Comparative Study on Drying Practices of Flours and Spices

The major share of the loss occurs during storage of surplus stock. Among the various causes of losses, the most important one is improper drying before storage. So, present study was conducted to compare the existing flours and spices drying practices with solar bed technology on the basis of temperature, moisture and infestation. In study it was found that in village most common practice of drying was found to be drying of food commodities on cloth. The temperature in solar bed was higher up to 75.662.30 and significantly higher and differed to direct storage and open exposure temperatre (CD = 4.88), moisture was also different in direct storage (2.34^a0.47), open storage(1.89^a0.67) and solar bed storage (1.02^b0.23) with CD value of 0.22 in case of semolina. No infestation was also found in solar bed drying practices. Other side in comparison, was done on open exposure and solar bed drying on the basis of temperature and time in killing insects, found that temperature was higher in solar bed drying and time in killing insect was less. It is concluded that more the thickness of two polythene sheets (black and transparent) higher the temperature in solar bed and hence less is the time of killing of insects in spices and flours.