he model food porous materials are found to have good pore
connectivity for water molecules. As dehydration proceeds, their
water contents decrease and their porous structures become more
compact due to lack of support from water–water and water–
macromolecule interactions, causing the main body of the porous
layers to decrease in size. Dehydration also reduces pore sizes
and the number of pore openings, increases the water–macromolecule
interactions, and decreases the value of the overall thermal
conductivity, so that more energy (heat), longer times, and/or
greater temperature gradients are needed in order to dehydrate
further the porous materials. In addition, the minimum entropy
requirement for food dehydration is found to be greater in food
systems with stronger water–macromolecule interactions and
higher densities of food macromolecules. These results and discussion
also confirm the important effects on food properties and food
dehydration of the physicochemical affinity of food molecules for
water and the compatibility