Ieseph S. Cohen and Tom C.S.

Yang are at the US Army

Natick Research, Development and Engineering Center, Kansas
St, Attention: SATNC-WAA, Natick, MA 01760-5018, USA (fax:

Progress in food + 1-508-651-5274).

dehydration

Joseph S. Cohen and Tom C.S. Yang

This article is a review of methods for the dehydration of

foods, including several that may not be widely known. The
novel techniques include microwave-augmented freeze dry-
ing, centrifuga! fluidized-bed drying, ball drying and ultra-
sonic drying. The advantages and disadvantages of each of
these novel methods are discussed in comparison with more
conventional methods of drying. The applications of each
method to specific foods are discussed, as well as the factors that
must be controlled for each process.

Dehydration is probably the oldest known method of

food preservation. The drying of fruits in the sun and
the smoking of fish and meat are both well-known
processes that originated in antiquity.
The drying of food products is not used as extensively
as it could be for a number of reasons, not the Jeast of
which is a perceived loss of quality. A dried food prod-
uct offers the advantage of decreased weight, which has
the potential for savings in the cost of transporting the
product. However, there is often a decrease in the qual-
ity of the dried product because most of the con-
ventional techniques use high temperatures during the
drying process. Toe consumers demand only the highest-
quality finished product: one with little or no loss in
sensory characteristics and with the advantage of added
convenience. As many of the new techniques use lower
temperatures and/or decreased drying times, they should
be considered for use by the food industry. In addition,
there is potential for the development of unique prod-
ucts using these unconventional techniques.
In this article, severa! novel methods of dehydration
that may not be well known to food processors will be
discussed, and their advantages and disadvantages in
comparison with more common processes assessed. We
will show how the various methods can be used for
specific foods, and also discuss those factors that must
be controlled for each process. Much of the information
is based on work that we have carried out at the US
Army Natick Research, Development and Engineering
Center, Natick, MA, USA.
Most drying processes occur in two distinct stages 1
The first stage is the constan! rate stage. Moisture

20 in Food 1995,
Trends & Technology
ScienceElsevier January
Science Ltd 0924 1995 [Vol. 6]
-2244/95/$09.50 20 6]
Trends in Food Science & Technology )anuary 1995 [Vol.
20
 Review

removal occurs at a constan! rate because the intemal moisture of

the product is transported to the surface at the same rate as that at
which evaporation occurs. The second stage is the falling rate stage.
This may actually occur at severa! different rates as the product
changes phases. When a critica! moisture leve! is reached, drying
occurs at a decreasing rate. This critica! point is a unique
characteristic of each product.

Current dehydration techniques

Solar (open-air) drying
This is probably the oldest industrial process currently
being used. It certainly dates back to antiquity, and has been used
with many different products including fruit, meat, fish and plants2
However, this process has severa! drawbacks, which limit its use
for large-scale pro- duction. Sorne of these are: the requirement for
large areas of space and for high labor inputs, difficulty in
controlling the rate of drying, insect infestation and microbial
contamination.

Smoking
Toe use of smoke to preserve foods is almost as old as open-
air drying. In fact, the two techniques are
often used together. Smoke has the added effect of imparting
desirable flavors to the food. In addition, sorne of the compounds
formed during smoking may
have bactericida! properties. Although not primarily
used to reduce the moisture content of the food, the heat associated
with the generation of smoke does have a drying effect. Smoking
has been mainly used with meat and fish.

Convection drying
This is a simple technique, which is in sorne ways
similar to solar drying and has many of the same draw- backs 1 The
drying process takes place in an enclosed, heated chamber. The
drying medium - in most cases, hot air - is allowed to pass over
the product, which has been placed in open trays. Convection drying
is often a continuous process, and is most often used for products that
are relatively low in value.

Drum drying
This technique removes water from a slurry, paste
or fluid that has been placed on the surface of a heated
drum2. The dryer may comprise either a single or a double drum.
Drum drying is typically a continu- ous operation. Care must
be taken to ensure that the product that is to be dried adheres
well to the drying surface; thus, in sorne cases, it may be
necessary to modify the liquid product by the addition of other
sub- stances to change its surface tension or viscosity.
Temperature and concentration should both be con- trolled
during drum drying. This technique has been used extensively
in the past, but its use for food pro- cessing is decreasing as
other methods of drying that cause less heat damage become
available. An example of a product that has been dried using
drum drying is gelatin.

