Mango Dehydration by Immersion–Impregnation: A Review of Technological Advances, Critical Parameters, and Industrial Applications

Immersion–impregnation dehydration is an emerging pre-treatment technique used in fruit processing to partially remove water, improve structural stability, and enhance final drying efficiency. Mango (Mangifera indica L.), a climacteric tropical fruit valued for its sensory and nutritional qualities, remains challenging to process due to its high moisture content, thermal sensitivity, and pronounced seasonality. Immersion–impregnation relies on osmotic mass transfer, during which water diffuses outward while solutes migrate into plant tissues under controlled thermodynamic gradients. Recent studies have shown that this approach can increase water loss, shorten drying time, reinforce tissue microstructure, and preserve bioactive compounds prior to conventional or advanced drying operations. This review summarizes current scientific and technological advances related to immersion–impregnation dehydration applied to mango. It examines key process parameters—such as solute concentration, immersion time, temperature, osmotic solution composition, hydrodynamic effects, and fruit microstructure—and evaluates their influence on mass transfer behaviour, activation energy, solute gain, and final product quality. Comparative findings between continuous and intermittent immersion methods are presented, together with recent technological developments that support industrial scalability. The review also identifies major scientific and operational challenges, including process modelling, energy–quality optimization, and standardization for use in emerging economies. Finally, future perspectives highlight the potential of hybrid dehydration strategies, sustainable osmotic solutions, and automation-based process control to support large-scale industrial implementation.