LAUSR

BACKGROUND Fresh shiitake mushrooms are rich in nutrients, but have high water content, fast metabolism after harvest, and are extremely easy to deteriorate. Therefore, the drying of shiitake mushrooms has become the research direction. However, the role of different drying techniques on shiitake mushroom quality is limited. So the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of thermal and non-thermal drying on the drying kinetics, and the physicochemical properties of the end product. RESULTS Results showed that shiitake mushroom treated with non-thermal drying (vacuum freeze-drying) had an attractive color, low shrinkage, and uniform honeycomb structure, while the drying time was the longest and not conducive to the formation of shiitake mushroom aroma. But shiitake mushroom treated with thermal drying present an attractive fragrance. In thermal processing technology, compared with hot air convection drying (HAD), infrared hot air convection drying (IRHAD) shorten the drying time by 37.5%, and had the highest oxidation resistance, polysaccharide content and the lowest color change, relative-humidity drying (RHD) samples had the lowest shrinkage compared with other thermal processing technology. The five polysaccharides exhibited similar preliminary structural characteristics, but the polysaccharides obtained by IRHAD have the highest antioxidant properties. CONCLUSION These results showed that compared with thermal drying technology, non-thermal drying technology is not suitable for shiitake mushroom processing. In thermal processing technology, IRHAD is a potential drying methods to obtain high-quality dried shiitake mushrooms and SMP. However, it is necessary to increase the pretreatment technology to achieve the attractive appearance of non-thermal drying technology. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.