Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition

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Trends in foam mat drying of foods: Special

emphasis on hybrid foam mat drying technology

Ovais Shafiq Qadri, Abhaya Kumar Srivastava & Basharat Yousuf

To cite this article: Ovais Shafiq Qadri, Abhaya Kumar Srivastava & Basharat Yousuf
(2020) Trends in foam mat drying of foods: Special emphasis on hybrid foam mat drying
technology, Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, 60:10, 1667-1676, DOI:
10.1080/10408398.2019.1588221

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CRITICAL REVIEWS IN FOOD SCIENCE AND NUTRITION
2020, VOL. 60, NO. 10, 1667–1676
https://doi.org/10.1080/10408398.2019.1588221

REVIEW

Trends in foam mat drying of foods: Special emphasis on hybrid foam mat
drying technology
Ovais Shafiq Qadria,b, Abhaya Kumar Srivastavaa, and Basharat Yousufa,c
a
Department of Post Harvest Engineering and Technology, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India;
b
Department of Bioengineering, Integral University, Lucknow, India; cDepartment of Food Technology and Nutrition, Lovely Professional
University, Jalandhar, India

ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
Dehydration of foods is not simply a preservation technique in the present era, rather an import- Foam mat drying;
ant food processing operation which has many benefits in addition to enhancement of shelf life microwave foam drying;
of foods. There are various methods of drying foods and most of them are unique in their own freeze drying; dehydration
way. Liquid foods can be dried in many ways and foam mat drying is one such method which is
being researched frequently for its potential use at commercial level. Foam mat drying has got
almost all the features to be a commercially successful method of drying. It is a simple technique
and has shown good results in drying of liquid foods with low glass transition temperature.
Hybridization of this method has shown the results that make this technology look even more
promising than the conventional one. Studies on freeze drying, vacuum drying and microwave
drying of foam have indicated encouraging results with respect to drying kinetics and product
quality. This review presents an overview of foam mat drying of foods. The procedure and tech-
nology of this method of drying have been summarized with an intention to make them easy to
understand. The emphasis is, however, on the hybrid foam mat drying technology.

1. Introduction Although the changes in quality characteristics encoun-

tered in foods while drying are enormous but recent advan-
Drying is considered as an ancient method of food preserva-
ces in drying techniques have helped in minimizing the
tion and has always been one of the best methods of long
same. The evolvement and application of novel drying tech-
term preservation (Moses et al. 2014). Traditionally drying is
niques has further helped in the development of new dehy-
considered as a process of converting the foods in any form
(solid, liquid, semi-liquid) to a final low moisture stable solid drated products and convenience foods which easily satisfy
product. The water activity of foods is reduced substantially the requirements of quality and stability, and at the same
during drying, making them stable against microbial spoilage time are economical too.
(Oliveira, Brand~ao, and Silva 2016). Moisture removal of foods Foam mat drying has evolved as an important method of
is a simultaneous heat and mass transfer operation (Jafari drying. It is a process which involves the conversion of a
et al. 2016). Heat helps to add sufficient energy into the water liquid product to stable foam followed by air drying. This is
causing evaporation. The vapors travel to the surface from a simple technique and has shown good results in drying of
within the product as a result of the moisture-vapor diffusion liquid foods with low glass transition temperature. Foam
gradient developed between different layers of the product. mat drying is suitable for drying of heat-sensitive, high sugar
The transfer of heat and mass occurs at a molecular level. content and viscous foods, which are usually difficult-to-dry.
Thermal conductivity of the product limits the heat transfer Furthermore, it is an economical and feasible alternative to
rate within the product, and on the surface the temperature many other drying methods for the production of food pow-
gradient and convective coefficient control the rate of transfer ders. This review presents an overview of foam mat drying
of heat. Molecular diffusion of water from the product into of foods and intends to summarize the recent developments
the surrounding atmosphere is driven by the vapor pressure its and applications. The procedure and the technology of
differential. Intense energy is required to decrease the mois- this method of drying have also been summarized with an
ture content of foods by such extent making drying a high intention to make them easy to understand. The emphasis
energy consuming unit operation (Feng, Yin, and Tang 2012). is, however, on the hybrid foam mat drying technology as

