Resumen

In Colombia, the population's demand for healthy, organic and quality products has increased over the years. Simultaneously, and due to the worldwide pandemic caused by COVID-19, farmers in the department of Tolima have suffered losses in their crops due to the impossibility of selling their products on time. Therefore, this project seeks to answer the following research question: Is it possible to generate a value-added food product based on vegetables from the department of Tolima through a dehydration technique? To this end, from the methodological point of view, an exploration of the market of creams and soups in the city of Ibagué was carried out, the product with the highest added value was formulated through the solar dehydration technique, the acceptability of the formulations made was evaluated through a sensory evaluation and, finally, the technical study for the elaboration of these formulations was carried out. According to the results, it was demonstrated that there is a great variety of products in the cream and soup market, led by brands such as Knorr, Magi and La Sopera, it was possible to formulate a vegetable cream by means of a one-factor experimental design with three levels, the factor to be varied being the flour used (arracacha, plantain and wheat flour), and it was determined that the plantain flour cream was the one that obtained the greatest general acceptability by the panelists. Finally, the technical study allowed estimating a total product cost of $ 8,068 pesos, and a cost per gram of final product of $ 112.05 pesos.