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Agriculture
Special Issues
Novel Thermal Processing Technology of Fruits and Vegetables
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Novel Thermal Processing Technology of Fruits and Vegetables

A special issue of Agriculture (ISSN 2077-0472). This special issue belongs to the section "Agricultural Product Quality and Safety".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2026 | Viewed by 908

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Ziliang Liu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330047, China
Interests: agricultural products; thermal processing; equipment; quality attributes; artificial intelligence
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Jun Wang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Food Science and Engineering, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China
Interests: fruits and vegetable processing; quality control; emerging processing technologies
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Fresh fruits and vegetables are easily perishable due to their high moisture content, leading to a short shelf-life. Thermal treatments, including blanching, drying, frying, and cooking, are usually used to process the fruits and vegetables, so as to extend their shelf life, improve the flavors, and add value. However, the traditional thermal processing methods, such as hot water blanching, open sun drying, and high-temperature frying, generally result in great degradation and the loss of bioactive compounds, as well as low processing efficiency. Therefore, it is urgent to develop novel and efficient thermal processing technology for fruits and vegetables.

The objective of this Special Issue is to collate a series of original research and review papers on the thermal processing technology applied to fruits and vegetables, including, but not limited to, novel technology and equipment, quality evaluation, bioactive compounds, and artificial intelligence.

Dr. Ziliang Liu
Dr. Jun Wang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agriculture is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • fruits and vegetables
  • thermal processing
  • bioactive compounds
  • equipment
  • quality assurance

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

14 pages, 2127 KB  
Article
Effect of Operating Temperature and Humidity in Heat Pump Drying on Energy Consumption and Drying Characteristics of Apple Slices
by Xianlong Yu, Bin Chu, Zhenchao Jia, Suchao Ma, Wenxuan Wu, Ziliang Liu and Ligang Sun
Agriculture 2026, 16(6), 633; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture16060633 - 10 Mar 2026
Viewed by 493
Abstract
In the current work, a novel heat pump drying system with precise control of temperature and humidity of drying medium was developed and the impacts of drying temperature and humidity on the drying characteristics of apple slices and energy consumption of drying system [...] Read more.
In the current work, a novel heat pump drying system with precise control of temperature and humidity of drying medium was developed and the impacts of drying temperature and humidity on the drying characteristics of apple slices and energy consumption of drying system were investigated. Experimental results indicated that the temperature and relative humidity (RH) of drying medium have a significant impact on drying efficiency and operating performance. During the first hour of the drying process, the heat pump drying of apple slices exhibited the highest drying rate throughout the entire process at a temperature of 40~50 °C and a relative humidity of 30~60%. And then the apple slices drying was in a falling-rate drying stage. When the relative humidity of the drying medium exceeded 50%, the final moisture content of the material increased significantly and exceeded 20% (dry basis, d.b.). Increased air medium temperature and humidity enhance the dehumidification rate of the evaporator. When the drying temperature was maintained at 40–60 °C, the condensation rate at 60% RH was 3.5–10 times that at 30% RH. The increased dehumidification rate significantly promoted the energy efficiency. The specific moisture extraction rate (SMER) was 2.53 kg/(kW·h) at 60 °C and 60% RH, which is 3.4 times that at 30% RH. It was appropriate to adopt high-temperature and high-humidity conditions in the early drying stage to improve drying energy efficiency. Meanwhile, the relative humidity should be reduced to promote moisture removal from the material in the late drying stage. The obtained results provided theoretical methods for the energy-saving control of heat pump drying for fruits. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Novel Thermal Processing Technology of Fruits and Vegetables)
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