Effects of aerosolized citric acid–radio frequency as a pretreatment on hot‐air drying characteristics of banana

Abstract

Banana has high nutritional value due to its high content of potassium, vitamin C, starch, and sugar. However, like other fruits, it is perishable. Moisture is the predominant substance in most fruits and vegetables, which greatly impacts the susceptibility of food to spoilage by microorganisms or chemical reactions. Accordingly, a considerable amount of moisture must be eliminated from fruits and vegetables to control microbial spoilage and the adverse impacts of chemical reactions (Macedo et al., 2020;Takougnadi et al., 2020;Tunckal & Doymaz, 2020). Hot-air drying (HAD) is the most common drying method, which includes the simultaneous transfer of mass and heat. The use of high temperatures or extended periods in traditional drying methods results in some undesirable physical and chemical changes in the product, such as changes in color, fragrance, and flavor in addition to nutrient loss, wrinkling, high energy consumption, and being a time-consuming process (Forouzanfar et al., 2020;Noshad & Ghasemi, 2020;Roueita et al., 2020). Altogether, food quality could be preserved desirably by adopting other drying methods or a pretreatment, and the use of novel drying techniques that involve two or more pretreatments before drying has gained a great deal of attention.The adequate selection of drying methods may improve the quality