Review
Progress in food
dehydration
Joseph S. Cohen and Tom C.S. Yang
This article is a review of methods for the dehydration
foods, including several that may not be widely
novel techniques include microwave-augmented
ing, centrifugal fluidized-bed
sonic drying. The advantages
these novel methods are discussed in comparison
conventional methods of drying.
method to specific foods are discussed, as well as the factors
that must be controlled for each process.
Dehydration is probably the oldest known method of
food preservation. The drying of fruits in the sun and
the smoking of fish and meat are both well-known
processes that originated in antiquity.
The drying of food products is not used as extensively
as it could be for a number of reasons, not the least of
which is a perceived loss of quality. A dried food prod-
uct offers the advantage of decreased weight, which has
the potential for savings in the cost of transporting the
product. However, there is often a decrease in the qual-
ity of the dried product because most of the con-
ventional techniques use high temperatures during the
drying process. The consumers demand only the highest-
quality finished product: one with little or no loss in
sensory characteristics and with the advantage of added
convenience. As many of the new techniques use lower
temperatures and/or decreased drying times, they should
be considered for use by the food industry. In addition,
there is potential for the development of unique prod-
ucts using these unconventional techniques.
In this article, several novel methods of dehydration
that may not be well known to food processors will be
discussed, and their advantages and disadvantages
comparison with more common processes assessed. We
will show how the various methods can be used for
specific foods, and also discuss those factors that must
be controlled for each process. Much of the information
is based on work that we have carried out at the US
Army Natick Research, Development and Engineering
Center, Natick, MA, USA.
Most drying processes occur in two distinct stages’.
The first stage is the constant rate stage. Moisture
Joseph S. Cohen and Tom C.S. Yang are at the US Army Natick
Development and Engineering Center,
Natick, MA 01760-5018, USA (fax: tl-508-651-5274).
20 01995, Elsevier Science Ltd 0924 -2244/95/$09.50
removal occurs at a constant rate because the internal
moisture of the product is transported to the surface at
the same rate as that at which evaporation occurs. The
second stage is the falling rate stage. This may actually
occur at several different rates as the product changes
phases. When a critical moisture level is reached, drying
occurs at a decreasing rate. This critical point is a
unique characteristic of each product.
Current dehydration techniques
of Solar (open-air) drying
This is probably the oldest industrial process currently
known. The
being used. It certainly dates back to antiquity, and has
freeze dry- been used with many different products including fruit,
drying, ball drying and ultra- meat, fish and plants*. However, this process has several
and disadvantages of each of drawbacks, which limit its use for large-scale pro-
duction. Some of these are: the requirement for large
with more
areas of space and for high labor inputs, difficulty in
The applications of each
controlling the rate of drying, insect infestation and
microbial contamination.
Smoking
The use of smoke to preserve foods is almost as old
as open-air drying. In fact, the two techniques are
often used together. Smoke has the added effect of
imparting desirable flavors to the food. In addition,
some of the compounds formed during smoking may
have bactericidal properties. Although not primarily
used to reduce the moisture content of the food, the heat
associated with the generation of smoke does have a
drying effect. Smoking has been mainly used with meat
and fish.
Convection drying
This is a simple technique, which is in some ways
similar to solar drying and has many of the same draw-
backs’. The drying process takes place in an enclosed,
heated chamber. The drying medium - in most cases,
hot air - is allowed to pass over the product, which has
been placed in open trays. Convection drying is often a
continuous process, and is most often used for products
that are relatively low in value.
Drum drying
This technique removes water from a slurry, paste
or fluid that has been placed on the surface of a
in heated drum*. The dryer may comprise either a single or
a double drum. Drum drying is typically a continu-
ous operation. Care must be taken to ensure that the
product that is to be dried adheres well to the drying
surface; thus, in some cases, it may be necessary to
modify the liquid product by the addition of other sub-
stances to change its surface tension or viscosity.
Temperature and concentration should both be con-
trolled during drum drying. This technique has been
used extensively in the past, but its use for food pro-
cessing is decreasing as other methods of drying that
Research, cause less heat damage become available. An example
