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(TM) (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% (alpha-carotene), and 9.9% (beta-carotene), which were comparable to losses of 4.0% (total carotene), 2.4% (alpha-carotene), and 5.4% (beta-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.