For some mango properties and operating conditions of the dehydration process, data are presented in the (x ± SD) form, where x is the mean, and SD is the standard deviation calculated based on the available SLR values.
Some intervals indicated in the table and in previous analyses are regarding the form (Mean ± standard deviation of reported data samples).
3.2.1. Convective Hot Air Drying
It is important to note that the articles found respond to the following distinction: those that are essentially experimental and those that focus on determining the drying kinetics and are oriented towards operating conditions.
The drying air temperature data were registered for 29 articles (which report several experiments), obtaining that their mode is 60 °C, with an approximate value of 65 ± 15 °C for the average operating condition used in this technology. It was identified that experiments had been carried out with temperatures from 40 to 100 °C, 60 to 80 °C being the most common range, finding a non-linear inverse relation between the drying air temperature and samples processing time [
46].
Regarding the drying air velocity, an average value was obtained from the 14 articles from which this data was retrieved: approximately 1.70 ± 0.87 m/s, with a mode of 1 m/s. The extreme values of this drying air velocity were also identified: between 0.6 and 4 m/s, with relative humidity of air between 15 and 70%, predominating values close to 24% [
35,
36].
The experimental samples, mainly mango pulp, were dehydrated to a final value between 3.8 to 20% on a wet basis.
The Sindri, Carabao, Samar Bahisht Chaunsa, and Tommy Atkins varieties were dehydrated to values close to the 10-15% range of moisture. For the Langra variety, average values of around 20% of final moisture on a wet basis were reported.
The above conditions are consistent with the common operation of dehydration of mango and other tropical fruits at drying-air temperatures between 40 and 80 °C, with an air velocity between 0.2 to 2 m/s, to reduce the moisture content of the solid up to 15% on a wet basis [
46]. This is relevant to the theoretical references because, according to Kaur et al. [
69], “for prolonged shelf life of intermediate moisture foods the moisture content needs to be in the range of 15% to 25% (wet basis) or 17.65% to 33.33% (dry basis).”
Regarding the thickness of the samples to be dried, Mugodo and Workneh [
50] identified that with mango pulp films of 3 mm at a drying temperature of 70 °C, acceptable results are achieved that preserve the basic quality of the product and that are better than those obtained with 6 mm and 9 mm thickness. This can be explained by the fact that “size and shape of sample is said to affect the mass transfer kinetics because of variation in specific surface area to thickness ratio” [
76]. Experimentally, according to the literature, mango samples with thicknesses between 1 and 9 mm have been used [
32,
50,
76]; the 5 mm thick films (cut parallel to the fibers), of pulp [
35,
36,
42,
75], peel, and seed have been the most used [
30]. Mango puree films have similar thickness ranges, between 2 and 8 mm [
21,
47].
The drying time for peel and seeds was reported as 4 and 8 hours, respectively [
30], and for the pulp, between 5 and 24 hours, identifying an approximate average of 11.5 ± 6.1 hours, 12 hours being the most registered value [
35,
36,
38,
39].
As the drying process progresses, the moisture content of samples decreases until reaching the desired final moisture or an operational limit of the product [
76]. The literature identifies that increasing the drying temperature increases the moisture removal rate from samples and, therefore, reduces the drying time [
49].
The above behavior is consistent with experiments reported in the papers, but depending on the mango variety used, it may have quantitative variations, although not in mode. For example, according to Mukhtar et al. [
46], mangoes of the
Sindri,
Tommy Atkins, and
Samar Bahisht Chaunsa varieties, when dehydrated at an air velocity of 1 m/s at 60 °C, differ in drying times between 11.8 and 24.1%, which can be attributed to differences in the initial moisture content and °Brix of each mango variety, without identifying a linear correspondence between them.
An important aspect for determining the quality of dehydrated products is the rehydration capacity, defined as “the ratio of drained weight of the rehydrated sample to the weight of the dry sample used for rehydration” [
83]. Mugodo and Workneh [
50] found in their research that rehydration capacity was reduced for higher thicknesses of mango samples (6 and 9 mm) at the same temperature, which suggests damage to the cell wall, reducing the rehydrated mass of the dry product compared to the original mass [
84]; thus, the relation between the two variables is inverse. Additionally, the rehydration capacity decreases as the drying air temperature increases [
41]. Marques et al. [
66] state that the mango pulp drying through convective hot air drying causes a “loss of rehydration potential” of the samples. The calculated average value of rehydration capacity for samples dehydrated at 70 °C through this technology is 3.11 ± 0.72.
