Prediction of developed models was in close agreement
with experimental data, offering the scope of use of the
models in future studies involving concurrent blanching
and dehydration. Infrared drying technique has also been
successfully applied in food thawing [95], baking [80],
blanching [19], roasting [110] and cooking [20]. To overcome
issues with conventional drying operations, the scope
of infrared-assisted drying has also been studied [70]. The
uniqueness of the process is that infrared drying results in
uniform temperature distribution (Mongpraneet et al. 2002)
require less start-up time and less residence time. However,
most work is done on solid foods, and there exists a need
for research in processing of liquid foods [87]. Further, low
rehydration capacities of IR-dried foods, particularly vegetables,
constraint its application in developing instant
foods [58].