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In recent years, many infrared (IR) and IR-assisted drying methods such as IR-hot air, IRvacuum, IR-microwave, and vibration aided IR-dryer have been reported for drying of food materials due to its rapid drying behavior and less processing time due to high drying rate, consumes less energy, offers better control over temperature, superior quality products, less ecological footprint and also easily it can be combined with other modes of heating technologies. The combination of IR radiation with other drying methods is very promising as it not only improves the drying rate but also preserve the food quality.IR and IR-assisted drying have been proved as a potential drying method for many food products. Drying kinetics of food materials during IR drying is very critical for the design of IR dryer, selection of appropriate drying parameters, product quality maintenance, and control and optimization of the drying process. Therefore, this paper aims to report the optimum process parameters for IR and IR-assisted drying of food materials and its drying kinetics. Similarly, critically reviewed the effect of various factors on the IR drying process such as drying rate, specific energy consumption, effective moisture diffusivity, and activation energy during drying of various food materials.

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The present work reports on the microencapsulation of turmeric oleoresin by spray drying using different ratios of maltodextrin and gum arabic (100:0-0:100) as wall material. Solvent-extracted and commercial oleoresin microcapsules prepared using gum arabic alone as wall material and spray dried at the inlet air temperature of 175C showed higher encapsulation efficiency of 71.74 and 73.67%, maximum curcumin of 3.41 and 3.39 g/100 g and oleoresin content of 7.16 and 7.29 g/100 g, respectively. Stability of microcapsules against light, oxygen and heat was higher than the nonencapsulated oleoresin. In vitro release study showed initial burst release followed by a controlled release of curcumin from microcapsules over a period of 1 week.

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The effect of microwave blanching time (0–3 min), followed by dipping in brine solution (sample to solution ratio 0–4) prior to drying of carrot slices and shreds in solar‐biomass hybrid dryer on the final moisture content of the samples, drying rate, rehydration ratio, color change, textural firmness change, and beta carotene content was studied using two‐factor 3 level factorial design. Pretreatment parameters were optimized using response surface methodology. As the microwave blanching time increased, there was an increase in the drying rate, rehydration ratio, and beta carotene content, with minimum changes in textural firmness, color, and final moisture content. Increase in brine solution to sample ratio impacted the drying rate and beta‐carotene content in the samples, positively. Microwave blanching time of 3 min and brine solution to sample ratio of 2 were found to be the optimum pretreatment parameters for drying of carrot slices and shreds. Practical applications Solar energy is abundantly available in tropical countries like India and this renewable energy can be utilized to preserve food materials, economically. Carrots being seasonal in nature require be drying and preserving for further use during off seasons, and potential of a solar‐biomass hybrid dryer can be tapped to reduce the energy requirement for a high energy requiring processing operation like drying. The study recommends pretreatments to carrot slices and shreds like dry microwave blanching, followed by brine solution dipping of carrot slices and shreds for better quality in terms of faster moisture removal leading to lower drying period, beta‐carotene retention, better rehydration characteristics as compared to control samples, where no such pretreatments were given. This recommendation can be very well be utilized to reduce the energy demand in food processing industry.

In this study, acetone was used as a desolvating agent to prepare the curcumin-loaded egg albumin nanoparticles. Response surface methodology was employed to analyze the influence of process parameters namely concentration (5-15%w/v) and pH (5-7) of egg albumin solution on solubility, curcumin loading and entrapment efficiency, nanoparticles yield and particle size. Optimum processing conditions obtained from response surface analysis were found to be the egg albumin solution concentration of 8.85%w/v and pH of 5. At this optimum condition, the solubility of 33.57%, curcumin loading of 4.125%, curcumin entrapment efficiency of 55.23%, yield of 72.85% and particles size of 232.6 nm were obtained and these values were related to the values which are predicted using polynomial model equations. Thus, the model equations generated for each response was validated and it can be used to predict the response values at any concentration and pH.