Novel drying and pretreatment methods for control of pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables: A review
Tiantian Tang, Min Zhang, Ronghua Ju, Arun S. Mujumdar, Dongxing Yu
Abstract
Presence of pesticide residues on fruits and vegetables is a serious safety issue for consumers. Efforts are being made to utilize drying technology to turn fruits and vegetables with high pesticide residues into dehydrated products with minimal or no pesticide residues are clearly conducive to ensuring safety and international fresh food commodity trade. This paper attempts to summarize the latest developments in drying technologies and pre-drying treatments for controlling pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables, with emphasis on sun-, oven-, freezing-, vacuum-, and microwave-drying technology, as well as non-thermal pretreatment methods such as ultrasound, non-thermal plasma (NTP), pulsed electric field (PEF), high hydrostatic pressure (HHP), and irradiation.