Osmotic treatments (OT) and problems related to the solution management

The implementation of osmotic treatments (OT) of plant or animal materials in concentrated solutions (called also dehydration-impregnation by soaking process, DIS) presents a critical factor due to the management of the conce ntrated sugar/salt solutions. In particular some process steps must be eval uated in order to assess economical, environmental and technological impact s of the process itself. In this paper the critical points of the solution management have been criticised taking into account the items related to th e solution changes during the process, the possibility to restore or re-use the solution itself and the relationship between the food on-going to dehy dration and the solution properties. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rig hts reserved.