Drying kinetics of food materials in infrared radiation drying: A review

Abstract

In recent years, many infrared (IR) and IR-assisted drying methods such as IR-hot air, IR-vacuum, IR-microwave, and vibration aided IR-dryer have been reported for drying of food materials due to its rapid drying behavior and less processing time due to high drying rate, consumes less energy, offers better control over temperature, superior quality products, less ecological footprint and also easily it can be combined with other modes of heating technologies. The combination of IR radiation with other drying methods is very promising as it not only improves the drying rate but also preserve the food quality. IR and IR-assisted drying have been proved as a potential drying method for many food products. Drying kinetics of food materials during IR drying is very critical for the design of IR dryer, selection of appropriate drying parameters, product quality maintenance, and control and optimization of the drying process. Therefore, this paper aims to report the optimum process parameters for IR and IR-assisted drying of food materials and its drying kinetics. Similarly, critically reviewed the effect of various factors on the IR drying process such as drying rate, specific energy consumption, effective moisture diffusivity, and activation energy during drying of various food materials.