In osmotic dehydration, the rate of water loss is initially high, but significantly decreases after 60 to 120 minutes. However, it can take days for the process to reach equilibrium. A typical processing time to reduce the weight of the food by 50% is from 4 to 6 hours. Some researchers have reported that, while water loss decreases rapidly in the first 2 hours, the gain of solutes from the hypertonic solution continues for a longer period of time. The initial concentration of solutes in the solution can affect the rate of water loss. Sugar concentrations in the range of 40 to 70% are used. Sometimes, a higher concentration may be achieved by solid gain, which can affect the taste of the product by making it too sweet. In the case of vegetables, sodium chloride concentrations in the range of 5 to 20% have been used. Again, at high concentrations, the taste of the product may be adversely affected.