Rehydration of Dehydrated Foods

Abstract: Dehydrated products readily take up moisture when immersed in a liquid medium, leading to significant changes in their thermophysical properties. The rehydration kinetics, the structural properties (apparent density, true density, specific volume and internal porosity), the viscoelastic behavior (compression tests), and the flavor losses were investigated during rehydration of various fruits and vegetables. The effect of temperature on the above properties was also investigated for some fruits and vegetables dehydrated by different drying methods (convective, vacuum, freeze, and osmotic drying). The results showed that the water temperature influences the rehydration kinetics and the equilibrium moisture content of the rehydrated. The structural properties of rehydrated foods appear to show a hysteresis compared to those measured during dehydration processes. The shrinkage that takes place during dehydration prevents rehydration and produces products with lower apparent density and higher porosity. Structural damages that occur during drying seem to affect also the viscoelastic behavior of the rehydrated foods and the hysteresis phenomenon is also observed at the textural properties, with a degree varying between the different drying methods. More specifically, freeze-dried materials present the highest hysteresis after rehydration, losing their elasticity and becoming more viscous. Osmotic pretreatment seems to help freeze-dried materials to keep their elastic nature probably due to solids gain. Air- and vacuum-dried materials showed the smallest hysteresis tense, keeping their viscoelastic characteristics during rehydration close to those of dried materials. Flavor losses seem to have lower rates during rehydration comparing to those observed during drying. The maximum retention of flavor has been observed in the rehydrated products after freeze-drying, and flavor levels are close to those observed for fresh boiled foods.