Studies on drying, packaging and storage of solar tunnel dried chilgoza nuts

Chilgoza (Pinus gerardiana) is one of the pine nuts among six species found in India which produce edible nuts. Because of the traditional handling of this nut by tribals, it lasts only for few weeks in the market. Studies were undertaken to compare the solar drying modes for drying of this nut and screen out the suitable packaging material for its storage. Extracted nuts were dried under three solar drying means like solar cabinet drier (46-52 0C), solar tunnel drier (43-47 0C) and open sun (18-220C). Solar tunnel drier was found to be best drying mode for drying quality nuts as compare to the others. So, nuts dried in this drier were packed in five different packaging materials and stored under ambient conditions for six months. The some physico-chemical quality characteristics like aw (0.208), oil (49.1%) total carbohydrates ( 24.9%), and proteins ( 11.8%) and sensory quality attributes of packed nuts were retained better in glass jars closely followed by aluminum laminate pouch after six months of storage as compared to others. Solar tunnel drier was the best drying mode and glass jar as well as aluminum laminate pouch were the best materials for packaging and storage.