A series of vacuum belt drying experiments was performed in a lab-scale dryer varying the process
parameters optimizing the product’s properties. By minimizing the thermal impact on the product good
flavor retention could be achieved. The temperature and concentration evolutions that have been recorded
for different drying conditions will enable the validation of a numerical model describing the drying
process within a vacuum belt dryer. This model will enable a further process optimization without the
need of time-consuming experiments and will be transferable to other drying tasks on the vacuum belt
dryer in the future.