Abstract
Summary Slices (1.5 mm thick) of green papaya were impregnated through osmotic dehydration with a blackberry juice–sucrose solution to produce an intermediate moisture product. The effect of processing temperature ( T ) and sucrose‐added molality ( m sucrose ) on mass transfer during the operation was assessed, using a response surface methodology (RSM). The RSM was used to model water loss, sugar and anthocyanin gain during the process. Increasing sucrose molality resulted in increasing water loss and sugar gain, but decreasing anthocyanin gain. Water transfer therefore limits anthocyanin impregnation, but not sucrose incorporation. Afterwards, the impact of heat treatment at high temperatures was analysed, using numerical simulation. The conditions of the combined process, designed to achieve an anthocyanin‐rich final product, are low sucrose‐added molalities (sucrose molality < 1 mol kg –1 ) and high processing temperatures ( T > 50 ºC) for osmotic dehydration, coupled with high‐temperature, short‐time (HTST) heat treatments for product stabilisation.