Quality optimisation of combined osmotic dehydration and microwave assisted air drying of pineapple using constant power emission

Nanofood Process Technology: Insights on How Sustainability Informs Process Design

Nanostructured products are an actively growing area for food research, but there is little information on the sustainability of processes used to make these products. In this Review, we advocate for selection of sustainable process technologies during initial stages of laboratory-scale developments of nanofoods. We show that selection is assisted by predictive sustainability assessment(s) based on conventional technologies, including exploratory ex ante and "anticipatory" life-cycle assessment. We demonstrate that sustainability assessments for conventional food process technologies can be leveraged to design nanofood process concepts and technologies. We critically review emerging nanostructured food products including encapsulated bioactive molecules and processes used to structure these foods at laboratory, pilot, and industrial scales. We apply a rational method via learning lessons from sustainability of unit operations in conventional food processing and critically apportioned lessons between emerging and conventional approaches. We conclude that this method provides a quantitative means to incorporate sustainability during process design for nanostructured foods. Findings will be of interest and benefit to a range of food researchers, engineers, and manufacturers of process equipment.

Advanced osmotic dehydration techniques combined with emerging drying methods for sustainable food production: Impact on bioactive components, texture, color, and sensory properties of food

The food industries are looking for potential preservation methods for fruits and vegetables. The combination of osmosis and drying has proved the efficient method to improve the food quality. Osmotic dehydration is a mass transfer process in which water molecules from the food move to an osmo-active solution and the solutes from the solution migrate into the food. Advanced osmotic dehydration techniques such as electric field pulse treatment, ultrasonic and microwave-assisted dehydration, pulsed vacuum, and osmodehydrofreezing can improve the nutritional quality (bioactive) and sensory properties (color, texture, aroma, flavor) of fresh and cut-fruits without changing their reliability. Emerging osmotic dehydration technologies can preserve the structure of fruit tissue by forming microscopic channels and increasing effective water diffusivity. However, it is important to analyze the effect of advanced osmotic dehydration techniques on the quality of food products to understand the industrial scalability of these techniques. The present paper discusses the impact of recent osmotic dehydration techniques on bioactive, antioxidant capacity, color, and sensory profile of food.

Innovative technologies for producing and preserving intermediate moisture foods: A review

Intermediate moisture foods (IMF) or semi-dried foods (SDF) have gained more attention worldwide having features very similar to fresh food products, but with a longer shelf life. This review presents the recent developments in novel technologies and methods for the production and preservation of IMF. These include new drying methods, using agents to reduce water-activity, innovative osmotic dehydration technologies, electro-osmotic dewatering, thermal pasteurization, plasma treatments (PT), high pressure processing (HPP), modified atmosphere packaging (MAP), edible coating, active packaging (and energy efficiency, improve quality and extend the shelf life of the final food AP) and hurdle technologies (HT). Innovative methods applied to producing and preserving IMF can enhance both drying products. Yet more systematic research is still needed to bridge knowledge gaps, in particular on inactivation kinetics and mechanisms related to thermal and non-thermal pasteurization technologies for control of pathogens and spoilage micro-organisms in IMF.

Food structure: Its formation and relationships with other properties

Food materials are complex in nature as it has heterogeneous, amorphous, hygroscopic and porous properties. During processing, microstructure of food materials changes which significantly affects other properties of food. An appropriate understanding of the microstructure of the raw food material and its evolution during processing is critical in order to understand and accurately describe dehydration processes and quality anticipation. This review critically assesses the factors that influence the modification of microstructure in the course of drying of fruits and vegetables. The effect of simultaneous heat and mass transfer on microstructure in various drying methods is investigated. Effects of changes in microstructure on other functional properties of dried foods are discussed. After an extensive review of the literature, it is found that development of food structure significantly depends on fresh food properties and process parameters. Also, modification of microstructure influences the other properties of final product. An enhanced understanding of the relationships between food microstructure, drying process parameters and final product quality will facilitate the energy efficient optimum design of the food processor in order to achieve high-quality food.

Evaluation of the Potential of Fruit Peel Biomass after Conventional and Microwave Drying for Use as Solid Fuel

Searching for new sources of energy in order to minimize the dependence on fossil fuels and also to preserve the environmentmeets thenecessityfor finding effective solutions to the problem of waste generated in different production levels.In juice pulp processing industrylarge volumes of waste are produced daily and can contribute, with its burning, for energy production. Once it is necessary the removal of moisture from the residue, this study evaluate the conventional drying and microwave drying of the biomass generated by peels of orange, mango and passion fruit with initial mean moisture content higher than 75%. The experiments were performed in oven at a temperature of 150°C and the average time for an almost complete withdrawal of peels studied was 130min. For drying by microwave with power of 900W, the average time required for the total reduction in moisture was 8.5min. The drying Page model was adjusted by non-linear regression to data obtained with correlation coefficients in all cases greater than 0.955. The higher heating value was rated equal to 16,25kJ/g, 19,62kJ/g, 16,35kJ/g for the peels of orange, mango and passion fruit, respectively. The average energy consumption for the drying process in the oven was 81,25kJ/gevaporated water and 12,07 kJ/gevaporatedwaterin the process by microwave, which indicates that drying using microwave is a very interesting option.

Standardization of process parameters for microwave assisted convective dehydration of ginger

Ginger (Zingiber Officinale, Cv. Suprava) slices (4 mm thick) were dehydrated at 25°, 40°, 50° and 60 °C with three different microwave power levels, viz. 120, 240, and 360 W in microwave assisted convective dryer up to 0.07 g moisture/g dry solid to observe the feasibility of microwave assisted convective drying for ginger. The samples were also dried without application of microwaves (0 W) at the above air temperatures. The final product quality was compared in terms of rehydration characteristics, oleoresin and volatile oil contents, hardness, color and organoleptic quality. The maximum rehydration ratio of 3.86 ± 0.06 was obtained at 50 °C without application of microwaves and was followed by 120 W-40 °C combination treatment (3.64 ± 0.15). The minimum rehydration ratio was 2.34 ± 0.20 for 360 W with 60 °C. The yield of oleoresin content was higher for 120 W as compared to other power levels, which ranged between 5.12 ± 0.85% and 6.34 ± 0.89%. The maximum retention of oleoresin was observed in case of 120 W-40 °C. The samples dried with microwave power level of 120 W also gave better yields of volatile oil as compared to other power levels. The best color was observed at 120 W-50 °C and 120 W-60 °C conditions with Hunter 'a' (redness) values at 0.50 ± 0.03 and 0.35 ± 0.03, respectively. The sensory analysis also indicated that drying at 120 W-50 °C and 240 W-50 °C combinations gave the most acceptable quality product. Drying ginger with 120 W-50 °C combination helped in a saving of 53% and 44% in drying time as compared to hot air drying at 50° and 60 °C, respectively. Drying at 240 W-50 °C also gave a reasonably acceptable quality product with a net saving of 91% and 89% in drying time as compared to hot air drying at 50° and 60 °C, respectively. However, on the basis of rehydration characteristics, the acceptable process conditions were hot air drying at 50° or 60 °C, or with the 120 W-40 °C combination.