Kansas St, Attention: SATNC-WAA, of a product that has been dried using drum drying is
gelatin.
Trends in Food Science & Technology January 1995 [Vol. 61
Spray drying
Spray drying is used to remove the water from a free-
flowing liquid mixture, thus transforming it into a pow-
dered product2. Some examples of products that have been
spray dried are instant coffee, tea and powdered milk.
The fluid that is to be dried is first atomized by pump-
ing it through either a nozzle or a rotary atomizer, thus
forming small droplets with large surface areas. This
droplet spray immediately comes, into contact with a hot
drying gas, usually air. The liquidl is very rapidly evapor-
ated, thus minimizing contact time and heat damage.
The final product consists of spherical particles of a
fairly uniform size, often in the form of hollow beads.
The dried product is often agglomerated to facilitate
its rapid dispersion in water. Spray drying can be com-
bined with a fluidized-bed dryer3., which will convert the
liquid directly into an agglomerated product.
A large disadvantage with this process is the size of
the equipment required to achieve drying. Furthermore,
not all materials can be dried in this way; for instance,
very oily materials might require special preparation to
remove excessive levels of fat before atomization. There
are, however, continuing improvements being made to
this process.
Fluidized-bed drying
Fluidized-bed dryers were first commercialized on a
large scale by US petroleum companies during World
War II (Ref. 15). The technique of fluidized-bed drying
was initially used for the catal:ytic cracking of crude
petroleum. The chemical industry soon realized that it
could be a very versatile technique and adapted it for
many unit operations. This technique has the important
features of producing particles tlnat are of uniform size
and being able to maintain constant temperatures. By
setting the operating conditions within narrow limits,
scale-up from laboratory to commercial-sized units can
be readily accomplished.
The technique involves levitating particulate solids
in an upward-flowing gas stream, usually of hot air.
Fluidization mobilizes the solid particulates, thus cre-
ating intimate contact between the dry, hot carrier gas and
the solids. Drying occurs by convection. At the proper
gas-flow rate the solids will behave as if they were a
liquid, thus ensuring more intimate contact between the
solids and the carrier gas, and increasing the drying rate.
Fluidization is dependent on the characteristics of the
particles: size distribution, density, shape and viscosity.
The properties of the carrier gas that contribute to
fluidization include density and viscosity.
A typical commercial fluidized-bed dryer has a reac-
tion chamber that is fixed in place and usually cylin-
drical in shape. The hot gas is i:ntroduced into the bot-
tom of the pre-loaded bed and exits at the top. The flat
bed has been modified by the addition of a vibratory
mechanism to increase the contact of the product with
the hot gas even further. Fluidize:d-bed drying is usually
carried out as a batch process, and requires relatively
small, uniform and discrete particles that can be readily
fluidized. Thus, small vegetable pieces, such as whole
Trends in Food Science & Technology January 1995 [Vol. 61
peas, are well suited for this process, whereas powders
would be inappropriate as they would clog up the
cyclone. Fluidized beds are extensively used in dairy
processing.
Freeze drying
Freeze drying, or lyophilization, utilizes the principle
that, under high vacuum, frozen water can be removed
from a food and collected without going through a
liquid phase2. Because the material remains frozen, no
heat damage occurs. In addition, there is little or no loss
in sensory qualities of the product, and because the
removal of ice crystals leaves a porous honeycomb-type
structure, the product tends to rehydrate rapidly.
However, freeze drying is a slow and expensive pro-
cess. Four potential rate-limiting steps have been ident-
ified: the external transfer of heat to the outer surface
of the material from the heat source; the internal trans-
fer of heat within the material; the external mass trans-
fer of water vapor from the surface; and the internal
mass transfer within the material. During the drying
cycle, the thickness of the dried layer increases, thus
slowing down the sublimation rate. The long processing
time requires additional energy to mn the compressor
and refrigeration units, which makes the process very
expensive for commercial use. Therefore, freeze drying
is most often used for products that can either be sold
at a premium or can withstand only a small amount of
sensory deterioration.
Other drying methods
Many other drying methods have been designed for
specific products. One such method is explosive puf-
fing”, designed to give small particles a honeycomb
structure. By using a combination of high temperature
and high pressure, and a sudden release of the pressure
(explosion) to flush out the super-heated water in the
product, a good rehydratability can be obtained. How-
