ABSTRACT

Drying is frequently used to extend the shelf life of agricultural products. Infrared radiation (IR) has been considered as a promising processing method over the conventional techniques, due to its high energy efficiency, uniform heating, high drying efficiency, clean working environment, as well as easy accommodation with convective, conductive, and microwave heating. In order to minimize the consumption of energy, mitigate the degradation of quality attributes, as well as enhance the processing efficiency, combinations of IR heating with other drying techniques have gained increasing interests. In this chapter, the principles of IR drying are summarized, an overview of the newly developed IR-assisted drying technologies for food products is outlined, and the future trends in IR-assisted drying of agricultural products are discussed as well.