APPLICATIONS OF FOAM MAT DRYING IN FRUIT AND VEGETABLE PROCESSING

Food industry recently has been performed innovative and entrepreneur projects on powdered food production under the direction of ready and fast food demand, trends in healthy nutrition and rapid changing consumer demands. Foam mat drying has gained growing interest among other powdered food production techniques. Foam mat drying is based on foaming of liquid foods by foaming and stabilizing agents to provide high drying surface area and followed by hot air drying. Foam mat drying has advantages such as applicability to nearly all types of foods, reduction of nutritional quality losses by decreasing drying time, production of high quality dried foods as high as lyophilized and spray dried foods and low manufacturing costs. Foam mat drying produces such powdered foods having high reconstitution properties. Therefore, the aim of the study is to summarize recent studies on fundamentals of foam mat drying, foaming and foam properties, applications in fruit and vegetable processing and shelf life of foam mat dried foods