Role of drying in food quality, security, and sustainability

The world’s urban population is expected to double by 2050 and due to increasing awareness of food quality, security, and sustainability among consumers and food manufacturers, the valorization of foods and their by-products has gained huge interest among researchers. Also, due to the increased knowledge of nutrients and functional ingredients for their positive effects on health, consumers today tend to choose healthy food products. Nutritional loss and high energy consumption are the challenges of most drying technologies used to achieve food security and economic stability in a sustainable and cost-effective manner. It is now to novel drying technologies that enable the production of new products meeting the expectations of consumers. Hence, the application of various drying techniques is expanding as means of food valorization strategy to solve global food-related issues through technological interventions in drying science and technologies.

There is arguably no multidimensional, multi and trans-disciplinary problem that matches the complexity of food security issues where drying plays a very crucial role in achieving longer shelf-life, more economic transport of perishable foods, and reducing food wastage. This special issue is aimed at addressing the key role of drying science and technology in achieving global food security sustainably while maintaining food quality. Therefore, this special issue has focused on the developments in the following five broad themes and important new contributions to knowledge:

Nutritional Security: Effect of various drying technologies on the level of nutrients and micronutrients that contribute to RNI (Recommended Nutrient Intake) and integration of highly nutritious dried products into feeding programs.

Valorization of Fruits, Vegetables, and Plant-based Products: Role of drying technologies in the value addition of fruits, vegetables, and plant-based products along with the impact of drying technologies on stability (physical, chemical, microbiological, pesticide residues, and nutritional) of dried fruits, vegetables, and plant-based products.

Valorization of Dairy, Meat, Marine, and Insect-based Products: Recent developments and technological interventions in drying and thereby value addition for dairy, meat, marine, and insect-based products.

Role of Drying and Bio-drying in Food Waste Management: Recent developments to reduce the generation of food waste and environmental impact on domestic and industrial food waste management via drying.

Novel and Emerging Drying Technologies: Role of innovative drying technologies, including artificial intelligence.

We are thankful to Prof. Arun S. Mujumdar (Editor-in-Chief) and Prof. Sakamon Devahastin (Editor) for their continuous support and guidance in the preparation of this Special Issue. We sincerely thank all the expert referees and authors for their great effort in disseminating high-quality R&D outcomes to the global readership. We hope the readers will find this Special Issue impactful and useful in practice.

Vijaya Raghavan
Department of Bioresource Engineering,
Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences,
McGill University, Ste. Anne de Bellevue, Quebec, Canada
[email protected]
Alex Martynenko
Department of Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Dalhousie University, Truro, Canada.
[email protected]
Shivanand S. Shirkole
Department of Food Engineering and Technology, Institute of Chemical Technology Mumbai, ICT-IOC Campus, Bhubaneshwar, India.
[email protected]