The key indicators of browning (i.e., the phenomenon through which fruits darken into a brown color [
21]) found in the literature are the variations in the CIE L*a*b* color space parameters measured in research. The color parameters correspond mainly to “L* indicates the lightness, a* indicates chromacity on a green (-) to red (+) axis, and b* chromacity on a blue (-) to yellow (+) axis” [
21] and ΔE, that is the total color difference [
43]. Thus, the mentioned browning was characterized by the increase of the red color of a* parameter, a decrease of the yellow color of the b* parameter, a reduction of the L* parameter, and an increase of the color difference ΔE [
43].
According to Guarte et al. [
21] and Khuwijitjaru et al. [
85], the main causes of mango mesocarp browning are enzymatic and non-enzymatic reactions that cause carotenoid degradation over prolonged dehydration periods.
Enzymatic or oxidative browning is a process where phenols in the presence of oxygen and enzymes (polyphenol oxidases) generate quinones that, through polymerization, produce molecules with brown pigments [
86]. This last process occurs after destruction processes of the mesocarp cellular tissue, such as slicing, maceration, and crushing of the fruit [
21,
86], and between 30 and 40 °C, which is an optimal range for enzyme activity [
87], therefore, at ambient temperature this phenomenon can occur.
On the other hand, non-enzymatic browning “is a purely chemical darkening phenomenon characterized by the presence of brown polymers called melanoidins” [
88]. The non-enzymatic reactions occurring in the system correspond to the phenomena of mango sugar caramelization [
31,
47,
51,
62], Maillard reactions or condensation of melanoidin through sample heating, and acid ascorbic degradation [
88].
Studies have identified that non-enzymatic browning kinetic constants of Arrhenius equation-type models increase with treatment temperature and are influenced by °Brix content [
88], thus at high temperatures, in drying processes, the occurrence of this phenomenon in fruit samples could be favored.
The temperature and drying time have a direct impact on the color of dried samples and, therefore, on their quality because when extending the drying time at high temperatures (>80 °C), the resulting products darken, which is unwanted since “the appearance and color of the dried product are the important quality factor for the consumer acceptance” [
45].
The sample mean and standard deviation of initial moisture and °Brix of fresh mango were 82.58 ± 4.38% moisture on a wet basis and 16.74 ± 5.06 °Brix, respectively.
The water activity (a
w), which is a measure of the availability of water in the product for internal reactions [
3], for fresh mango without dehydration, reported a value higher than 0.85, being able to reach values up to 0.99 [
47]. After the drying process, the average value of the water activity (0.468 ± 0.155) was calculated, identifying that the median of the a
w data is 0.479, a value close to the mean. The mode of these data is 0.6, a theoretical value of stability at ambient temperature, recommended to avoid dried fruit product deterioration in storage [
21,
28,
38].
The glass transition temperature (T
g) is a parameter of interest related to the porosity of the structure of the samples after the dehydration process. It is defined as “the temperature at which an amorphous system changes from the glassy to the rubbery state. This property has a strong effect on the stability of food since below this temperature water is immobilized, avoiding the occurrence of degradation reactions” [
48], thus making the dehydrated food product more stable. It should be added that the higher the water content in the sample, the lower the glass transition temperature [
74].
Dehydration through convective hot air drying can produce samples with little porous and dense structures, with the presence of collapse, caused by long drying times [
45].
According to Guarte et al. [
21], “in the temperature range of 50 to 60 °C and at 40 °C, only 55 and 42% of the β-carotene content could be retained, respectively,” indicating that at lower temperatures, β-carotene degradation by the enzymatic way can occur, and at high temperatures, as the enzymes in the biological material are deactivated, β-carotenes can be degraded by thermal action [
21].
Ascorbic acid is a compound used as a nutritional quality index of fruit because it is unstable (in the presence of temperature) compared to other nutrients [
38]. Jödicke et al. [
43] identified that the highest retention of that compound could be achieved at specific drying conditions (40 °C, 32% relative humidity, and 0.9 m/s air velocity), which were different from the highest point of polyphenols retention (94 °C, 3% moisture and 0.9 m/s air velocity).