CONTACT Basharat Yousuf [email protected] Department of Post Harvest Engineering and Technology, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Aligarh
Muslim University, Aligarh, India.
Color versions of one or more of the figures in the article can be found online at www.tandfonline.com/bfsn.
Deceased (December 2017).
Note: The second author “Abhaya Kumar Srivastava” (who was Associate Professor) is no more. He lost his life while battling a deadly cancer. He stood brave till
the last breath of his life. Even after he was diagnosed with cancer, he wholeheartedly carried out his research and other academic activities. The Department of
Post-Harvest Engineering and Technology, Aligarh Muslim University, deeply mourns the sad demise of this great personality and prays for the departed soul.
ß 2019 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
1668 O. S. QADRI ET AL.

Figure 1. Classification of drying methods based on drying systems.

hybridization of this method has shown the results that make

this technology look even more promising than the conven-
tional one. In general, hybrid drying includes the drying tech-
niques that utilize multiple modes of heat transfer as well as
those that use two or more stages of drying to achieve the
desired process and/or product characteristics (Chua and
Chou 2005). Further, the future prospects and research gaps
of the technology are finally elucidated. It is expected that the
review will encourage more applications of foam mat and
hybridized forms of foam mat drying in the food industry.

2. Methods of drying
Drying is one of the best preservation techniques which has
been in practice since ages. Sun drying is the simplest and
the most inefficient of all the methods of drying but still
widely used for its convenience and ease. The methods of
drying have evolved throughout the history of scientific
research and most of the methods reported are in use.
There may be many classifications of drying methods and
one such classification based on different drying systems has
been proposed by Singh and Heldman (2001) shown in
Figure 1. Another classification that differentiates drying
methods on the basis of generations is depicted in Figure 2
and is explained below (Vega-Mercado, Gongora-Nieto, and
Barbosa-Canovas 2001).

2.1. First generation

The dryers that use hot air convection to remove water
from the product surface are classified under this category.
The velocity of air flowing over the product surface is rela-
tively high which helps with faster heat and mass transfer
making the process efficient. Few examples include kiln,
Figure 2. Types of drying based on generation (source: Vega-Mercado,
tray, truck, tunnel type dryers. Fruit and vegetable slices, Gongora-Nieto, and Barbosa-Canovas 2001).
grains and other similar solid food materials are suitable for
these dryers. Although other advanced methods are available 2.2. Second generation
for the drying of such materials but first generation methods
are still extensively used in food industry. Basic components Spray and drum dryers are classified under second gener-
of the first generation dryers include feeding system, hot air ation dryers and these dryers are mostly concerned with the
blowing system and collection system, and the arrangement drying of liquid foods like slurries and purees. Drum dryer
of these components is a characteristic feature of the par- consists of horizontally rotating hollow drum/s (single and
ticular type of dryer. twin). The drum surface conducts the heat of heating
In hot-air drying the removal of moisture becomes diffi- medium from the inside of the drum into the layer of prod-
cult as the moisture content reduces and about 66% of total uct adhering to the surface. The source of heat may be
time taken in drying is consumed in the removal of final steam or hot water or any other suitable medium.
33% of moisture. The destruction of heat labile constituents Application of the film of uniform thickness on the surface
in addition to case hardening and solute migration may also of the drum, in addition to temperature of heating medium
become inevitable (Xu et al. 2004). and drying speed need to be considered for the efficient and
 CRITICAL REVIEWS IN FOOD SCIENCE AND NUTRITION 1669

