Abstract

The drying of acid and sugar rich foods (such as, fruits and vegetables and honey) in order to use them as functional ingredients, has gained much attention throughout the world. Besides being highly nutritious and healthy, the fruits and vegetables are highly perishable in nature and may undergo quick quality degradation after harvesting resulting in huge wastage (Basseto et al., 2005; Bao et al., 2016; Xu et al., 2017). Honey has a distinguished taste and aroma and it contains several health-promoting nutrients; however, its applications in the food industry are limited due to its high viscosity and density that cause difficulties in handling, transportation, and storage. Such problems can be reduced through the transformation of these foods into powder form that results in the ease of handling, storage, transportation, and marketing due to reduction in bulk and weight, which lowers the shipping cost and improves the shelf life (Fazaeli et al., 2012; Samborska et al., 2015; Suhag and Nanda, 2015). The flexibility of powder form allows the incorporation of acid and sugar rich foods as an ingredient in advanced formulations like yogurts, edible coatings, sauces, dietary supplements, drinks, etc.