According to Mishra et al. [
49], the ascorbic acid content present in mango samples (
Dasheri variety), dehydrated through convective hot air drying, decreased as the drying air temperature increased, showing the capacity of ascorbic acid to be reduced between 5.4 and 7.7% by increasing the temperature by 10 °C. Mishra et al. [
49] obtained approximate values for the ascorbic acid content in the dehydrated fruit between 29.81 to 34.17 mg/100 g of sample on a dry basis (at 50 and 70°C, respectively). Sarkar et al. [
81] report values for phenol and carotenoid contents of 705 mg GAE/100 g and 8.21 mg/100 g, respectively, both expressed based on a dry basis for the
Himsagar mango variety. Thus, the operating conditions of dehydration can modify the properties of the resulting products. Furthermore, obtaining quality products with high added value is desirable for the industry and requires a technical selection according to each company’s specific requirements.
In the SLR, only one article was found presenting sample evaluation by panelists for this technology. Sarkar et al. [
22] state that products dehydrated through convective hot air drying were those that stood out the most in terms of sweetness (obtaining the highest score in this attribute) compared to other technologies, such as freeze-drying.
3.2.2. Dehydration by Freeze-Drying
Mawilai et al. [
20] identify three main stages during the freeze-drying process: an initial stage is freezing, where temperature and pressure of the samples are lowered (sub-zero temperatures and vacuum pressure); in the second stage, a progressive heating ramp is initiated, still at vacuum pressure (at constant value); in the third stage, the temperature is increased up to a final point.
In SLR, the freezing stage was carried out at temperatures between -10 and -80 °C for 16 to 24 hours [
37,
39,
55,
56,
57,
60,
61]. In some studies, liquid nitrogen was used to freeze samples by immersion [
63,
65,
66]. On average, the temperature of this stage was -39.74 ± 18.08 °C, with a mode and median of -40 °C, coinciding with the mean of the data.
The subsequent stage, when the sublimation starts (primary drying), was conducted under vacuum conditions at pressures lower than 0.1 mbar, with values as low as 0.0007 mbar [
55] in order to operate in a ramp at low temperatures (sub-zero). Lastly, when the process ends, the temperature is gradually increased to the ambient temperature. To preserve the color, phenolic compounds, and antioxidant capacity of heat-sensitive samples such as mango, it is suggested not to exceed ambient temperature in the last stage of freeze-drying [
34]. In the literature, it was usually worked up to values of 10, 20, and 25 °C [
29,
58,
62] with a maximum thermal increase of 40 °C [
20].
The specific temperature configuration reported in the literature for the freezing process – primary drying – secondary drying is (-20 °C) – (-10 °C, 0 °C, 10 °C) – (40 °C). For this configuration, a benefit of freeze-drying was identified, which refers to the conservation (lower loss of compounds after dehydration [
57]) of antioxidant compounds (total phenolic content), compared to the convective hot air drying technology [
89].
Freeze-drying has a technical limitation: the vacuum operation, which involves considerations of continuously requiring the vacuum pump since the process duration is high, approximately 35.7 ± 29.8 hours, with extreme ranges of 11 and 120 hours. The final moisture of the samples was identified as 4.4 ± 1.1% on a wet basis, on average.
The thickness of the sample to be dehydrated is important to obtain homogeneous results in the freezing process and full sublimation [
90]. An average thickness of 7.83 ± 4.61 mm was identified, with 5 mm as the mode and median.
Given the nature of sublimation, pores are formed in the samples dehydrated with this technology, which previously contained the frozen water removed from the solid at the operating conditions of the process [
60]. The experimental products have greater smoothness and uniformity, important elements in the stability of the dried sample [
60]. Moreover, it is desirable to obtain smaller pores with this technology since shrinkage and collapse of the material are avoided. This can be achieved with a high freezing ratio (ratio of variation of the system temperature from 0 °C to freezing temperature with respect to the time interval in which this variation is reached) [
67].
Based on the information recorded from six articles, an average and standard deviation were calculated for the water activity of mango samples dehydrated with this technology; 0.278 ± 0.082 values were obtained with a median of 0.293. The mean aw is 53.6% lower than the recommended (0.6) by the literature.