economic operation of the dryer. The advantages of drum fluidization, high vacuum or any combination there-of. The
drying are flexibility to dry wide variety of foods, high use of these drying technologies is usually specific and is
energy efficiency, and ease in operating, maintaining and dependent on the characteristics of the raw material and
cleaning the equipment (Tang, Feng, and Shen 2003). quality of the final product (Vega-Mercado, Gongora-Nieto,
Spray drying is a preferred method in which a liquid or and Barbosa-Canovas 2001).
slurry is converted into a dry powder by making a direct
contact of the feed to rapidly flowing hot gas. Food which
are thermally sensitive are dispersed using an atomizer or a 3. Foam mat drying
nozzle. The droplet size of the dispersed feed is controlled Foam mat drying is a method of drying aqueous foods with
by selecting appropriate nozzle or atomizer. Depending on possible encouraging future. Heat sensitive fruit juices and
the design of the dryer, the hot gas is introduced co-cur- vegetable purees, that may be hard to dry and sticky, have
rently or counter-currently to the flow of the feed (Goula been successfully dried by foam mat drying offering a wide
and Adamopoulos 2005). The general steps involved in scope for this method in this segment of dehydration. Table
spray drying are listed as (Verma and Singh 2015). 1 presents some studies on foam mat drying of different
foods. Foaming of liquids increases the surface area exten-
 Concentration of feed sively, increasing the mass transfer surface and thus shortens
 Atomization or disintegration of feed into desired droplet the drying time. From the last decade, foam-mat drying
size received renewed attention because of its added ability to
 Contact of hot gas and atomized feed that results in process hard-to-dry materials and obtain products of desired
moisture evaporation. properties (e.g. favorable rehydration, controlled density).
 Separation of final product which may be done with the The foam mat dried materials are reported to retain the vol-
help of cyclone separators, bag filters or other atiles better compared to the non-foam dried counterparts
arrangements (Kadam et al. 2012). A general illustration of foam mat dry-
ing of tomato is shown in Figure 3.
2.3. Third generation
3.1. Foam structure
Freeze drying and osmotic drying may be classified under
third generation of drying. Both these methods are aimed to Foam is a dispersion of gas in liquid and if the liquid forms
minimize the changes encountered in conventional drying a gel or solidifies after dispersion of gas, then it is known as
processes. The product is frozen and the ice is sublimized solid foam. Based on average size, ranging between 0.1 and
under reduced pressure during freeze drying, also known as 3 mm, there are about 103 bubbles per ml in a foam com-
lyophilization (Monteiro, Carciofi, and Laurindo 2016). The pared to an emulsion where the average number of droplets
advantage of freeze drying is that the product obtained is about 1011 per ml. Once the dispersion is formed, the
retains most of the color, flavor and nutrients in addition to foam undergoes several changes. Diffusion of gas through
presenting high porosity and excellent rehydration proper- continuous phase into the larger bubbles grows them in size
ties (Jiang et al. 2017). The process of freeze drying is, how- further, while the smaller ones dissolve by a phenomenon
ever, slow and consumes enormous energy making its use known as Ostwald ripening. The bubbles tend to rise up
specific commercially (Mujumdar and Law 2010). forming segregation at the top. The inter-bubble deform-
Osmotic dehydration is a simple method in which mois- ation results in a polyhedral structure of the foam. The
ture content is reduced by placing the food in a hypertonic drainage of liquid into bulk continues rupturing the lamella
solution. The high osmotic pressure of the solution drags between the bubbles finally resulting in their coalescence
the water out of the food resulting in water loss and at the (Walstra 1989). Different types of foams are encountered in
same time the solute from solution flows into the food foods which may be desirable (egg white foam in bakery
known as solid gain (Garcia-Noguera et al. 2010). Mostly products) or undesirable (foam formed during fermenta-
the water loss should be more and the solute gain should be tion). To have a good control over foam, the proper under-
less, in order to have a desirable process. The phenomenon standing of the nature of the foam and its physical
occurs naturally making the process comparatively inexpen- properties are important (Foegeding 2006).
sive. Osmotic dehydration is not a complete drying process
rather a pre drying step that helps in reducing significantly
the amount of time and energy consumed in the conven- 3.2. Foam stability
tional drying process (Amami, Vorobiev, and Foam stability is of primary importance for the success of
Kechaou 2005). foam mat drying. The foam must remain intact throughout
the process of drying. Most importantly the foam should be
heat stable and sustain its structure at least through the con-
2.4. Fourth generation
stant rate period of the drying. The initial stability is very
The fourth generation of drying includes the modern meth- important as any collapse in the structure may result in fail-
ods involving the use of microwaves, radio frequency, ure of whole concept of foam mat drying. If the foam
1670 O. S. QADRI ET AL.

