Enhancing food quality through a novel low-energy dehydration machine using GaN solid-state RF generators to maintain nutritional value of dried foods for nutraceuticals.

天然成分是人类摄入的大部分有益于健康的维生素/矿物质/酶的来源。仅菠菜和胡萝卜就能提供超过13种不同的维生素和矿物质。当用高温(48摄氏度)干燥时，这些水果会变性，这意味着它们的感官和营养品质会降低。当用于营养食品和功能性食品时，对健康的益处是有限的。我们建议解决的具体需求和挑战是在脱水/干燥过程中保存天然成分中的关键化学物质/营养物质。传统的干燥食用食品的方法包括冷冻干燥和加热干燥。这些过程是高能的，会降低食品的营养价值，通过加热变性维生素、矿物质和酶，冷冻干燥需要36小时。该项目试图通过一种新的干燥替代方法保存关键营养物质，从而释放干燥天然成分的健康益处。这项技术真正改变了营养食品行业的游戏规则，对当前的加工技术进行了重大改进：最大限度地保留营养物质，减少碳排放，提高能源效率，更快的加工时间和更低的成本。我们的定位远远领先于现有竞争对手，在项目完成后，我们将为快速商业化做好准备。米尔德泰克英国有限公司和哈珀·亚当斯大学正在合作这个项目，设计和制造一台更高性能的脱水机，测试营养食品脱水中常用的关键材料，以迅速扩大规模，实现项目后的商业化。

Natural ingredients are the source of the majority of health-benefitting vitamins/minerals/enzymes consumed by humans. Spinach and carrots alone contribute over 13 different vitamins and minerals. These become denatured when dried using high temperatures (48degCelsius) meaning that their organoleptic and nutritional quality is diminished. When used in nutraceuticals and functional-foods, health benefits are limited.The specific need and challenge that we propose to address is the preservation of key chemicals/nutrients in natural ingredients during the dehydration/drying process. Traditional approaches to drying foods for consumption comprise freeze-drying and heat-drying. These processes are high-energy and reduce the nutritional value of the foodstuff, denaturing vitamins, minerals and enzymes through heating, with freeze-drying taking 36 hours.This project seeks to unlock the health benefits of dried natural ingredients by preserving key nutrients through a novel alternative for drying.This technology is truly game-changing for the nutraceutical industry, with critical improvements over current processing technology: maximum nutrient retention, reduced carbon emissions, improved energy efficiency, faster processing times and lower cost. We are positioned significantly ahead of incumbent competitors, and on project completion, will be set for rapid commercialisation.Mildtech UK Ltd and Harper Adams University are collaborating on this project to design and build a higher capacity dehydration machine, testing key materials commonly used in dehydration for nutraceuticals to rapidly scale to commercialisation post-project.