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Cohen 1995
Cohen 1995
Progress in food
removal occurs at a constant rate because the internal
20 01995, Elsevier Science Ltd 0924 -2244/95/$09.50 Trends in Food Science & Technology January 1995 [Vol. 61
Spray drying peas, are well suited for this process, whereas powders
Spray drying is used to remove the water from a free- would be inappropriate as they would clog up the
flowing liquid mixture, thus transforming it into a pow- cyclone. Fluidized beds are extensively used in dairy
dered product2. Some examples of products that have been processing.
spray dried are instant coffee, tea and powdered milk.
The fluid that is to be dried is first atomized by pump- Freeze drying
ing it through either a nozzle or a rotary atomizer, thus Freeze drying, or lyophilization, utilizes the principle
forming small droplets with large surface areas. This that, under high vacuum, frozen water can be removed
droplet spray immediately comes, into contact with a hot from a food and collected without going through a
drying gas, usually air. The liquidl is very rapidly evapor- liquid phase2. Because the material remains frozen, no
ated, thus minimizing contact time and heat damage. heat damage occurs. In addition, there is little or no loss
The final product consists of spherical particles of a in sensory qualities of the product, and because the
fairly uniform size, often in the form of hollow beads. removal of ice crystals leaves a porous honeycomb-type
The dried product is often agglomerated to facilitate structure, the product tends to rehydrate rapidly.
its rapid dispersion in water. Spray drying can be com- However, freeze drying is a slow and expensive pro-
bined with a fluidized-bed dryer3., which will convert the cess. Four potential rate-limiting steps have been ident-
liquid directly into an agglomerated product. ified: the external transfer of heat to the outer surface
A large disadvantage with this process is the size of of the material from the heat source; the internal trans-
the equipment required to achieve drying. Furthermore, fer of heat within the material; the external mass trans-
not all materials can be dried in this way; for instance, fer of water vapor from the surface; and the internal
very oily materials might require special preparation to mass transfer within the material. During the drying
remove excessive levels of fat before atomization. There cycle, the thickness of the dried layer increases, thus
are, however, continuing improvements being made to slowing down the sublimation rate. The long processing
this process. time requires additional energy to mn the compressor
and refrigeration units, which makes the process very
Fluidized-bed drying expensive for commercial use. Therefore, freeze drying
Fluidized-bed dryers were first commercialized on a is most often used for products that can either be sold
large scale by US petroleum companies during World at a premium or can withstand only a small amount of
War II (Ref. 15). The technique of fluidized-bed drying sensory deterioration.
was initially used for the catal:ytic cracking of crude
petroleum. The chemical industry soon realized that it Other drying methods
could be a very versatile technique and adapted it for Many other drying methods have been designed for
many unit operations. This technique has the important specific products. One such method is explosive puf-
features of producing particles tlnat are of uniform size fing”, designed to give small particles a honeycomb
and being able to maintain constant temperatures. By structure. By using a combination of high temperature
setting the operating conditions within narrow limits, and high pressure, and a sudden release of the pressure
scale-up from laboratory to commercial-sized units can (explosion) to flush out the super-heated water in the
be readily accomplished. product, a good rehydratability can be obtained. How-
The technique involves levitating particulate solids ever, the high heat can degrade the food quality, and
in an upward-flowing gas stream, usually of hot air. the explosion might compromise the product integrity.
Fluidization mobilizes the solid particulates, thus cre- Another method is osmotic drying’-l’ for solute-
ating intimate contact between the dry, hot carrier gas and infused products. This process involves soaking products
the solids. Drying occurs by convection. At the proper with a large water content in concentrated sugar or salt
gas-flow rate the solids will behave as if they were a solutions. This promotes counter-current mass transfer
liquid, thus ensuring more intimate contact between the of both water and solutes between the product and the
solids and the carrier gas, and increasing the drying rate. solution”. Many sugar-infused blueberries, cranberries,
Fluidization is dependent on the characteristics of the cherries, and so on, are produced this way. By combin-
particles: size distribution, density, shape and viscosity. ing osmotic drying with vacuum drying, a high-quality
The properties of the carrier gas that contribute to intermediate-moisture food can be produced. A poten-
fluidization include density and viscosity. tial problem with osmotic drying is the huge amount of
A typical commercial fluidized-bed dryer has a reac- residual fluid that must be disposed of after the process
tion chamber that is fixed in place and usually cylin- is complete. This fluid can be recycled, as suggested by
drical in shape. The hot gas is i:ntroduced into the bot- Bolin et aL9, or further processed into such products
tom of the pre-loaded bed and exits at the top. The flat as puree, juice, jelly, jam and fruit leathers or used as a
bed has been modified by the addition of a vibratory flavoring agent.