Table 1. Foam mat drying of different foods and use of different foaming aiding agents.
Foaming aid
Food material Foaming agent Stabilizing agent Foaming and drying conditions References
Apple Gelatin, 0–1.5% wt/wt — 3–9 minutes, 2300 rpm and Valenzuela and Aguilera 2013
60  C; Air Drying
Egg white 0.5–3% wt/wt Methylcellulose 0.1–2% wt/wt 3–7 minutes and 20  C; Raharitsifa and Ratti 2010;
Freeze drying Raharitsifa, Genovese, and
Ratti 2006
Bael GMS 0–8% wt/wt Methylcellulose 0–1% wt/wt 5000 rpm 1–5 minutes Bag, Srivastav, and Mishra 2011
Banana Egg white 10% wt/wt; SPI 5% — 20 minutes and 80  C; Thuwapanichayanan,
wt/wt, WPC 5% wt/wt Air drying Prachayawarakorn, and
Soponronnarit 2008
Egg white 5% wt/wt — 80  C; Air drying Prakotmak, Soponronnarit, and
Prachayawarakorn 2010
Beetroot Egg white 5–10% wt/wt; Fish Maltodextrin 10% wt/wt 10 minutes whipping and 50  C Ng and Sulaiman 2018
Gelatin 5–10% wt/wt for 6 hours
Bittergourd Egg white 10–30% wt/vol 1400 rpm and 50, 60, 70  C Chandrasekar et al. 2015
Blueberry juice Whey protein isolate Maltodextrin Whipping for 5 minutes and Darniadi, Ho, and Murray 2018
Frozen at 30  C for
30 minutes, dried at 55  C,
0.04 mbar for 24 hour
Blue Honeysuckle berry GMS, 6% wt/wt; SPI, 3% wt/wt CMC 0.5% wt/wt 2 minutes, 360 rad/min and Zheng et al. 2013
MWD, 140–700 W
Cowpea Egg white, 2.5–15% wt/wt; 3–21 minutes and 60  C Falade, Adeyanju, and Uzo-
GMS, 2.5–15% wt/wt Peters 2003
Date Xanthan Gum 0.5–2% wt/wt; 5 minutes blending and freeze Seerangurayar et al. 2018
Guar gum 0.5–2% wt/wt drying at 42 Pa, 40  C
Egg white Xanthan Gum, 0.125–1%; Glycol Methylcellulose, 0.25–1% 5400 rpm and freeze dry- Muthukumaran, Ratti, and
Alginate, 0.25–1% ing 20  C Raghavan 2008a, 2008b
Guava Egg albumin 8% wt/wt — 10 minutes whipping at Qadri and Srivastava 2017
1400 rpm and MW 480–800
W, 50–60  C
Potato Glycerol monostearate 1–3% — 5–15 minutes 300 rpm and 50, Chakraborty, Banerjee, and
wt/wt 55, 60  C Mazumder 2014
Pumpkin GMS 3–4% wt/vol — 300 rpm 5 minutes and Das, Banerjee, and Pal 2015
50–60  C; Air drying
Sour cherry Egg white 1–3% wt/wt Methyl cellulose 1%–2% wt/wt, Whipping 4 minutes and 50  C, Abbasi and Azizpour 2016
maltodextrin 8% wt/wt 65  C, 80  C, 1.5 m/s
air velocity
Tomato Egg white 0.5–2%; Whey pro- Maltodextrin 33.3% to 150% 3–5 minutes at 440 rpm and 50, Sramek et al. 2015
tein isolate 0.5–2% wt/wt on dry matter 60, 70  C
Egg white 10% wt/vol — 5 minutes at 1400 rpm and Qadri and Srivastava 2014
0–800 W microwave
power, 45  C
Egg white powder 0.3–8.7% — 0.3–8.7 minutes and 60, 80  C Fernandes et al. 2013
wt/wt
Milk 0–9%; Egg white 0–2% Carboxyl methyl cellulose 0–1% 3–5 minutes whipping and 65, Kadam et al. 2012
75, 85  C
Egg white 0–20% — 5 minutes 1400 rpm and 60, Kadam and
65, 70  C Balasubramanian 2011
Yacon Egg albumin powder 20% Emustab (monoglycerides, sorb- 20 minutes beating by a 360 W Franco et al. 2015
itan monostearate, and poly- mixer and 50, 60, 70  C
sorbate 60) 10%
Yam Glycerol monostearate — 3–18 minutes whipping Falade and Onyeoziri 2012
0.005–0.02% wt/wt and 70  C

