Recent developments in tomato drying techniques: A comprehensive review

AbstractTomatoes, a highly perishable agricultural product, are commonly dried to extend their shelf life. They serve as raw materials in various domains, including direct consumption and as key ingredients in processed foods, functional foods, and nutraceuticals. However, producing dried tomato products with quality attributes equivalent to fresh tomatoes, such as nutrient content, appearance, flavor, texture, and reconstitution properties, poses significant challenges. Several research attempts have been made to evaluate the feasibility of different drying methods for tomatoes. Solar drying, hot air drying, and spray drying are commonly employed techniques, each with its own set of advantages and disadvantages. Conventional solar drying practices often result in extended drying times and undesirable quality parameters. Hence, it is imperative to adopt enhanced solar drying techniques for the large‐scale production of dried tomato products. Additionally, hybrid‐drying approaches can be explored to achieve better quality products with reduced drying times. Pretreatments before drying can also enhance overall drying performance. Combining conventional drying with novel drying methods, precise selection of drying parameters and pretreatments are demonstrated as efficient ways to improve the drying rate while preserving food quality. Modeling the drying process is also critical for designing large‐scale dryers, selecting appropriate drying conditions, maintaining product quality, and process optimization. Therefore, this article aims to provide detailed insight into existing drying methods with their unique features and modeling approaches, which may enable professionals and scientists to choose better and optimized tomato drying method to deliver the highest quality product to consumers.Practical ApplicationsProcessing tomatoes as dried products is a potential area to explore to minimize their postharvest loss. Lack of awareness regarding how to process, what parameters to consider, and which method to employ are hurdles in adopting and popularizing dried tomato products. Hence, it is crucial to consolidate the key findings pertaining to tomato drying from various methods into a unified platform. This will provide valuable guidance to future researchers and enable consumers to make informed decisions when selecting the most suitable drying method. Therefore, this comprehensive review aims to elucidate the current practices in tomato drying, highlighting their potential benefits and limitations.