Quality retention in strawberry and carrot purees dried with Refractance Window™ system

The quality retention characteristics of strawberry and carrot purees dried using the Refractance Window™ (RW) drying method were evaluated against freeze drying, drum drying, and spray drying methods. Ascorbic acid retention of the strawberry purees (94.0%) after RW drying was comparable to 93.6% in freeze-drying. The carotene losses for RW drying were 8.7% (total carotene), 7.4% (α-carotene), and 9.9% (β-carotene), which were comparable to losses of 4.0% (total carotene), 2.4% (α-carotene), and 5.4% (β-carotene) for freeze-dried carrot purees. The color of the RW-dried carrot purees was comparable to fresh puree. For RW-dried strawberry purees, the color retention was comparable to freeze-dried products. RW drying altered the overall perception of aroma in strawberries.