survives the initial phase of drying, as the drying proceeds,  The second method involves mechanical approach. The
with the removal of moisture the structure becomes firmer liquid can be foamed either by beating or whipping vig-
which eventually leads to a final thin dry sheet with honey- orously or by injecting gas through a porous sparger.
comb structure (Sangamithra, Venkatachalam, and
John 2014). The foaming of foods for foam mat drying is mainly
done by mechanical methods. Whipping or beating an aque-
ous solution in presence of gas can be achieved with the
3.3. Foam formation help of many devices that produce vigorous agitation in the
liquid. The foam produced by whipping is properly mixed
A liquid can be foamed by any of the two methods presenting uniform gas dispersion. Sparging can completely
(Walstra 1989): convert a liquid into foam with a better control over the
bubble size achieved, but foams produced through whipping
 A gas is supersaturated within the liquid by forced dis- are more uniform (German and Phillips 1994).
solution at high pressure for instance soft drinks. Once Many foods do not possess foaming property and thus may
the pressure is released the liquid starts to foam. not form a stable foam even if subjected to any of the above
 CRITICAL REVIEWS IN FOOD SCIENCE AND NUTRITION 1671

described methods of foaming. Such foods can be converted lam, and John 2014). The foam formed thus, will be stable,
into stable foams with the help of some additives. The addi- which is a prerequisite in foam mat drying. Proteins usually
tives that help the formation of stable foams are divided into act as good surface active agents and provide kinetic stability,
foaming agents and foam stabilizers. Foaming agents reduce minimizing the thermodynamic instability in foams
the surface tension between the interfaces and help in foaming (Indrawati et al. 2008). According to Zayas (1997), a protein
of the liquid. A good foaming agent helps in formation of a to be used as foaming agent in foods should be effective at low
strong, viscoelastic and cohesive film possessing excellent concentration, function properly over wide pH range and per-
thermal and mechanical stability (Sangamithra, Venkatacha- form efficiently in presence of other constituents that may
have foam inhibiting character. The commonly used foaming
agents in different studies include egg albumin both as fresh
and dry (Thuwapanichayanan, Prachayawarakorn, and
Soponronnarit 2012; Muthukumaran, Ratti, and Raghavan
2008a, 2008b; Qadri and Srivastava 2014), whey protein as
concentrate (Thuwapanichayanan, Prachayawarakorn, and
Soponronnarit 2012) and isolate (Darniadi, Ho, and Murray
2018) and soya protein isolate (Zheng et al. 2013; Thuwapani-
chayanan, Prachayawarakorn, and Soponronnarit 2008).
Foam stabilizers are the additives that enable a foam to
retain its structure for longer duration and delay coales-
cence. Polymers are preferred additives for foam stabiliza-
tion because of their ability to increase solution viscosity
which in turn reduces the drainage velocity and permeabil-
ity of gases, of the lamella (Klitzing and M€ uller 2002), for
instance, gelatin, starches, pectins and gums (Walsh,
Russell, and Fitzgerald 2008). The commonly used stabil-
izers by the researchers in foam mat drying studies are
mainly polysaccharides as shown in the Table 1. Walsh,
Russell, and Fitzgerald (2008) studied the effect of different
gums (xanthan gum, guar gum, gum arabic, gum karaya
and locust bean gum) on the foam stability of sodium
caseinate hydolysate foams and concluded that the judicious
use of these gums may lead to better stability of the foams.
A protein, that is able to reduce the energy level at a sur-
face shared by adjacent bubbles in a foam, can be used as
potential stabilizing agent (German and Phillips 1994).
Although the role of foaming agents and foam stabilizers is
distinct, there are many examples where researchers have
used these terms interchangeably and categorized different
additives in any of the two categories, for instance, Kadam
et al. (2012) and Lobo et al. (2017) have reported carboxy
methyl cellulose as foaming agent and Sangamithra,
Figure 3. A general illustration of foam mat drying of tomato. a) Tomato pulp,
b) Egg albumin, c) Foaming with hand mixer, d) Foam spread on tray, e) Tray Venkatachalam, and John (2014) have categorized it as
drier, f) Tomato flakes. foam stabilizer.

