Recent advances in ultrasound‐coupled drying for improving the quality of fruits and vegetables: a review

Summary Drying is a commonly used fresh‐keeping technology. Conventional drying technologies such as convective drying, freeze‐drying causes the degradation of product quality due partly to long drying time. Ultrasound as a great potential technology is applied to improve drying process of fruits and vegetables. This review provides recent advances in ultrasound‐coupled drying for improving the quality of fruits and vegetables. Effects of ultrasound‐coupled drying were stated in detail. The designs of ultrasound‐coupled drying systems were described, indicating that these systems effectively reduced drying time. Effect of ultrasound‐coupled drying on the quality of fruits and vegetables was reviewed. Ultrasound‐coupled drying was helpful to improve physicochemical quality attributes such as colour, water activity, texture, rehydration capacity, bioactive compounds, antioxidant capacity, microstructure and shelf life of fruits and vegetables. Hence, this suggested that ultrasound application is a promising technology to improve drying process of fruits and vegetables.