Sustainable drying techniques for liquid foods and foam mat drying

Cutting-edge drying technologies represent a paradigm shift in the food industry, offering unique solutions to increase the efficiency, sustainability, and quality of the food drying process. The incorporation of vacuum freeze-drying, microwave drying, infrared drying, and other innovative processes has expanded the food processing sector's horizons. The development of hybrid drying systems that integrate several technologies produces synergistic benefits that improve overall performance. The advantages of novel drying methods include minimising heat exposure, increasing rehydration ratio, lowering bulk density and weight, and reducing the risk of microbial contaminations and oxidative damage to fruit juice powder to preserve its colour, texture, nutritional and bioactive component. The review discusses about the foam mat drying process, which can be utilised in microencapsulation and nano emulsion, while also addressing the problems related to agglomerations and nutritional property degradation in fruit juice powders.