Figure 4. Schematic representation of foam mat drying process.

1672 O. S. QADRI ET AL.

Figure 5. Representational diagram of structure of foam.

3.4. Drying of foams high in the initial phase of drying whereas an acceleration
in the drying rate in the terminal phases has been reported
The whole process of foam mat drying can be conveniently
for tomato (Lewicki 1975), mango (Cooke et al. 1976) and
divided into four essential steps as summarized in Figure 4.
banana (Sankat and Castaigne 2004). The dried material is
The process starts with the preparation of food material
then scrapped-off of the surface and conditioned. The
which is specific depending on the type of food. Fruits and
vegetable may be peeled, cored, blanched and pulped honeycomb structure of the dried material helps in easy
(Kadam, Patil, and Kaushik 2010). The pulp or juice scrapping and the flakes obtained can be ground into readily
obtained may be concentrated or taken as such for further reconstitutible powder (Hardy and Jideani 2017).
operations. Liquid foods like milk may be directly taken for
foaming (Febrianto, Kumalaningsih, and Aswari 2012). The
process of foaming has already been discussed properly. 4. Hybrid foam mat drying
This step involves addition of foaming and/or stabilizing Foam mat drying is a simple process with appreciable
agents and development of foam mostly by beating or whip- advantages but the product dried by foam mat drying may
ping with the help of high speed mixers. Some food pulps not always be superior in quality when compared with other
are highly viscous and may be converted into highly stable techniques of drying especially spray drying. A decrease of
foam. The foam of such pulps is extremely stiff and has lim- 80% in vitamin content of mango puree in addition to less
ited spreadability which is not desirable in foam mat drying. consumer acceptability compared to spray dried product has
These pulps may be appropriately diluted and foamed to been reported (Cooke et al. 1976). Another comparative
form a desirable foam (Bag, Srivastav, and Mishra 2011). study revealed that although, physical and reconstitution
Drying in foam mat drying usually refers to dehydrating
properties of the foam mat dried soyamilk were better than
the foam in thin layers by hot air. Batch type hot air drying
non-foamed but the spray dried material exhibited superior
in cabinet dryers is the most commonly used method that
properties (Akintoye and Oguntunde 1991). The flavor
has been reported in literature (Falade, Adeyanju, and Uzo-
retention has been shown to be impaired by foam mat dry-
Peters 2003; Sankat and Castaigne 2004;
ing in some foods. For instance, the foam mat dried tomato
Thuwapanichayanan, Prachayawarakorn, and Soponronnarit
2008; Kandasamy et al. 2014). Besides hot air drying, other paste possessed good solubility but was poor in flavor reten-
techniques of drying have also been used by many research- tion (Lewicki 1975). Acceleration in the oxidative reactions
ers and reported encouraging results for instance, microwave due to enormous increase in liquid-gas contact surface is
drying (Qadri and Srivastava 2014). one of the main reasons for the deterioration of product
During foam mat drying the drainage of liquid by capil- quality including flavor loss but there may be other possibil-
lary diffusion through the liquid film is the main reason of ities also. For example, a study conducted on tamarind pulp
water movement as shown in Figure 5 (Ratti and Kudra reported that the acceptability of the product in terms of fla-
2006). The tremendous increase in surface area due to foam- vor was significantly affected by the type of foaming agent
ing further helps with the acceleration in drying rate (Sankat used (Vernon-Carter et al. 2001). The poor heat conducting
and Castaigne 2004). In addition to removal of moisture, property of gas entrapped in foam decreases the heat trans-
some other changes may take place during drying that can fer rate within the mat in conventional foam mat drying
affect the drying characteristics and final product quality (Ratti and Kudra 2006). The drying of food is still faster in
positively or negatively (Ratti and Kudra 2006). For instance, foam mat drying compared to non-foam drying.
the drying rate of some foams like soya milk (Akintoye and To minimize the adverse effects on drying properties and
Oguntunde 1991) and starfruit (Karim and Wai 1999) is quality characteristics several studies have been conducted in
 CRITICAL REVIEWS IN FOOD SCIENCE AND NUTRITION 1673