21 in Food 1995,
Trends & Technology
ScienceElsevier January
Science Ltd 0924 1995 [Vol. 6]
-2244/95/$09.50 21 6]
Trends in Food Science & Technology )anuary 1995 [Vol.
21
Spray drying small, uniform and discrete particles that can be readily fluidized.
Spray drying is used to remove the water from a free- Thus, small vegetable pieces, such as whole
flowing liquid mixture, thus transforming it into a pow-
dered product2 Sorne examples of products that have been
spray dried are instant coffee, tea and powdered milk.
The fluid that is to be dried is first atomized by pump-
ing it through either a nozzle or a rotary atomizer, thus
forming small droplets with large surface areas. This
droplet spray immediately comes into contact with a hot
drying gas, usually air. The liquid is very rapidly evapor-
ated, thus minimizing contact time and heat damage.
The final product consists of spherical particles of a
fairly uniform size, often in the form of hollow beads.
The dried product is often agglomerated to facilitate
its rapid dispersion in water. Spray drying can be com-
bined with a fluidized-bed dryer3, which will convert the
liquid directly into an agglomerated product.
A large disadvantage with this process is the size of
the equipment required to achieve drying. Furthermore,
not all materials can be dried in this way; for instance,
very oily materials might require special preparation to
remove excessive levels of fat before atomization. There
are, however, continuing improvements being made to
this process.

Fluidized-bed drying
Fluidized-bed dryers were first commercialized on a
large scale by US petroleum companies during World
War 11 (Ref. 15). The technique of fluidized-bed drying
was initially used for the catalytic cracking of crude
petroleum. The chemical industry soon realized that it
could be a very versatile technique and adapted it for
many unit operations. This technique has the important
features of producing particles that are of uniform size
and being able to maintain constant temperatures. By
setting the operating conditions within narrow limits,
scale-up from laboratory to commercial-sized units can
be readily accomplished.
The technique involves levitating particulate solids
in an upward-flowing gas stream, usually of hot air.
Fluidization mobilizes the solid particulates, thus ere-
ating intimate contact between the dry, hot carrier gas and
the solids. Drying occurs by convection. At the proper
gas-flow rate the solids will behave as if they were a
liquid, thus ensuring more intimate contact between the
solids and the carrier gas, and increasing the drying rate.
Fluidization is dependent on the characteristics of the
particles: size distribution, density, shape and viscosity.
The properties of the carrier gas that contribute to
fluidization include density and viscosity.
A typical commercial fluidized-bed dryer has a reac-
tion chamber that is fixed in place and usually cylin-
drical in shape. The hot gas is introduced into the bot-
tom of the pre-loaded bed and exits at the top. The flat
bed has been modified by the addition of a vibratory
mechanism to increase the contact of the product with
the hot gas even further. Fluidized-bed drying is usually
carried out as a batch process, and requires relatively

22 in Food 1995,
Trends & Technology
ScienceElsevier January
Science Ltd 0924 1995 [Vol. 6]
-2244/95/$09.50 22 6]
Trends in Food Science & Technology )anuary 1995 [Vol.
22
peas, are well suited for this process, whereas cranberries, cherries, and so on, are produced this way.
powders would be inappropriate as they would By combin- ing osmotic drying with vacuum drying, a
clog up the cyclone. Fluidized beds are high-quality intermediate-moisture food can be produced.
extensively used in dairy processing. A poten- tial problem with osmotic drying is the huge
amount of residual fluid that must be disposed of after
Fre the process is complete. This fluid can be recycled, as
eze suggested by Bolin et al", or further processed into
dryi such products as pure, juice, jelly, jam and fruit leathers
ng or used as a flavoring agent.
Freeze drying, or lyophilization, utilizes the
principie that, under high vacuum, frozen water Novel dehydrationtechniques
can be removed from a food and collected Microwave drying and dielectric drying
without going through a liquid phase2 These techniques use the electromagnetic wavelength
Because the material remains frozen, no heat spectrum as a form of energy, which interacts with the
damage occurs. In addition, there is little or no
loss in sensory qualities of the product, and
because the removal of ice crystals leaves a
porous honeycomb-type structure, the product
tends to rehydrate rapidly.
However, freeze drying is a slow and
expensive pro- cess. Four potential rate-
limiting steps have been ident-
ified: the extemal transfer of heat to the outer
surface of the material from the heat source;
the intemal trans- fer of heat within the
material; the extemal mass trans- fer of water
vapor from the surface; and the intemal mass
transfer within the material. During the drying
cycle, the thickness of the dried layer
increases, thus slowing down the sublimation
rate. The long processing time requires
additional energy to run the compressor and
refrigeration units, which makes the process
very expensive for commercial use. Therefore,
freeze drying is most often used for products
that can either be sold at a premium or can
withstand only a small amount of sensory
deterioration.