Zotarelli et al. [
53] found that with this technology, a rehydrated product is obtained with the same rheological behavior as the original pulp without dehydration, with a rehydration capacity between 3.62 [
72] and 3.79 [
65], which is beneficial for potential applications in the food sector; for example, powder for preparing beverages, desserts, among others, considering that mango powder has hygroscopic nature [
56]. It is therefore essential to monitor its stability over time when developing a product constituting a mixture of ingredients.
The average and sample standard deviation of the initial moisture and °Brix of fresh mango were calculated, obtaining values of 80.62 ± 5.88% moisture on a wet basis and 18.66 ± 3.79 °Brix, respectively.
From the literature, the total phenolic content of dehydrated mango was identified with values of 848 mg GAE/100 g of sample in a dry basis [
81] and 987 mg GAE/100 g of sample in a dry basis [
54]. The pulp, peel, and seeds have phenols in their nutritional content [
30], being the whole fruit useful for various applications. Sarkar et al. [
81] report carotenoid content for dehydrated mango (
Himsagar variety) 9.63 mg/100 g of sample on a dry basis.
Likewise, ascorbic acid values were identified in dehydrated mango of 959 mg/100 g of sample on a dry basis for the
Ataulfo mango variety [
54] and 333 to 513 mg/100 g of mango on a dry basis for
Tommy Atkins,
Keitt, and
Sugar varieties [
56]. For the peel and seeds, values of 75.48 and 65.73 mg of ascorbic acid/100 g of sample on a dry basis were reported for the
Tommy Atkins variety [
30]. Marques et al. [
66] report data for dehydrated mango through this technology that allows identifying that the dehydration process can reduce the content of this vitamin by 37.97% compared to fresh fruit.
According to Sogi et al. [
30], the color obtained in peel and seed samples for application in food products (as a flavor enhancer and supplier of fiber) is acceptable. In panelists’ evaluation, reported and statistically analyzed by Sarkar et al. [
22], it was found that the mango leather samples collected through freeze-drying obtained the highest score regarding rigidity and aftertaste properties, compared to the ones collected with other technologies such as convective hot air drying.
3.2.3. Refractance Window Dehydration
During the dehydration process with this technology, the temperature of the water bath must be below the boiling point of water at the system conditions because if it boils, “bubbles and turbulence that interfere with heat transfer through the film” [91, translated quote from its original in Spanish] are generated. From the records obtained for this technology, it was identified that an average heating water temperature of 87.7 ± 12.5 °C was used, with a value of 95 °C for mode and median.
There is a distinction between the temperature of the heating water mentioned above and the temperature reached by the sample (puree layer) during the dehydration process since, according to Shende and Datta [
47], “product temperature was maintained lower than 75 °C during drying experiment almost all the time”; this is to prevent deterioration due to thermal effects [
51]. The temperature range of the samples on the clear Mylar® film was reported to be 71 to 75 °C [
60,
69].
The refractance window system is open to the atmosphere (it can have a fume cupboard on top of the equipment). Literature reports air at ambient temperature (24-25 °C [
70,
71]) with an approximate speed of 0.7 m/s, “with a relative humidity ranging from 50-52% was applied on the surface of the puree to facilitate moisture removal” [
60]. However, there are also experiments in ambient air conditions with relative humidity of 73% [
71] and between 58-68% [
70].
Thickness of the samples is inversely related to the drying speed because the lower the amount of matter, the faster the moisture transfer from the samples to the medium will occur.
In the literature, the thickness of the fruit layer was between 0.5 and 5 mm, with an average value of approximately 2.3 ± 1.4 mm, being 2 mm the mode and median.
It is highlighted that, according to Zoratelli et al. [
70], the refractance window technology “is a very efficient drying process, even if the relative importance of radiation heat transfer is negligible. In fact, this study clearly established that radiative heat transfer contributes to less than 5% of the total thermal energy delivery to food”. Then, the importance of the technology lies, among other elements, in the capacity to evaporate water from a thin layer of material that represents a large effective drying surface area [
60]. For example, with a water bath at 95 °C, researchers dehydrated 2 mm pulp, presenting an evaporation capacity of up to 10 kg of water m
-2 h
-1 [
70].
