Drying: Effect on Nutrients, Composition and Health

Drying is an effective method of extending the shelf life of nutrient-dense foods and facilitating their transport around the world. To ensure that the nutritional quality of foods is retained, appropriate drying technologies (e.g., air-, spray-, and freeze-drying) and drying conditions (e.g., heating intensity and feed composition) must be selected based on the properties of the product to be dried. The macronutrients and micronutrients that are present and the interactions that may occur between them during drying largely determine the sensitivity of the system to degradative dehydration-induced changes. Factors influencing the nutritional quality of dehydrated foods are discussed in this article, with a particular focus on process- and storage-induced degradation of micronutrients and advances in encapsulation technologies.