Osmotic Dehydration by Ultrasound : Effect of ultrasound during osmotic dehydration on the quality of dehydrated tropical fruits

Food drying is one of the oldest methods of preserving food for later use. Drying foods is simple, safe and easy to learn. The reasons for drying are manifold but they ordinarily fall into one of the following categories : to facilitate handling; reducing shipping costs; to increase the capacity of other equipment in the process and to preserve a product during storage and shipment. Air drying is the most method used in food dehydration even it reduces product quality; tough texture, incomplete rehydration, loss of juiciness, and unfavorable color and flavor loss. osmotic dehydration involved immersing high-moisture food materials in an osmotic solution. Osmotic dehydration improve the product quality although it take along time, which could be solved by combination with ultrasonic. ultrasonic osmotic dehydration technology could be carried out at lower solution temperature to obtain higher water loss and solute gain rates, while preserving the natural flavor, color and heat - sensitive nutritive components.