Foods are complex substances because of their biological origin and are
mainly derived from animal or plant sources. Most foods are highly
perishable because of high moisture contents which make them
susceptible to biochemical reactions and microbial spoilage, thereby
requiring preservation in one way or the other. Among the common
methods used in preserving food products are minimal processing,
refrigeration, smoking and dehydration or drying (Pinheiro et al., 2010,
Damiani et al., 2010, Fernandes et al., 2010; Corrêa et al., 2010). Drying
has been used as a method of reducing post-harvest losses in many
agricultural produce for a long time (Gatea, 2011) and as well as
improving their commercial value. Drying of foods reduces the moisture
contents to preserve the foods and prolong their storage life so that the
dried products could be made available at locations where they are not
produced and all year round. Apart from reduction in bulkiness and
weight, drying also reduces the costs of packaging, handling and
transportation (Gatea, 2011). However, the drying of foods could also
lead to physical, sensory, nutritional and microbiological quality
changes. Drying is a mass transfer process of removing moisture from
food products to reduce the bulkiness of agricultural produce (Gatea,
2011; Gupta et al., 2011, Radhika, et al., 2011). Drying has been used to
preserve agricultural produce for a long time and this could be due to
fact that it is simple, easy to operate and cost-effective. However, apart
from these benefits, drying reduces the bulkiness of foods as well as the
costs of packaging, handling, storage and transportation thereby
improving handling and processing operations (Gupta et al., 2011;
Radhika et al., 2011).