A common dimension among the refractance window equipment used in the experiment of two studies of the literature was, precisely, the surface area of transfer, with a value of 1.10 m2. In contrast, the length of the contact surface area can have several values: from 10 cm to 1.83 m [
62,
69], with or without conveyor belt movement (batch operation [
47]), considering that the work with laboratory-scale equipment was identified.
From the above, it is important to clarify that heat transfer through radiation is significant when the thickness of the fruit puree layer is small (1 mm); when its thickness is high, heat transfer occurs with a more significant contribution by conduction due to the additional thickness of solid [
78]. Thus, the transfer of thermal energy from hot water to the fruit layer can occur predominantly through radiation and conduction mechanisms [
62]. Hence, to favor the dominance of energy transfer by radiation, it is preferred to use product thicknesses of 1 mm maximum for dehydration and films of appropriate materials (factory-made, e.g., Mylar®).
According to Kaur et al. [
69], “the change in color increases with drying time up to 20 min of drying,” this is based on the use of dimensionless parameters of CIE-L*a*b* as indicators of “visible darkening of the sample within a short period of five minutes (from 20 to 25 minutes of drying)” [
69].
It was identified that the mango samples used in the literature for this technology had an initial moisture content of 81 to 86% on a wet basis [
47,
68,
71]. The average time of the dehydration process was 27.5 ± 18.9 min, and the shortest processing times were reported for lower puree layer thickness (close to 2 mm) [
47].
The value of the glass transition temperature [
74] depends on the initial moisture content of the samples and the temperature they reach during the drying process. Caprino et al. [
74] studied mango samples above and below the T
g, finding that when the temperature of the sample is higher than the glass transition temperature, the microstructure of dried fruit has a rubbery, “liquid-ish” viscoelastic appearance, i.e., it presents thermal plasticization. However, when the temperature of the material is lower than T
g, the microstructure of the sample has a more solid, rigid, and fragile behavior. Based on the characteristics desired in the final product (more rigid or chewy finished food), it is convenient to adapt the temperature of the water bath, so that the samples are at the target point with respect to the T
g. This behavior is attributable to polymers, and in the case of mango, to carbohydrates, which are natural polymers formed by a high content of sugars such as sucrose, glucose, and fructose [
52,
63,
76,92].
Shende and Datta [
47] report that the firmness of mango leather obtained with the refractance window is in the range that generates chewable samples under optimum dehydration values of 95 °C for water bath temperature and 2.49 mm as thickness of the puree layer.
The average and standard deviation of the initial moisture and °Brix were calculated for fresh fruit in the reported studied of this technology, obtaining values of 82.98 ± 2.16% moisture on a wet basis and 15.82 ± 2.77 °Brix, respectively.
The water activity of dehydrated samples, for 50% of the records of this technology, presented an average value of 0.412 ± 0.172. For this system, the final moisture values were identified between 1.7 and 20.5% on a dry basis [
60,
62,
68,
69,
74] and between 5 and 20% on a wet basis [
47,
71], a 15 and 20% moisture (on wet basis) as a commonly used range.
Regarding the nutritional properties of dehydrated mango through this technology, it was found that the samples have, according to Shende and Datta’s [
47] experiment, 62.66 mg of ascorbic acid/100 g of sample in a dry weight for
Langra mango variety.
A low volume of records of quantitative content for nutritional compounds in SLR was identified, which represents a research opportunity in the experiments area. This, considering that, in general, the numerical value of these compounds varies with the temperature at which samples are processed, their thickness, and the mango variety used [
47,
56].
Due to the mango puree layout in the refractance window equipment (high surface area in contact with the clear film and, therefore, higher heat and mass transfer in the system), the dehydrated products have a visible smooth finish that at the microstructural level translates into smoother, non-porous, and highly uniform surfaces, thus increasing storage time in good conditions, by limiting the spaces where oxidation can occur [
60].
Mango leather was analyzed by twenty panelists in the Shende et al. [
68] study to judge color, aroma, flavor, and mouthfeel under five sensory factors on a five-point scale (unsatisfactory, fair, average, good, excellent). In all categories, most of the panel judges rated the samples dehydrated through refractance window as “good” and “excellent,” except for aroma (rated as “average” by 45% of the panelists). This allows inferring a general approval of the product evaluated in the categories analyzed.
