Drying is a process to remove water in the texture of foods to increase durability by conditioning heat in various technics. Foodlord Company uses the newest drying processes to prepare dried fruits and dried herbs. The quality of the product after drying is one of the important indexes of this company. There are various technics to dry foodstuffs that several industrial dryers are referred as follows:
Oven Dryer
The simplest type of dyers is a single and double-door hot air food drying oven. These are proper for meat, vegetables, and fruits. The dry heat consumption of the oven is more than the other dryers but the heat flow is laminar. The drying oven has a batch system. It is heated to a specific temperature and stayed on that temperature for a period to eliminate the moisture.
Centrifugal Dryer
This type of dryer has a circular chamber with circulating hot air and is exposed to the centrifuge force. This force separates liquid from the solids for the difference in their densities. The centrifuge dryer is low cost and is proper for the herbal products.
Re-circulating Dryers
Re-circulating dryer is extensively used and heat is provided by the elements on the back. Then, the hot air is recirculated and drying completes in 6 minutes. It is more efficient than oven and centrifuge dryers.
Tunnel Dryer
Tunnel dryer is the combination of oven and re-circulating dryers and does not have high energy and heat consumption. The foodstuff are transferred into the tunnel by the conveyer and the hot air inside will dry the fruits and foods. Tunnel dryers are usually used for grape and plum. The drying percentage can be adjusted by adjusting the hot air temperature and the speed of movement of the conveyor belt. In addition, the rectangular stands can be used instead of conveyers. The passing hot air can be concurrent or counter-current, but counter-current has higher efficiency and energy consumption. The hot air exits out of the dryer from top of it.
Cabinet Dryer
The fresh air faces thermal coil in the cabinet dryer. It is heated and move toward the cabinets. The foodstuffs are on cabinet. Then the hot air with moisture goes pass the outlet valve. The exiting air is recycled and re-entered to the dryer chamber as the fresh air. Heating resources are heat pump, electric current, and steam and hot explosion chamber. This type of dryers is continuous and can divided to infrared, ultrasonic, and so on dryers based on their energy supply resource.
