Recent development in osmotic dehydration of fruit and vegetables: a review.

Osmotic dehydration of fruits and vegetables is achieved by placing the solid/semi solid, whole or in pieces, in a hypertonic solution (sugar and/or salt) with a simultaneous counter diffusion of solutes from the osmotic solution into the tissues. Osmotic dehydration is recommended as a processing method to obtain better quality of food products. Partial dehydration allows structural, nutritional, sensory, and other functional properties of the raw material to be modified. However, the food industry uptake of osmotic dehydration of foods has not been extensive as expected due to the poor understanding of the counter current flow phenomena associated with it. However, these flows are in a dynamic equilibrium with each other and significantly influence the final product in terms of preservation, nutrition, and organoleptic properties. The demand of healthy, natural, nutritious, and tasty processed food products continuously increases, not only for finished products, but also for ingredient to be included in complex foods such as ice cream, cereals, dairy, confectionaries, and bakery products.