Drying is one of the most common operations in food and feed production. It is used across virtually every sector/commodity and is extremely important to the New Zealand Food and Beverage Industry. It is critical to the quality and/or functionality of many products, and it is one of our most energy-intensive process operations. Yet it is often poorly understood and inefficient.

This course is about understanding the drying technologies used across the food and feed industries - and how we can use that understanding to improve current processes and products, or design/select new systems that are both effective and efficient. It will combine the practical perspective of experienced industry professionals with the in-depth technical knowledge of drying processes.

On Day 1: The course will start by explaining water activity in products, and how it relates to both the quality/preservation of the product and the efficiency of the process. We will then go on to the basics of drying theory and how this theory relates to practical application. Different types of drying systems will be explained. Principles of psychrometrics will be combined with heat & mass balance techniques to analyse and design drying processes, demonstrated using practical examples.

On Day 2: more advanced drying concepts will be explained, using practical examples to demonstrate how drying curves can be modeled and predicted based on real data. Case studies will be presented to demonstrate application of the theory. Alternative drying technologies will also be presented by industry suppliers to The FoodBowl: These suppliers will be Cuddon (freeze drying) Enwave (microwave vacuum drying) and Bucher (vacuum belt drying).