ABSTRACT
Dehydration or drying operations are important steps in food processing or chemical plants and in the storage and processing of vegetables. The basic objective in drying food is removal of water from the solids to a level at which microbial spoilage is minimized. An analysis of drying is often based on those conditions such as initial moisture content of sample, air temperature, humidity and velocity, and final moisture content of product, correlated with the drying rate of the solid. Thorough washing is an essential step before pretreatment of vegetables, because of the congenital contamination of soil and microorganisms when vegetables are harvested. The dehydration process of vegetables requires reduction of raw material to an adequate small size; otherwise, the removal of water becomes not uniform and ineffective. Low moisture content is the major requirement for storage of all dehydrated foods, and low-temperature storage conditions are also important.