mechanism to increase the contact of the product with
the hot gas even further. Fluidize:d-bed drying is usually Novel dehydration techniques
carried out as a batch process, and requires relatively Microwave drying and dielectric drying
small, uniform and discrete particles that can be readily These techniques use the electromagnetic wavelength
fluidized. Thus, small vegetable pieces, such as whole spectrum as a form of energy, which interacts with the
RETURN
LINE
TEMPERATURE
CONTROL CLEAN DRYING
’ BALLS
INLET TUBE
DRYING ZONE
FLOW RATE
CONTROL
-\
BOlTTOM
Fig. 2
Schematic diagram of a centrifugal fluidized-bed dryer.
Microwave drying and High value-added products Low temperature, batch or Slow, expensive
dielectric drying continuous operation,
good quality
Centrifugal fluidized-bed Small particles, vegetable Rapid, easy to control Loss of product integrity,
drying pieces, powders noisy
Ball drying Small particles, vegetable Relatively low temperature, Loss of product integrity,
pieces rapid, continuous difficult to control
Solar (open-air) drying Fruit, meat, fish, plants Simple, low cost Large space required,
labor-intensive, difficult
to control, slow
Spray drying Liquids, instant tea, coffee Spherical product Some quality loss
Fluidized-bed drying Small uniform particles, Usually batch operation, Restriction on particle size
small vegetables uniform drying, rapid
Explosive puffing Gives small particles, Good rehydratability, rapid High heat, loss of product
honeycomb structure integrity
increase the evaporation rate of the water (with drying economical and will also be explored for use with other
sometimes occurring in seconds). Babin et aLI and food products.
Taylor and Hansen I8 have developed special equipment
(under contract to Natick), which has demonstrated that References
water can be effectively removed from dilute solutions 1 Lingle, R. (1986) Prep. foods 155(3), 92-96
of non-fatty products, thus suggesting ultrasonic drying 2 Mujumdar, A. S., ed. (1987) Handbook of industrial Drying,
Marcel Dekker
may be used as an alternative to spray drying. The pro-
3 Shaw, F.V. (1994) Chem. fog. 101(7), 76-84
cedure works best with low-fat solutions because oily or
4 Eisenhardt, N.H., Eskew, R.K. and Cording, I., Jr (1964) Food Eng.
fatty foods do not dry effectively in an aerosol.
36(6), 53-55
5 Eisenhardt, N.H., Eskew, R.K., Cording, J., Jr, Talley, F.B. and
Conclusions Huhtanen, C.N. (1967) Dehydrated Explosion Puffed Blueberries
We have discussed a number of novel drying tech- USDA, ARS-73-541, United States Department of Agriculture
niques that can be used as alternatives to the more well- 6 Sullivan, J.F., Craig, J.C., Jr, Dekazos, E.D., Leiby, S.M. and Konstance,
known methods for moisture reduction in foods (see R.P. (1982) /. Food SC;. 47, 445-448
Table 1 for a summary of these techniques). Before a 7 Ponting, J.D., Walters, C.C., Forrey, R.R., Jackson, R. and Stanley, W.L.
particular process is selected, consideration should be (1986) Food Techno/. 20, 1365-l 368
given to many factors, including: the type of product to 8 Hawkes, 1. and Flink, J.M. (1978) 1. food Process. Preserv. 2,
265-284
be dried, the finished product desired, the product’s
9 Bolin, H.R., Huxsoll, C.C., Jackson, R. and Ng, K.C. (1983) 1. FoodSci.
susceptibility to heat and the cost of processing. There is
48(l), 202-205
no one ‘best’ technique for all products.