Other drying
methods
Many other drying methods have been
designed for specific products. One such
method is explosive puf- fing+", designed to
give small particles a honeycomb structure.
By using a combination of high temperature
and high pressure, and a sudden release of the
pressure (explosion) to flush out the super-
heated water in the product, a good
rehydratability can be obtained. How- ever,
the high heat can degrade the food quality,
and the explosion might compromise the
product integrity.
Another method is osmotic drying?:" for solute-
infused products. This process involves soaking
products with a large water content in
concentrated sugar or salt solutions. This
promotes counter-current mass transfer of both
water and solutes between the product and the
solution11 Many sugar-infused blueberries,

23 in Food 1995,
Trends & Technology
ScienceElsevier January
Science Ltd 0924 1995 [Vol. 6]
-2244/95/$09.50 23 6]
Trends in Food Science & Technology )anuary 1995 [Vol.
23
 tray. It has also been reported that large-scale commer-
materials, thus generating heat and increasing the drying
rate dramatically2 Dielectric drying uses frequencies in
cial drying cavities tend to lessen this non-uniforrnity
the range 1-100 MHz, whereas rnicrowave drying uses (R. Lentz, unpublished). However, there are limits to the
frequencies in the range 300-300 000 MHz. Dielectric energy level that can be used. We have found that arcing
drying has been used to dry crackers and cookies as well occurred when the power was increased much abo ve
as sorne cereal products. Microwave drying is currently 500 W, but as most of the increased drying rate occurred
being used to dry pasta products. at 500W, this is not really a serious limitation.
A great variety of food products can be dried using
Microwave-augmented freeze this method to great advantage. We have successfully
drying dried vegetables with essentially no fat, fruit with high
Conventional freeze drying can be speeded up by sugar content and ground meat with high fat content. In
using a volumetric heating mode, such as rnicro- all cases the drying time was reduced to between one
waves 1213. By using rnicrowave energy to augment the third and one half of the time required without the use
convection heating of freeze drying, drying rates can be of the microwaves.
increased by as much as an order of magnitude. Figure 1
shows a schematic diagram of microwave-augmented Centrifuga! fluidized-bed drying
freeze-drying equipment. This dryer is basically a con- The centrifuga] fluidized-bed dryer works on the same
ventional freeze dryer that has the added capability of principie as the conventional fluidized-bed dryer except
allowing rnicrowaves to be introduced within the drying that a rotating chamber is used1415 A schematic diagram
chamber. of a centrifuga] fluidized-bed dryer is shown in Fig. 2.
The initial capital costs of this equipment are greater The product to be dried is loaded into the chamber,
than those of conventional freeze-drying equipment, but which is then closed. Hot air is introduced into the bot-
are offset by an increased drying rate, which allows tom of the charnber, which is rotated at relatively high
more efficient use of the equipment. speed. The rotational speed and the flow rate of the air
As with any microwave processing procedure, a must be balanced to ensure that fluidization is achieved.
major drawback is the non-uniformity of the energy If fluidization does not occur, the particles will tend to
within the chamber. However, this problem can be par- adhere to the walls of the chamber when it is rotating.
tially offset by the use of waveguides and a rotating Sorne drying will still occur, but the process will not be
as efficient. The same restrictions

