A review of quality characteristics of solar dried food crop producst

Abstract

Sun drying is perhaps one of the oldest methods of food preservation that has been practiced for centuries. The direct usage of solar radiation which is renewable and abundant favours farmers that harvest and process at small quantity. As technology advances, an alternative to sun drying evolves to maximize the potential of solar radiation and this technology is known as solar drying. Solar drying has several inherent advantages over sun drying namely faster drying rate, better protection of products, reduce risk of prolonged drying, lesser risk of product spoilage and improvement in product quality. Various studies have reported the application of solar drying for fruits, vegetables, grains, seeds, beans, herbs, spices and medicinal plants. Product quality improvement is definitely associated with solar dried products as compared to sun dried and to some extent oven/hot air dried products. However, uptake of this technology especially among farmers in developing countries are still low despite the many years of research and technology advancement. Nonetheless, some successful application of solar drying have been reported in countries such as Indonesia, Laos, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Brazil, Uganda, Kenya and Senegal.