Bridging mechanistic and data-driven approaches in food drying: a short review of kinetics, process intensification, and quality control

Food dehydration is a core preservation operation, but its performance cannot be judged by water removal alone.Heat and mass transfer during drying reshape cellular structure and determine changes in texture, color, flavor, nutrient stability, and storage behavior.This short review develops an independent synthesis of the literature assembled in two successive Special Issues on drying kinetics and quality control.Rather than reproducing the organization of those editorials, the discussion links three levels of analysis: transport mechanisms, technologies used to intensify moisture removal, and tools for predicting and controlling product quality.Particular attention is given to the growing interaction between conventional kinetic models, computational fluid dynamics, machine learning, and physics-informed approaches.The review also considers how energy use and environmental performance influence the translation of laboratory findings into industrial practice.Digital twins and hybrid physics-data models are identified as important opportunities for future research.