which foam mat drying has been hybridized by replacing Darniadi, Ho, and Murray (2018) conducted drying of
the conventional hot air drying with advanced techniques. blueberry juice by foam mat freeze drying and spray drying
to study the effect on different properties. Maltodextrin and
whey protein isolate at different ratios were added to the
4.1. Foam mat vacuum drying
juice. The powder obtained from foam mat freeze drying
Extensive research has been carried out at the Eastern was dark purple whereas spray dried powder was bright pur-
Utilization Research and Development Division on the feasi- ple and less red (less similarity with original). Yield was bet-
bility and optimization of foam mat vacuum drying of milk. ter in foam mat freeze drying but the particles dried by
In a series of publications the research group has studied spray drying were smooth and smaller, exhibiting better
almost all the aspects of the foam mat vacuum drying of rehydration characteristics.
milk. The initial studies concluded that vacuum-foam mat The effect of maltodextrin and gum Arabic as fillers at
dried whole concentrated milk possessed superior dispersing different concentrations on physicochemical properties of
qualities (Berlin, Howard, and Pallansch 1964). The research foam mat freeze dried date powder was studied. It was
was taken to next level by conducting studies on conversion observed that the carrier concentration had a significant
of batch type process to continuous type. The study reported effect on different properties of the dried powder. While a
the successful upgradation of the batch process into continu- significant decrease in total phenolic content, wettability and
ous process with reproducible results (Aceto et al. 1962). hygroscopicity was recorded with increase in either of the
Although the results reported presented great scope for the carrier concentration, the powders obtained by maltodextrin
technology however, no significant work could be found on addition exhibited higher solubility and lower hygroscopicity
the vacuum foam drying after the above cited research. The (Seerangurayar et al. 2018).
probable reason may be the development of advanced ver- All the studies of foam mat freeze drying have reported
sions of vacuum drying especially the freeze drying. encouraging results and concluded that the products
obtained possessed better quality characteristics. But the lit-
erature available is inconclusive in terms of the success of
4.2. Foam mat freeze drying this method of dehydration. Freeze drying is an extensively
Freeze drying is an advanced dehydration process aimed to researched method of dehydration but the use is still limited
produce high quality dried product. The process is, however, owing to the high cost and long processing time and foam
slow and expensive so the use is limited to products of high mat drying is a non-conventional drying method. The com-
economical value. Some researchers have freeze dried food bination hence is a rare one and requires good attention in
foams and studied the effect on different properties. In a terms of research to make it feasible and successful.
study conducted by Raharitsifa and Ratti (2010), the effect
of foaming of apple juice on the processing time during
4.3. Microwave foam mat drying
freeze drying was assessed. The foaming was done by adding
methylcellulose or egg albumin to apple juice at different Microwave drying is a potential new way of dehydrating
concentrations and whipping the mixture. The foamed and food materials because of its ability to generate heat within
non-foamed apple juice was frozen at 40  C in different the food material rapidly. Several studies have reported the
thicknesses and subsequently vacuum dried at 20  C for advantages of microwave over the conventional drying
48 hours. For the same sample thickness the process time methods. Maskan (2001) investigated the effect of micro-
was less for foamed product but the foamed product was wave assisted hot air drying of banana slices in comparison
less dense compared to non-foamed product which reduced to conventional hot air drying. The results showed a 64%
the weight load of the dryer. decrease in the drying time, better color and rehydration
Muthukumaran, Ratti, and Raghavan (2008a, 2008b) characteristics for microwave assisted drying. In another
studied the effect of foaming on the freeze drying of egg study conducted by Sharma and Prasad (2001), a reduction
albumin to determine the feasibility of the method. Egg of 80–90% in drying time in addition to superior final prod-
albumin was foamed after incorporation of stabilizing agent uct quality of garlic by microwave hot air drying compared
(xanthan gum, glycol alginate and methylcellulose) at differ- to conventional hot air drying has been reported. Similar
ent concentrations. The study concluded that the addition of result was reported by Alibas-Ozkan, Akbudak, and
xanthan gum reduced the total drying time and egg albumin Akbudak (2007) in the microwave drying of spinach.
powder of excellent quality was obtained. Foam mat drying is gaining attention in the drying of
A study was conducted to estimate the effect of foaming various foods because of its numerous advantages like
as a pretreatment on drying rate and viability of freeze dried reduced drying time, superior product quality etc. but
Bifidobacterium longum RO175. The reduction in time was among its limitations one of the main limitation is poor
between 1=4 to 1/7 times compared to non-foamed suspen- heat transfer within the material because of the presence of
sions. Initially the viability was also better for the foam mat air (Ratti and Kudra 2006). Microwave heating can be a pos-
dried samples but after a storage period of 56 days, the via- sible solution to this problem because of its tendency of gen-
bility decreased substantially for foam mat dried samples erating volumetric heat with no thermal lag. Combination of
(Izquierdo-L opez, Goulet, and Ratti 2017). foam mat drying and microwave heating is not common as
1674 O. S. QADRI ET AL.

