Refractance WindowTM-Drying vs. other drying methods and effect of different process parameters on quality of foods: A comprehensive review of trends and technological developments
Naveen Kumar Mahanti,
Subir Kumar Chakraborty,
Anjali Sudhakar,
Deepak Kumar Verma,
Shiva Shankar,
Mamta Thakur,
Smita Singh,
Soubhagya Tripathy,
Alok Kumar Gupta,
Prem Prakash Srivastav
Affiliations
Naveen Kumar Mahanti
Agro Produce Processing, ICAR-Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal-462038, India; AMRITA Vishwa Vidyapeetham, School of Agricultural Sciences, Coimbatore - 642109, Tamil Nadu, India
Subir Kumar Chakraborty
Agro Produce Processing, ICAR-Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal-462038, India
Anjali Sudhakar
Agro Produce Processing, ICAR-Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal-462038, India
Deepak Kumar Verma
Agricultural and Food Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721302, West Bengal, India; Corresponding author.
Shiva Shankar
Agricultural Structure and Process Engineering, Indian Institute of Oil Palm Research, Pedavegi, Andhra Pradesh 534475, India
Mamta Thakur
Department of Food Engineering and Technology, SantLongowal Institute of Engineering and Technology, Longowal 148106, Punjab, India
Smita Singh
Department of Life Sciences (Food Technology), Graphic Era (Deemed to be) University, Dehradun, Uttarakhand 248002, India
Soubhagya Tripathy
Agricultural and Food Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721302, West Bengal, India
Alok Kumar Gupta
Division of Post-harvest Management, ICAR-Central Institute for Subtropical Horticulture (Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government. of India), Lucknow (UP) - 226101, India
Prem Prakash Srivastav
Agricultural and Food Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721302, West Bengal, India
Refractance WindowTM-Drying (RWD) is one such novel fourth-generation drying technology which has recently gained huge attention due to its several advantages. It is employed to dry the heat-sensitive products even juices and purees to retain the product color, aroma, antioxidant compounds, and nutritional properties. This technology dries the product through a thin, transparent infrared film which effectively forms a ''window” for drying, keeping the product's temperatures very low and ensuring rapid drying, involving all modes of heat transfer. The drying temperature, time, cost, and energy consumption are also lower in this case, but thermal efficiency and product's quality are higher than conventional drying technologies like drum drying, freeze-drying, spray drying, tray drying, etc. which possess their own limitations. The present work, therefore, summarizes the recent trends in RWD, emphasizing its impact on process and food quality properties, and highlights differences between RWD and existing drying technologies. This manuscript discusses in detail the effect of RWD on physical, chromatic, biochemical, functional, structural, textural, and microbial properties of end-product. Further, the patents based on RWD have also been highlighted comprehensively for the first-time, considering their contribution to scientific knowledge and as a platform to support the upcoming developments in the field.