l
regarding the particle size and
CONDENSER
shape as with the non-rotating
fluidized-bed dryer apply here.
By using the centrifuga! force to
VACUUM counter the increasing air flow,
VACUUM CHAMBER 1
PUMP thus assuring fluidization, the dry-
ing rate is significantly increased.
There are other unique variations
MICROWAVE
WAVEGUIDE
of fluidized-bed dryers. In a spouted-
REFRIGERATION bed dryer2, the heated gas enters
SYSTEM the chamber at the center of a coni-
cal base as a jet. The particles are
rapidly dispersed in the gas and
PROOUCTTRAY
the drying occurs in an operation
that is similar to flash drying (a
HEATED PLATEN
process that uses extremely high-
WEIGH SCALE
temperature heating, sometimes up
to severa} thousand degrees, for
PRODUCT WEIGHT
very short time periods to remove
moisture). This works very well
with larger pieces that can be
I O dried in the fluidized-bed dryer.
.....,. ----! N DATA U Another variation is the spin flash
p INTEGRATOR T 1---.----"'s
u p dryer2. This method can be u sed
..,.._---,,-+--l T U 1--.--->.----' PLATEN TEMPERATURE with pasty mixtures, which do not
T
CONTROL
PRODUCT CHAMBER MICROCOMPUTER MICROWAVE
readily disperse in the conventional
TEMPERATURE PRESSURE POWER CONTROL fluidized-bed dryer. An agitator ro-
PLATEN
TEMPERATURE PRESSURE CONTROL tates continuously in the bottom of
the dryer chamber during the entire
Fig. 1 drying process. This agitation tends

22 in Food Science & Technology January 1995 [Vol. 6]

Trends 22 6]
Trends in Food Science & Technology January 1995 [Vol.
22
 Schematic diagram of a microwave-augmented freeze dryer. to break up and disperse the paste.

23 in Food Science & Technology January 1995 [Vol. 6]

Trends 23 6]
Trends in Food Science & Technology January 1995 [Vol.
23
 APPLICATIONi'1
OF MATERIAL~

TOP VENT VARIABLE

..
SPEED

DRIVE APPLICATION
PROCESS
CHAMBER

RE RETURN
LINE CLEAN D
BALL
UNTER
TEMPERATU )URRENT

..
CONTROL --++- RFLOW RVING
S
DRYING ZONE

PREHEATER
INLETTUBE
BLOWER (STEAM)

YING AIR
FLOWRATE
CONTROL

BOTIOM
VENT DR

Fig. 2 CO-CURRENT
AIR FLOW
Schematic diagram of a centrifuga! fluidized-bed dryer.
A
Ball drying heating to remove the water, T
A schematic diagram of a typical commercial ball- and the dried residue I
O
drying system is shown in Fig. 3. Toe material to be collected. An example of an N
dried is added to the top of the drying chamber through experimental ultrasonic C
H
a screw conveyor. Toe conveyor assures a constant rate Fig. 3 A
M
of product addition, but it can be bypassed and the B
Schematic
material added directly to the drying chamber. Heated diagram
E
R
air is also added continuously to the chamber. Toe of a ball
material within the drying chamber comes into direct dryer.
contact with heated halls made from ceramic or other
heat-conductive material. Drying occurs primarily by
conduction. The large screw within the chamber rotates
during the entire drying process, and the speed of ro-
tation govems the dwell time of the product within the
chamber. When the product arrives at the bottom of the
chamber, it is separated from the halls and collected.
Except for temperature, the most important variable to
control is that of rotational speed".
Relatively small particles such as vegetable pieces
must be used. If the material has an excessive sugar
content, as is the case with fruit in syrup, the material Fig. 4 F
tends to stick to the drying halls and cannot be sep- L
E
arated. Toe ball-drying process can be run at somewhat X
U
lower temperatures (70C) than ali of the other tech- R
niques described except for freeze drying. However, A
L
sanitation can be a concem at low temperatures because P
L
of the extended length of the drying process. A
T
E
Ultrasonic drying of liquids
It has been reported that ultrasonic energy can be
used to remove liquid water from solutions of food
particles16 To use this process, the liquid is atomized to D
E
produce small-diameter droplets, first by a nozzle and H
V
then by further cavitation using ultrasonic energy within D
a drying chamber. Toe particles are then subjected to R

24 in Food Science & Technology January 1995 [Vol. 6]

Trends 24 6]
Trends in Food Science & Technology January 1995 [Vol.
24
 DRIED MATERIALS

COLLECTION ALTER

IIIPEDANCE IIATCHBOX

POWER GENERATOR

AIR INLETS POROUS SCREEN

dryer is shown in Fig. 4. Toe technique can greatly Schematic diagram of an experimental ultrasonic dryer.

