Grape drying: A review

The drying of grapes is a more complex process compared to the dehydration of other agricultural materials due to the necessity both of a pretreatment operation prior to drying and further processing operations after drying. To date, most researchers have concentrated on pretreatment and drying where the primary effects of pretreatment on drying have been evaluated. It seems appropriate that a review should now be presented to critically examine all the corresponding published data in the literature and to compare the conditions used in these studies in order to highlight the grape drying process by considering the important aspects of both the pretreatment and post-drying operations. The result of this study will be useful in identifying the future research directions needed for grape drying and also to facilitate the development of an analytical framework for the design of novel drying equipment.