Refractance Window Drying: An Innovative Drying Technique for Heat Sensitive Product

Abstract

A unit operation in which moisture is evaporated from the material to make the product shelf stable by applying heat is known as drying. During drying of fruits and vegetables, it loses most of the essential phytochemicals due to the application of heat, as they are sensitive to heat. Refractance Window (RW) drying is a novel drying technology for converting puree and slices of fruits and vegetables and the biomaterials into powder, flakes, or sheet and value added products without losing essential heat sensitive nutritional components. It is relatively new drying technique which belongs to the fourth generation of drying techniques. RW drying is included in film (thin) drying technologies having high transfer rates of heat and mass which fastened the drying rate relatively with low temperature of product to give better quality product. It also provides advantages in terms of energy consumption, impact on environment, dehydration cost, safety, and productivity.