ever, the high heat can degrade the food quality, and
the explosion might compromise the product integrity.
Another method is osmotic drying’-l’ for solute-
infused products. This process involves soaking products
with a large water content in concentrated sugar or salt
solutions. This promotes counter-current mass transfer
of both water and solutes between the product and the
solution”. Many sugar-infused blueberries, cranberries,
cherries, and so on, are produced this way. By combin-
ing osmotic drying with vacuum drying, a high-quality
intermediate-moisture food can be produced. A poten-
tial problem with osmotic drying is the huge amount of
residual fluid that must be disposed of after the process
is complete. This fluid can be recycled, as suggested by
Bolin et aL9, or further processed into such products
as puree, juice, jelly, jam and fruit leathers or used as a
flavoring agent.
Novel dehydration techniques
Microwave drying and dielectric drying
These techniques use the electromagnetic wavelength
spectrum as a form of energy, which interacts with the
 materials, thus generating heat and increasing the drying tray. It has also been reported that large-scale commer-
rate dramatically*. Dielectric drying uses frequencies in cial drying cavities tend to lessen this non-uniformity
the range I-lOOMHz, whereas microwave drying uses (R. Lentz, unpublished). However, there are limits to
frequencies in the range 300-300 OOOMHz. Dielectric the energy level that can be used. We have found that
drying has been used to dry crackers and cookies as well arcing occurred when the power was increased much
as some cereal products. Microwave drying is currently above 5OOW, but as most of the increased drying rate
being used to dry pasta products. occurred at 500 W, this is not really a serious limitation.
A great variety of food products can be dried using
Microwave-augmented freeze this method to great advantage. We have successfully
drying dried vegetables with essentially no fat, fruit with high
Conventional freeze drying can be speeded up by sugar content and ground meat with high fat content. In
using a volumetric heating mode, such as micro- all cases the drying time was reduced to between one
waves12.L3. By using microwave energy to augment the third and one half of the time required without the use
convection heating of freeze drying, drying rates can be of the microwaves.
increased by as much as an order of magnitude. Figure 1
shows a schematic diagram of microwave-augmented Centrifugal fluidized-bed drying
freeze-drying equipment. This dryer is basically a con- The centrifugal fluidized-bed dryer works on the same
ventional freeze dryer that has the added capability of principle as the conventional fluidized-bed dryer except
allowing microwaves to be introduced within the drying that a rotating chamber is used’4,15. A schematic diagram
chamber. of a centrifugal fluidized-bed dryer is shown in Fig. 2.
The initial capital costs of this equipment are greater The product to be dried is loaded into the chamber,
than those of conventional freeze-drying equipment, but which is then closed. Hot air is introduced into the bot-
are offset by an increased drying rate, which allows tom of the chamber, which is rotated at relatively high
more efficient use of the equipment. speed. The rotational speed and the flow rate of the air
As with any microwave processing procedure, a must be balanced to ensure that fluidization is achieved.
major drawback is the non-uniformity of the energy If fluidization does not occur, the particles will tend to
within the chamber. However, this problem can be par- adhere to the walls of the chamber when it is rotating.
tially offset by the use of waveguides and a rotating Some drying will still occur, but the process will not be
as efficient. The same restrictions
regarding the particle size and
shape as with the non-rotating
fluidized-bed dryer apply here.
By using the centrifugal force to
counter the increasing air flow,
VACUUMCHAMBER
thus assuring fluidization, the dry-
ing rate is significantly increased.
There are other unique variations
MICROWAVE
of fluid&d-bed dryers. In a spouted-
WAVEGUIDE
bed dryer*, the heated gas enters
the chamber at the center of a coni-
cal base as a jet. The particles are
PRODUCT TRAY
rapidly dispersed in the gas and
t I the drying occurs in an operation
444 .h
that is similar to flash drying (a
J’ HEATEDPLATEN -
process that uses extremely high-
temperature heating, sometimes up
to several thousand degrees, for
PRODUCT WEIGHT very short time periods to remove
moisture). This works very well
with larger pieces that can be
dried in the fluidized-bed dryer.
Another variation is the spin flash
dryer*. This method can be used
- iPLATEN TEMPERATURE
CONTROL
with pasty mixtures, which do not
\
readily disperse in the conventional
fluidized-bed dryer. An agitator ro-
tates continuously in the bottom of
the dryer chamber during the entire
Fig. 1 drying process. This agitation tends
Schematic diagram of a microwave-augmented freeze dryer. to break up and disperse the paste.

