optimization towards industrial utilization of the results.