Based on the results of this investigation, the following conclusions were drawn.
1. Under hot air drying, the rate of moisture loss was
high initially. However, at low moisture content hot
air drying was not advantageous as the diusion process is slow.
2. The drying rate increased remarkably with power
output of the microwave oven.
3. Hot air followed by microwave ®nish drying increased the drying rate and reduced the drying time.
It had little eect on the colour and rehydration capacity of ®nished products as compared to the hot
air and microwave drying methods.
4. Constant drying rate period was not observed under
any of the test conditions.