25 in Food Science & Technology January 1995 [Vol. 6]

Trends 25 6]
Trends in Food Science & Technology January 1995 [Vol.
25
 Table 1. Summary of novel and conventional drying techniques for food

Technique Suitability/current usage Advantages Disadvantages

Microwave drying and
dielectric drying
Microwave-augmented
freeze drying
Centrifuga! fluidized-bed
drying
Ball drying
Ultrasonic drying
Solar (open-air) drying
Smoking
Convection drying
Drum drying
Spray drying
Fluidized-bed drying
Freeze drying
Explosive puffing
Osmotic drying
High value-added products Low temperature, batch or Slow, expensive
continuous operation,
good quality
High value-added products Low temperature, rapid, Expensive
good quality
Smal I particles, vegeta ble Rapid, easy to control Loss of product i ntegrity,
pieces, powders noisy
Smal I particles, vegetable Relatively low temperature, Loss of product integrity,
pieces rapid, conti nuous difficult to control
Liquids Rapid Requires low-fat solutions
Fruit, meat, fish, plants Simple, low cost Large space required,
labor-intensive, difficult
to control, slow
Meat, fish Added flavors Difficult to control, slow
Low-value products Continuous Difficult to control
Liquids, gelatin Continuous May require modification
of liquid
Liquids, instant tea, coffee Spherical product Sorne quality loss
Small uniform particles, Usually batch operation, Restriction on particle size
small vegetables uniform drying, rapid
Value-added products, Can be used in continuous Slow, expensive
fruit pieces, instan! coffee operation, no restriction on
particle size, low temperature
Gives small particles, Good rehydratability, rapid H igh heat, loss of prod uct
honeycomb structure integrity
Sugar-infused fruit High quality Two-step process

increase the evaporation rate of the water (with drying specialized purposes. Futhermore, current
sometimes occurring in seconds). Babin et al.11 and techniques will also probably be further
Taylor and Hansen18 have developed special equipment refined to make them more
(under contrae! to Natick), which has demonstrated that
water can be effectively removed from dilute solutions
of non-fatty products, thus suggesting ultrasonic drying
may be used as an alternative to spray drying. The pro-
cedure works best with low-fat solutions because oily or
fatty foods do not dry effectively in an aerosol.

Condusions
We have discussed a number of novel drying tech-
niques that can be used as alternatives to the more well-
known methods for moisture reduction in foods (see
Table 1 for a summary of these techniques). Before a
particular process is selected, consideration should be
given to many factors, including: the type of product to
be dried, the finished product desired, the product' s
susceptibility to heat and the cost of processing. There is
no one 'best' technique for ali products.
In the future, it is probable that other novel drying
techniques will be developed and become available for

26 in Food Science & Technology January 1995 [Vol. 6]

Trends 26 6]
Trends in Food Science & Technology January 1995 [Vol.
26
economical and will also be explored for use with other food
products.

References
1 Lingle, R. (1986) Prep. Foods 155{3), 92-96
2 Mujumdar, A. S., ed. (1987) Handbook of Industrial Drying,
Marcel Dekker
3 Shaw, F.V. (1994) Chem. Eng. 101 (7), 76-B4
4 Eisenhardt, N.H., Eskew, R.K. and Cording, J., Jr (1964) Food Eng.
36(6), 53-55
5 Eisenhardt, N.H., Eskew, R.K., Cording, J., Jr, Talley, F.B. and Huhtanen, C.N.
(1967) Dehydrated ExplosionPuffed 8/ueberries (USDA, ARS-73-54), United
States Department oi Agriculture
6 Sullivan, J.F., Craig, J.C., Ir. Dekazos, E.D., Leiby, S.M. and Konstance, R.P. (1982) J.
Food Sci. 47, 445-448
7 Ponting, J.D., Walters, G.G., Forrey, R.R., Jackson, R. and Stanley, W.L.
(1986) Food Technol. 20, 1365-1368
8 Hawkes, J. and Flink, J.M. (1978) J. Food Process. Preserv. 2,
265-284
9 Bolin, H.R., Huxsoll, C.C., Jackson, R. and Ng, K.C. (1983) J. Food Sci.
48(1 ), 202-205
10 Yang, A.P.P., Wills, C. and Yang, T.C.S. (1987) J. Food Sci. 52(6),
1651-1653, 1664
11 Raoult-Wack, A.L. (1994) Trends Food Sci. Technol. 5, 255-260
12 Cohen, J.S., Yang, T.C.S. and Ayoub, J.A. (1994) Natick/rR-94/017 (AD A278 648),
Natick R,D&E Center, Natick, MA, USA

27 in Food Science & Technology January 1995 [Vol. 6]

