Osmotic Dehydration in Food Processing: A Review

Abstract

Osmotic dehydration (OD) is one of the oldest but still evolving food preservatiuon techniques, develouped to prolong the shelf life of perishable foods while preserving nutritional and sensory characteristics. Salt nad sugar solutions have been used to preserve foods. Osmotic dehydration (OD) provide a range advantages compared to traditional drying methods; it saves energy, preserve heat sensitive nutrients, improve taste and texture and decrease water activity, making it particularly suitable for fruits, vegetables, meat, fish and diary. These methods include simple immersion, passive application (vaccum assisted, pulsed vacume osmotic dehydration) and enhanced technique (pre treatment, blanching, ultrasound, high pressure processing) and post-treatment (washing, drying) are employed to maximize efficiency and product quality. Yet difficulties still exist for industrial application, such as slow mass transfer rates, quality degradation, high prices and regularity bottlenecks. Emerging technologies (e.g., ultrasound assisted OD, pulse electric field and vaccum technologies) hold the potential to overcome these issues. It aids most value to products, reducing shipping and storage costs and generating jobs, mostly in develouping countries. Future studies include enhancing sustainablility, using novel osmotic agents, further enhancing mathematical modelling and the integration of OD with other preservation techniques. Moreover, firther investigation are necessary to explore food firtification and the effect of OD on nutritional and sensory properties to enable more application.