Drying Technologies in Food Processing

Recently, consumers are paying more attention to healthy diets and often seek products with a high number of bioactive compounds, such as fruit and vegetables [1,2]. Due to the seasonality of raw materials, some fruits and vegetables are available on the market in a fresh state only for a short period during the year. Furthermore, after harvesting, there can be a surplus of raw materials. Drying is one of the most frequently used processing methods that enable surplus to be handled [3,4]. However, the drying process is used in different processes during food production and has an impact on the quality of the final product [3,5]. Different methods of drying and pretreatments are used to obtain high-quality products. Osmotic dehydration could be applied as a pretreatment before the drying process to partially remove water from the cellular tissue via the immersion of fruit and vegetables in hypertonic aqueous solutions, reducing drying time, as well as decreasing process costs and improving the taste of the final product [1,6,7]. However, osmotic dehydration might also be used to obtain minimally processed fruit and vegetable products [8]. To accelerate mass transfer during osmotic dehydration and drying, in recent years, new techniques, such as pulsed-vacuum, high and low pressure, power ultrasound, pulsed electric fields, etc., have been used [9–11]. In this Special Issue, “Drying Technologies in Food Processing”, a comprehensive overview of the application of emerging and unconventional technologies prior to and during osmotic dehydration is presented. These innovative approaches are employed to produce high-quality osmodehydrated and dried products. Additionally, this Special Issue offers valuable insights into the principles and fundamentals of nonthermal technologies and their applications in food processing. This will allow researchers and experts to gain valuable insights into the potential use of different technologies in food processing, enhancing the efficiency of osmotic dehydration and drying methods.