Coupled hot air and microwave drying technology for carrot slices dehydration

The feasibility and advantage of coupled hot air and microwave drying technology were studied. Drying of carrot slices was conducted by using coupled hot air and microwave drying with different hot air temperatures (50–80℃) and microwave power densities (1.5–4.5 W/g), and effects of these two factors on the coupled drying were also discussed. Hot air velocity, hot air temperature and microwave power density were chosen as three factors for orthogonal experiment. The experimental results showed that, microwave power density had the most important effect and hot air temperature followed, and the hot air velocity had the least effect on them. The coupled drying method was also compared with hot air drying and microwave drying. It is a potential drying method which will be widely applied to drying of food and agricultural products in the future.