abstract
- © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Freeze-drying has a wide application in the pharmaceutical industry and is now increasingly being used in the food industry. Essentially, it is used to dehydrate heat-sensitive foods or products with high commercial value or for special activities. Freeze-drying operation is based on sublimation, which is the transformation from ice to vapor without passing through the liquid phase. Sublimation process makes freeze-drying operation expensive to use. However, there are several advantages of using freeze-drying instead of conventional air-drying, because the absence of heating in this process preserves nutrients and sensory characteristics within the food product. These advantages make freeze-drying an adequate technology among the new trends of functional and nutraceutical products in the food industry.