Natural food colorants are often unstable and undergo rapid degradation reactions. These are significant at higher temperatures, as in the case of drying of food powders. In this research, conductive hydro drying (CHD), a variant of the refractance window drying technology was used to prepare flakes from beetroot pulp. Three different temperatures (40, 50, and 60 C) were used and the results were compared against tray dried counterparts. Significant differences in moisture content, water activity, color, powder characteristics, reconstitution behavior, total phenolic content, antioxidant property, and betalain content (both betaxanthin and betacyanin) were observed between the drying methods. With significantly lower drying time, CHD can be conveniently used for commercial applications requiring the drying of natural pigment-rich foods. Practical applications • CHD is an effective alternative method for drying of natural colorant rich foods • "Non-thermal" drying approach showed significant retention of betalains, phenolics, and antioxidant activity as compared with tray drying • CHD is commercially viable and can be conveniently scaled up • This novel drying approach shows significant savings in cost, energy, and time 1 | INTRODUCTION Beetroot (Beta vulgaris L) belongs to the Chenopodiaceae family, now categorized under the Amaranthaceous family. They have been used in culinary, medicinal applications particularly owing to their pigment compositions which have good industrial significance (Patel, Sharma, Joshi, Chaudhari, & Dave, 2017). Nowadays, beetroot juice is also considered as a low-calorie diet; in randomized clinical trials, the beneficial effects of beetroot juice supplementation on hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, type 2 diabetes, and pulmonary diseases have been observed (Bahadoran, Mirmiran, Kabir, Azizi, & Ghasemi, 2017). Several commercial beetroot-based snack items are known to be rich in protein, dietary fiber, and fatty acids (Hamid & Mohamed Nour, 2018). Importantly, beetroots are a good source of phenolics and betalains, making it rich in antioxidants that exhibit anti-tumor, anti-atherosclerotic, and anticancer effects. Further, beetroot powders are rich in the red pigment betalain and are as natural colorants in dry mixes, sweets, jam, and jellies (Obón, Castellar, Alacid, & Fernández-López, 2009). However, these pigments can be sensitive to various environmental or technological process conditions, explaining increasing research interests on developing processes and technologies that can prevent pigment degradation (Janiszewska, 2014). Drying is one of the most widely used techniques to preserve fruits and vegetables. Dehydrated beetroot slices and dried beetroot powders are available in the market; at a commercial-scale, beetroot powder is generally produced by solar drying, oven-drying, tray drying (TD), freeze-drying, or drum drying (Gokhale & Lele, 2011). Various process conditions can have significant implications on the quality of the dried product and in this case, particularly th...