Terahertz Spectroscopy: A Powerful Technique for Food Drying Research

ABSTRACT

Due to its major advantages such as broadband capability, coherence, low photon energy, water absorption characteristics, high penetration ability and fingerprint spectrum, terahertz time domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) is being applied extensively in the field of food science and technology. The application of terahertz is a promising technology for monitor and detection of chemical components during drying foods. In this paper, a concise overview of the important features of THz spectrum and imaging are described. In addition, the latest advances in the application of THz technology to monitor the variation of water content during drying along with the possibility for quantitative detection of sugar, protein, amino acid and foreign-objects are summarized. Also, potential problems and limitations in the application of terahertz technology are summarized for further development.

KEYWORDS:

• Terahertz technology
• drying of foods
• detection
• application

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial supports from National Key R&D Program of China (Contract No. 2017YFD0400901), the 111 Project (BP0719028), Jiangsu Province (China) Agricultural Innovation Project (Contract No. CX (17) 2017), Jiangsu Province (China) “Collaborative Innovation Center for Food Safety and Quality Control” Industry Development Program, Jiangsu Province Key Laboratory Project of Advanced Food Manufacturing Equipment and Technology (No. FMZ202003).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China [No. 2017YFD0400901].