Trends 27 6]
Trends in Food Science & Technology January 1995 [Vol.
27
13 Risman, P.O., Ohlsson, T. and Wass, B.]. (1987) J. MicrowavePower
22, 117-137
14 Farkas, D.F., Lazar, M.E. and Butterworth, T.A. (1969) Food Techno/.,
23, 1457-1463
15 Cohen, ].S., Rees, C., Hallberg, L. and Yang, T.C.S. (1994)
Natick;TR-95/008,Natick R,D&E Center, Natick, MA, USA
ConferenceReport
Every two years an lntemational Carbohydrate
Symposium is organized by the Intemational Carbo-
hydrate Organization. A different location is selected
each time. In 1980, the symposium was held in Sydney,
Australia, and Professor Bruce Stone organized a
pre-symposium workshop on cereal carbohydrates in
Melboume. His rationale was to offer a forum for those
carbohydrate research workers who were particularly
interested in carbohydrates from cereal grains. This work-
shop quickly became a major meeting for those working
on cereal carbohydrate chernistry and biochernistry.
In the past, the workshop has been held in these
locations:
Melboume, Australia 1980
Winnipeg, Canada 1982
Copenhagen, Denmark 1984
Purdue University, USA 1986
Edinburgh, UK 1988
Kagoshima, Japan 1990
Berln, Germany 1992
At the 1992 meeting in Berln, Germany, the scope of
the program was widened to include polymeric carbo-
hydrates from plants in general. Therefore, the workshop
now deals with ali food polysaccharides; that is, both
starches and dietary fibres.
Sorne 120 participants, from 15 countries, attended
the 1994 meeting in Guelph. There were five sessions:
'Biochernistry, structure, analysis': 'Biosynthesis,
enzymes'; 'Functional behaviour': 'Nutritional ap-
plications': and 'Applications, industrial utilization'.
Under these headings there were 27 invited oral presen-
tations and 54 posters.
Rightfully, in view of the industrial and nutritional
significance of the area, the greatest number of papers
dealt with starch and with enzymes associated with
"Held at the University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada, 13-15 July
1994
P.J. Wood is at the Centre for Food and Animal Research, Research Branch be difficult to predict on a simply analytical basis;
for the Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Government of this may reflect a long farniliarity with the complexity
Canada, Room 2016, K.W. Neatby Building, Central Experimental Farm,
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada KlA OC6 (fax:+ 1-613-943-2353).
Trends in Food Science & Technology January 1995 [Vol. 6)
16 Swientak, R.]. (1986) Food Process. 47(7), 62---{)3
17 Babin, S.P., Figueroa, F., Rao, R.M. and Clarke, S. (1994)
Natick;TR-94-013 (AD A277 515), Natick R,D&E Center, Natick, MA,
USA
18 Taylor, S.R. and Hansen, J.C. (1994) Natick;TR-94/014 (AD A277 411),
Natick R,D&E Center, Natick, MA, USA
Plant Polysaccharide
Symposium*
P.J. Wood
starch biosynthesis or breakdown. There were similar
numbers of papers dealing with the structure of starch
(11) as with biosynthesis and enzymes (13). Modero
techniques have led to considerable advances in under-
standing of the starch granule structure; this was clear
from severa! papers, such as those from A. Neszmlyi
(Central Research Institute for Chernistry, Hungarian
Academy of Science, Budapest, Hungary) and J-1. Jane
(Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Iowa State
University, Ames, IA, USA). New methods, in par-
ticular size-exclusion chromatography with on-line
light-scattering detection and high-performance anion-
exchange chromatography, are also enabling the detailed
characterization of the component molecules of the
granule, amylose and amylopectin; severa! papers ad-
dressed these methods, including those from P. Collona
(INRA Laboratory of Carbohydrate Biochernistry and
Technology, Nantes, France), S. Hizukuri (Department of
Biochernical Science and Technology, Kagoshima
University, Kagoshima, Japan), M. Fishman (USA
Eastem Regional Research Center, Philadelphia, PA,
USA) and S. Radasta (Department for Starch,
Frauenhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Science,
Teltow, Germany). The speed of these techniques facili-
tates detailed extensive comparisons of starch sources
and treatments. Retrogradation, and the resistance of
sorne starch to degradation in the human small intestine
received much attention. The focus was on physico-
chernical characteristics and the physiological effects of
resistant starch, rather than on definitions and nutritional
labelling. The carbohydrate community seems to accept
readily that the physiological behaviour of starch may
of granule structure, lipid interactions and functional
characteristics.
0924 -2244/95/$09.50 25