Table 4.

Recent studies on the influence of pulsed electric field on the drying performance of food materials

Food commodities	Pulsed electric field/ other treatment/ time/temperature	Drying technique and drying condition	Major findings	References
Mushroom slices	1.6 kV/cm, 3 cm electrode gap, 50 pulse/s, US power (405 and 612 W) and sonication times of 10, 20, and 30 min	Hot air dryer at 65 °C, and air velocity of 2 m/s Electrohydrodynamic drying at 17 kV and 65 °C	The ultrasound and pulsed electric field treated sample reduced the drying time of mushroom slices by 11–39 and 7–25% for the hot air drying and 33–38 and 16–28% for the electrodynamic drying, respectively The specific energy consumption of the ultrasound-treated sample was reduced by 11–40 and 21–35%, respectively, in HA and EHD drying, while the PEF pretreatment was reduced by 4–27 and 16–24%, respectively PEF and US pretreatments significantly increased the effective moisture diffusivity and were found to be 5.85 to 7.97 × 10−10 m2/s and 7.38 and 8.9 × 10−10 m2/s for pulsed electric field and ultrasound treated samples, respectively	Mirzaei-Baktash et al. (2022)
Kiwifruit waste	PEF: 2 kV/cm and a fixed pulse width of 10 μs OD: 40% (w/w) trehalose for 150 min at 35 °C	Hot air drying (50, 60, and 70 °C) at 2 m/s	The drying kinetics were significantly improved by PEF, followed by OD and drying temperature The drying time was reduced in combined pretreatment of PEF and US drying at 70 °C	Tylewicz et al. (2022)
Red bell pepper	PEF: 1.07 kV/cm US: 21 kHz, 30 min	− 40 °C vacuum and freeze-drying	A novel combined treatment method performed better and reduced drying time by 29 to 70% Freeze-dried bell pepper treated with combined pretreatments exhibited higher retention of color value, vitamin C, total phenolic, and antioxidant capacity	Rybak et al. (2021)
Mango	1 kJ/kg and 3 kJ/kg at a field strength of 1.07 kV/cm	Convective drying at 70 °C and airflow velocity of 2 m/s	The rehydration ratio decreased with the increase of pulsed electric energy by 16% and 21% in convective and vacuum drying, respectively PEF-treated sample retained 70% of the phenolic compound as compared to 30% in the untreated sample	Lammerskitten et al. (2020)
Carrot	PEF: 5 kV/cm, 10 pulses and 0.5 Hz US: 21 and 24 Hz for 20 min	Microwave-assisted hot air drying at 200 W, 40 °C, and 2 m/s air velocity	Combined pretreatment of PEF and US reduced drying time and enhanced the drying rate by 27–49% and 64–68%, respectively The highest moisture diffusivity of 3.38 × 10–10 m2/s was observed during the treatment of ultrasound, followed by PEF which reduced drying time by 29 min The combined pretreatment enhanced rehydration capacity, retention of color, and carotenoid retention from 2.8 to 5.8 and 93%, respectively	Wiktor and Witrowa-Rajchert (2019)
Blueberries	2 kV/cm, 2 µs pulse width, 200 pulses per second, and total time 96 ms	Conventional hot air at 45, 60, and 75 °C, and vacuum drying	The drying time was significantly reduced in the PEF pretreated samples The optimum drying condition based on the drying time and retention of quality attributes was found to be 75 °C for vacuum drying	Yu and Jin (2017)
Onions	Electric field strength between 0.36–1.07 kV/cm, pulse width 40 µs, electrode gap 280 mm, frequency 2 Hz	Convective drying at 45, 60, and 75 °C	The drying time was reduced by 30.3%, 21.4%, and 6.4% pre-treated with PEF at 45 °C, 60 °C, and 75 °C, respectively The effective moisture diffusivity was enhanced from 3.7 × 10–9 to 1.8 × 10–8 m2/s The internal diffusion was enhanced with the increase in drying temperature and after a certain electric field strength, no further reduction in drying time was observed The drying time was reduced by 21.4% in pre-treated (1.07 kV/cm, 4 kJ/kg) samples dried at 45 °C	Ostermeier et al. (2018)
Carrots, Parsnip	0.9 kV/cm, pulse width of 20 μs, a frequency of 50 Hz 65.2 kJ/kg for carrots, 65.8 kJ/kg for parsnip	Convective drying 50, 60, and 70 °C and 1 m/s air velocity	The drying time was lessened by 28% at 70 °C and 21% at 60 °C in parsnip and carrot, respectively as compared to the control sample The effective diffusivity of water of the pre-treated sample was obtained in the range of 1.61 × 10−10 and 3.04 × 10−10 m2/s and 1.97 × 10−10 and 3.06 × 10−10 m2/s for carrot and parsnip, respectively, which increased with the increase of drying temperature The pre-treated sample increased moisture diffusivity by 38% with retention of color, nutritional, and sensory properties	Alam et al. (2018)
Mango	1.85 kV/cm (5.63 J/kg) and 50 pulses, 5 kV/cm (80 kJ/kg) and 10 pulses 5 kV/cm (80 kJ/kg) and 100 pulses	Convective drying at 70 °C and air velocity of 2 m/s	The PEF-treated sample reduced the drying time by 6.9–8.2% as compared to the untreated sample The moisture diffusion coefficient of the PEF pre-treated samples was ranged from 0.944 × 10–9 to 1.07 × 10–9 m2/s. It showed an increasing trend with the increase of electric field intensity and PEF pulses The color attributes were retained, and oversaturated electroporation was observed by SEM analysis, causing enhanced drying efficiency	Wiktor et al. (2016)
Goji berry	PEF: 0.9 -2.8 kV/cm, OD: glycerol (60%), maltodextrin (20%), ascorbic acid (2.0%) and sodium chloride (1.0%)	Force convection drying at 60 °C for 400 min	The mass transfer, i.e., water and solid transfer rate increased significantly with the rise of PEF pulses The water diffusion and solid diffusion were increased by 85.5 and 54.2%, respectively, for the combined approach as compared to individual treatment Better color, phenolic content, and antioxidant activity retention were reported by the application of combined treatment	Dermesonlouoglou et al. (2018)
Potato slices	4 kV/cm for 1 h	Microwave convective at 50 °C and 1.4 m/s airflow velocity	The PEF treatment of potato slices showed no significant influence on drying time The moisture diffusivity was obtained as 5.12 × 10−10 and 5.063 × 10−10 m2/s at sole microwave drying and PEF treatment-microwave drying, respectively	Singh et al. (2015)
Kiwi fruit	PEF: 0.7, 1.1 and 1.8 kV/cm, OD: glycerol, trehalose, maltodextrin, etc., for 240 min	Convective drying at 45 °C for 240 min	The effective moisture diffusivity varied from 0.323 × 10−9 to 1.13 × 10−9 m2/s and 0.653 × 10−9 to 1.87 × 10−9 m2/s for the untreated and PEF-treated samples, respectively The diffusion coefficient was enhanced with the increase of electric field strength of PEF during the drying of kiwi fruit slices PEF with OD treated sample presented high-quality color change, increased firmness, and high vitamin C content	Dermesonlouoglou et al. (2016)
Kiwi fruit	PEF:100, 250, 400 V/cm OD: 61.5°Bx sucrose solution Time: 0–120 min	Osmotic dehydration at 25 °C	The combined treatment enhanced the mass transfer rate The PEF treatment accelerated water fluxes and therefore increased the intracellular shrinkage of the sample	Traffano-Schiffo et al. (2016)