Process for dehydration of berries

摘要

A process for drying antioxidant-rich berries (such as blueberries) to preserve their antioxidant action and their antioxidant compounds is disclosed. The process may conventionally dry the antioxidant-rich berries to remove 0 to 90% of the initial mass of water associated with them, but the important step is subjecting the antioxidant-rich berries to vacuum microwave drying (VMD) at an absolute pressure of 0 to 200 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) (preferably 30 to 60 mm Hg) and 0.1 to 2 watts of microwave power/gram of berries (preferably 0.5 to 1 watt/gram) to reduce the moisture content to a residual moisture content of less than 35% of the dry weight of the final dry product