22 Trends in Food Science & Technology January 1995 [Vol. 61

 APPLICATION
OF MATERIAL
TOP VENT VARIABLE
SPEED
DRIVE APPLICATION
PROCESS ,__&!_ ZONE
CHAMBER

RETURN
LINE

TEMPERATURE
CONTROL CLEAN DRYING
’ BALLS

INLET TUBE

DRYING ZONE

FLOW RATE
CONTROL
-\
BOlTTOM

L VENT DRYING AIR

Fig. 2
Schematic diagram of a centrifugal fluidized-bed dryer.

Ball drying CO-CURRENT 1Al

AIR FLOW
A schematic diagram of a ty:pical commercial ball-
drying system is shown in Fig. 3. The material to be
DRIED MATEklALS
dried is added to the top of the drying chamber through
a screw conveyor. The conveyor assures a constant rate Fig. 3
of product addition, but it can be bypassed and the Schematic diagram of a ball dryer.
material added directly to the drying chamber. Heated
air is also added continuously to the chamber. The
material within the drying chamber comes into direct
contact with heated balls made from ceramic or other
heat-conductive material. Drying occurs primarily by
TRANSDUCER
conduction. The large screw within the chamber rotates
during the entire drying process, and the speed of ro-
tation governs the dwell time of the product within the
chamber. When the product arrives at the bottom of the
chamber, it is separated from the balls and collected.
Except for temperature, the most important variable to
control is that of rotational speedIs.
Relatively small particles such as vegetable pieces
must be used. If the material has an excessive sugar
content, as is the case with fruit in syrup, the material
I
POWER
GENERATOR
tends to stick to the drying balls and cannot be sep-
IEHYDRATION
arated. The ball-drying process can be run at somewhat :HAMBER
lower temperatures (70°C) than all of the other tech-
niques described except for freeze drying. However,
sanitation can be a concern at low temperatures because
of the extended length of the drying process.

Ultrasonic drying of liquids

It has been reported that ultrasonic energy can be
used to remove liquid water from solutions of food POROUS SCREEN -AIR INLETS
particles I6. To use this process, the liquid is atomized to
produce small-diameter droplets, first by a nozzle and
_ FOOD PASTE
then by further cavitation using ultrasonic energy within PiSPlRATOR, FEED INLET
a drying chamber. The particles are then subjected to I LIR INLETS
L
heating to remove the water, and the dried residue
collected. An example of an experimental ultrasonic Fig. 4
dryer is shown in Fig. 4. The technique can greatly Schematic diagram of an experimental ultrasonic dryer.

Trends in Food Science & Technology January 1995 [Vol. 61 23

 Table 1. Summary of novel and conventional drying techniques for food

Technique Suitability/current usage Advantages Disadvantages

Microwave drying and High value-added products Low temperature, batch or Slow, expensive
dielectric drying continuous operation,
good quality

Microwave-augmented High value-added products Low temperature, rapid, Expensive

freeze drying 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

Ultrasonic drying Liquids Rapid Requires low-fat solutions

Solar (open-air) drying Fruit, meat, fish, plants Simple, low cost Large space required,
labor-intensive, difficult
to control, slow

Smoking Meat, fish Added flavors Difficult to control, slow

Convection drying Low-value products Continuous Difficult to control

Drum drying Liquids, gelatin Continuous May require modification

of liquid

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

Freeze drying Value-added products, Can be used in continuous Slow, expensive

fruit pieces, instant coffee operation, no restriction on
particle size, low temperature

Explosive puffing Gives small particles, Good rehydratability, rapid High heat, loss of product
honeycomb structure integrity

Osmotic drying Sugar-infused fruit High quality Two-step process

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

24 Trends in Food Science & Technology January 1995 [Vol. 61

13 Risman, P.O., Ohlsson, T. and Wass, BJ. (1987) 1. Microwave Power 16 Swientak, R.J. (1986) Food Process. 47(7), 6263
22,117-l 37 17 Babin, S.P., Figueroa, F., Rao, R.M. and Clarke, S. (1994)
14 Farkas, D.F., Lazar, M.E. and Butterworth, T.A. (1969) Food Techno/., Natic!&R-94-013 (AD A277.5/5/, Natick R,D&E Center, Natick, MA,
23,1457-1463 USA
15 Cohen, J.S., Rees, C., Hallberg, L. and Yang, T.C.S. (1994) 18 Taylor, S.R. and Hansen, J.C. (1994) Natic!vTR-94/X4 (ADA27741 II,
Natick/TR-95/008, Natick R,D&E Center, Natick, MA, USA 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