Abstract
Leaf vegetables are composed of about 80% of moisture and 20 to 30% are damaged during the transportation due to decomposition and browning. This study was conducted to develop a washing, sterilization dehydrating system that could remove these polluters, and major findings were summarized as followings. The system was constructed so that leaf vegetables were moved through the washing, sterilization, and dehydration stages contained in a box, the shifting was conducted using PLC-controlled pneumatic pressure. Basic tests for determination of design parameters led to the results that optimum washing times by air bubbles were 5 minutes for lettuce and perilla and 10 minutes for Chinese cabbage, and percentages of bacteria removed using the optimum washing times were 94, 98, and 76%, respectively. Optimum speed and time of a centrifugal dehydrator for removal surface waterdrop on the leaves were 400 rpm and 30 s, respectively, dehydration rates were in a range $70{\sim}82%$ and damage rates were within 15% for the three vegetables tested. Operating efficiencies of the developed system for lettuce, perilla, and Chinese cabbage were 100, 120, and 80 kg/h, respectively, which were 25, 24, and 27 times of operating efficiencies of the conventional manual method.
