Abstract: The effects of air, O2, N2, O3 and CO2 as drying media on the quality of dehydrated carrots were evaluated. The use of nitrogen as a drying medium nitrogen significantly reduced the drying time, thereby saving energy by 16.10% when compared with air. Nitrogen enhanced the rehydration capacity of carrots, and improved the retention of carotenoids (70.2%) and VC (42.1%) by 8.9% and 13.7% in comparison with air, respectively. Moreover, the overall sensory quality of nitrogen-dehydrated carrots was the best among all drying media. Therefore, nitrogen drying provided better dehydrated carrots than other drying media.

Key words: N2, carrot, drying media, quality