is evident from the very less literature available on also depicted the relation of microwave energy with other
this topic. properties like temperature, porosity and moisture content
Rzepecka, Brygidyr, and McConnell (1976) reported pre- (Zheng et al. 2013).
liminary results of the comparative experiments of hot-air Most of the studies on the use of microwave power as
drying and microwave-power dehydration of tomato paste heating source in foam mat drying have concluded that
(1–2.5%). Myverol (18–100) was added to tomato paste con- there is significant reduction in drying time making micro-
taining about 27% solids as stabilizer and the solution was wave foam mat drying faster than the conventional method.
whipped to a foam density ranging between 340–500 kg/m3. The destruction of heat labile constituents is attributed to
Convective drying of the tomato paste foam of thicknesses temperature and exposure time. Due to huge reduction in
3.17 mm, 6.35 mm and 12.7 mm spread on a plastic perfo- processing time the destruction of such constituents is over
rated tray with diameter 26.5 cm was done by blowing air compensated, even if the temperature of the product touches
perpendicularly to the sample surface at temperatures of higher values. Although, the literature available is scarce but
71  C, 76.6  C and 82  C with air of relative humidity (RH) the very few studies point towards a potential feasibility of
less than 10% flowing at the rate of 0.16 m3/s. Microwave this method at commercial level.
drying of the foam with same thickness was done and the
air at room temperature (20  C) and 59% RH was forced
through the cavity at the rate of 0.187 m3/s. The drying tests 5. Conclusion
were performed for five forward power settings between Foam mat drying technique offers an array of advantages
150 W and 350 W with a 50 W increment. The experiments over many of the common drying methods. Although, foam
demonstrated a 4–8 fold increase in drying rate for micro- mat drying is not a new method of drying and has been in
wave drying as compared to convective drying with basically research for a long time but very few studies have tried to
unaltered quality. Even the high temperatures ranging take this technology of drying to a next level. Most of the
between 93 and 110  C achieved during microwave drying studies report foam mat drying as one of the potential dry-
as compared to 76.7  C in convective drying did not cause ing technology and the hybridized versions of this technol-
adverse color changes. This can be attributed to very short ogy report even better results. The need is to focus the
processing time of microwave drying (5–15 min) as com- research studies more on the feasibility analysis and com-
pared to convective drying (55–65 min) depending on the mercial success of this technology. Furthermore, the
foam thickness. advancement and developments in design of more efficient
Zheng, Liu, and Zhou (2011) reported the analysis and hybrid type foam mat driers will aid in obtaining dried pow-
optimization of parameters of microwave assisted foam mat der of high quality. In conclusion, the need is to focus on
drying of blackcurrant pulp in a household microwave oven. this promising area of drying technology for further up
The parameters analyzed and optimized were microwave gradation of the process.
power, pulp load, drying time and pulp thickness. The
increase of microwave power and decrease of pulp load
accelerated the dehydration of blackcurrant pulp. The pulp Acknowledgments
thickness had a significant effect on both vitamin C and The authors are highly thankful to Ministry of Minority Affairs,
anthocyanin content of blackcurrant pulp. The optimum Government of India for the financial support.
parameters for microwave assisted foam mat drying of
blackcurrant pulp demonstrated by experiments were 640 W
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