The drying processes that are currently employed in the food industry will continue to play a significant role in food manufacturing while they are still viable and have not reached their limit of performance (Sabarez, 2015). Further reengineering and optimization of these existing drying technologies are crucial to meet their needs for improvements in order to be more sustainable. The incremental improvements of the existing drying technologies are still readily embraced by the food industry due to reduced inherent risks compared to implementing new technologies. However, significant efforts to develop new drying concepts will continue at the forefront in the future innovations to meet the continually emerging challenges and new opportunities beyond the limits of the current drying technologies.
With advances in computing capabilities, the development of mathematical drying models to simulate complex processes will assist in intensifying the incremental improvements of the existing drying processes for effective and efficient implementation at industrial scale with minimal investment of time, manpower, and funds. This, together with future advances in sensing and visualization techniques and through the application of a multidisciplinary approach to obtain a better understanding of the underlying drying fundamentals and the interplay between transport phenomena and the material properties will help bring innovations in food drying to the next level of sophistication. This will facilitate an effective intensification in the development of new drying technologies for efficient processing, safe operation, and better quality product.