3.2.4. Parallel between Technologies
The following is a comparison of convective hot air drying, freeze-drying, and refractance window dehydration technologies based on the information identified in the SLR.
The literature reports that in mango peel samples processed with freeze-drying technology, a greater number of carotenoids, about 47% more, was obtained compared to convective hot air drying [
26].
The refractance window technology takes less time to reach sample moisture contents of 10 to 20% on a wet basis than convective hot air drying. The refractance window has an average processing time of 0.46 ± 0.31 hours, while the convective hot air drying has 11.5 ± 6.1 hours for temperatures between 40 and 80 °C. The freeze-drying technology takes the longest time, around 35.7 ± 29.8 hours, to dehydrate mango (being able to reach low moisture contents of samples, between 5 and 10% on a wet basis).
When dehydrating samples through freeze-drying, porous products are obtained; with convective hot air drying, little porous products are obtained [
79]; and with refractance window technology, more uniform, smoother, and non-porous products are obtained. Through convective hot air drying, darker products can be produced [
82] with less yellow pigmentation (and more to orange and brown colors), contrary to freeze-drying and refractance window. Additionally, it is noted that products dried by convective hot air drying have a rough texture with an irregular surface [
22,
75], contrary to freeze-drying samples, which have a more regular surface finish without deformations or breaks [
22,
72].
It is identified that the refractance window technology operates at sample surface temperatures below 75 °C [
60,
69] and water bath conditions of approximately 95 °C, usually at atmospheric pressure [
69]. Freeze-drying operates at low pressures (vacuum), starting with a freezing stage between -10 and -80 °C, followed by a primary drying stage, in which is operated at low temperatures, and lastly, with ramps of gradual temperature increase up to values close to ambient temperature, without reaching it (10-25 °C), with long dehydration times (between 12 hours to 5 days). In turn, convective hot air drying uses drying air temperatures between 40 and 80 °C at atmospheric pressure [93]. But Freeze-drying can operate at lower temperatures than convective hot air drying, which favors fruit care as a sensible material against thermal effects [
9,
10]. Moreover, refractance window samples are prevented from further darkening and loss of compounds due to thermal effects [
47,
51], with the advantage of having the shortest dehydration time required.
Regarding the rehydration capacity of samples, it was identified that processing them through freeze-drying favors the rehydration process of products, especially powder, exposing the rheological properties of fresh fruit [
53]. On the contrary, samples dehydrated by convective hot air drying tend to lose their rehydration potential [
66]. Higher values of rehydration capacity were identified for freeze-dried samples than for samples dried by convective hot air drying.
The refractance window and freeze-drying showed higher favorability in the non-occurrence of deterioration due to caramelization, compared to convective hot air drying [
31,
47,
51,
62].
The evaluation panel judges of the organoleptic properties of mango leather samples preferred the product dehydrated through the refractance window rather than through convective hot air drying, considering properties such as color, aroma, taste, and mouthfeel [
68].
The experiments in the literature were carried out in laboratory equipment, scalable to the industrial level [
20], to which temperature control systems can be included to keep the operating conditions stable.
The water activity is, in all cases, below 0.6, which is desirable since “products with a water activity below 0.5 are stable at ambient temperature provided that they are bottled in high barrier materials” [38, translated quote from its original in Spanish]. Moreover, a value of 0.6 for this parameter represents a standard of stability and hygienic safety for the moisture content [
21,
28].
The previous concept obeys the principle of “exposing microorganisms to a hostile environment (…) to prevent or delay their growth” [2, translated quote from its original in Spanish] since the unitary operation of dehydration aims precisely to decrease water activity [
3].
It is noted in the literature that, drying air temperatures between 60 and 80 °C for the drying times of the convective hot air drying and temperatures below 75 °C on the samples surface for the refractance window technology are recommended to protect the samples from further darkening and loss of compounds due to thermal effects [
47,
51]. The effect tends to benefit the refractance window due to shorter processing times.
In general, for the technologies of interest, the samples’ sensory attributes topic was not reported in a high volume in the SLR. Therefore, a research opportunity was identified about evaluations of dehydrated mango samples by panelists, to identify organoleptic properties such as flavor, color, aftertaste, smell, and texture of the samples, as well as to determine the variables influencing consumer favorability of a dehydrated product.