10 Yang, A.P.P., Wills, C. and Yang, T.C.S. (1987) 1. Food%. 52(6),
In the future, it is probable that other novel drying 1651-1653, 1664
techniques will be developed and become available for 11 Raoult-Wack, A.L. (1994) Trends Food SC;. Technol. 5, 255-260
specialized purposes. Futhermore, current techniques 12 Cohen, J.S., Yang, T.C.S. and Ayoub, ].A. (1994) Natick/TR-94/017
will also probably be further refined to make them more (AD A278 6481, Natick R,D&E Center, Natick, MA, USA
Conference Report
Plant Polysaccharide
Every two years an International
Symposium is organized by the International
hydrate Organization.
Carbohydrate
Carbo-
A different location is selected
each time. In 1980, the symposium was held in Sydney,
symPosium”
Australia, and Professor Bruc’e Stone organized a
pre-symposium workshop on cereal carbohydrates
Melbourne. His rationale was to offer a forum for those
in
P.J. Wood
carbohydrate research workers who were particularly
interested in carbohydrates from cereal grains. This work-
shop quickly became a major meleting for those working starch biosynthesis or breakdown. There were similar
on cereal carbohydrate chemistry and biochemistry. numbers of papers dealing with the structure of starch
In the past, the workshop has been held in these (11) as with biosynthesis and enzymes (13). Modem
locations: techniques have led to considerable advances in under-
standing of the starch granule structure; this was clear
Melbourne, Australia 1980 from several papers, such as those from A. NeszmClyi
Winnipeg, Canada 1982 (Central Research Institute for Chemistry, Hungarian
Copenhagen, Denmark 1984 Academy of Science, Budapest, Hungary) and J-l. Jane
Purdue University, USA 1986 (Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Iowa State
Edinburgh, UK 1988 University, Ames, IA, USA). New methods, in par-
Kagoshima, Japan 1990 ticular size-exclusion chromatography with on-line
Berlin, Germany 1992 light-scattering detection and high-performance anion-
exchange chromatography, are also enabling the detailed
At the 1992 meeting in Berlin, Germany, the scope of characterization of the component molecules of the
the program was widened to include polymeric carbo- granule, amylose and amylopectin; several papers ad-
hydrates from plants in general. Therefore, the workshop dressed these methods, including those from P. Collona
now deals with all food polysalccharides; that is, both (INRA Laboratory of Carbohydrate Biochemistry and
starches and dietary fibres. Technology, Nantes, France), S. Hizukuri (Department
Some 120 participants, from 15 countries, attended of Biochemical Science and Technology, Kagoshima
the 1994 meeting in Guelph. There were five sessions: University, Kagoshima, Japan), M. Fishman (USA
‘Biochemistry, structure, analysis’; ‘Biosynthesis, Eastern Regional Research Center, Philadelphia, PA,
enzymes’; ‘Functional behaviour’; ‘Nutritional ap- USA) and S. Radasta (Department for Starch,
plications’; and ‘Applications, industrial utilization’. Frauenhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Science,
Under these headings there were 27 invited oral presen- Teltow, Germany). The speed of these techniques facili-
tations and 54 posters. tates detailed extensive comparisons of starch sources
Rightfully, in view of the industrial and nutritional and treatments. Retrogradation, and the resistance of
significance of the area, the greatest number of papers some starch to degradation in the human small intestine
dealt with starch and with enzymes associated with received much attention. The focus was on physico-
chemical characteristics and the physiological effects of
resistant starch, rather than on definitions and nutritional
*Held at the University of Cuelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada, 13-15 July
labelling. The carbohydrate community seems to accept
1994
readily that the physiological behaviour of starch may
P.J.
Wood is at the Centre for Food and Animal Research, Research Branch
be difficult to predict on a simply analytical basis;
for the Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Government of this may reflect a long familiarity with the complexity
Canada, Room 2016, K.W. Neatby Building, Central Experimental Farm, of granule structure, lipid interactions and functional
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada KlA 0C6 (fax: tl-613-943-2353). characteristics.
Trends in Food Science & Technology January 1995 [Vol. 61 0924 -2244/95/$09.50 25