Rehydration capacity improvement of mushrooms dried by combined methods

Serially combined drying methods were investigated to improve the
rehydration capacity of dried shiitake mushrooms. We combined puffing (DIC)
or freeze—post-drying with a range of convective drying methods. Dried and
rehydrated samples were assessed in terms of volume ratio, rehydration rate
as well as hardness. Results showed that DIC followed by convective- drying
is the most promising combination to enhance the rehydration capacity of
dried mushroom. These samples had higher volume rehydration ratios and
rehydration rate which was very close to that of samples dried by FD. It’s
worth noting that convective drying at low temperature is beneficial in
retaining structure.