Instantly sensing the food quality attributes is a prerequisite to regulate the drying process for final product quality improvement. Novel sensing technologies have been “pushed” to food drying engineering from other research disciplines. Electronic nose, computer vision, hyperspectral imaging, near-infrared, nuclear magnetic resonance, and dielectric properties have been “transplanted” for this purpose. Various physicochemical attributes of food quality, including flavors, moisture contents, colors, shapes, texture, and chemical contents, have been sensed during the food drying process. Sun and solar drying, hot air convective drying, freeze drying, and microwave drying have been involved in these attempts. Numerous data processing and analysis techniques have been employed to make clear the meaning of multivariate variables for the above technologies. With the assistance of these technologies, a great diversity of drying processes have been modulated and food product quality had been improved. To promote their industrial application, more research is required to be conducted and more practical sensing method development is suggested along this direction.

即时检测食品质量属性是调节干燥过程以提高最终产品质量的前提。新型传感技术已被其他研究学科“推向”食品干燥工程。电子鼻，计算机视觉，高光谱成像，近红外，核磁共振和介电特性已被“移植”用于此目的。在食品干燥过程中已感测到食品质量的各种物理化学属性，包括风味，水分含量，颜色，形状，质地和化学成分。这些尝试涉及太阳和太阳干燥，热空气对流干燥，冷冻干燥和微波干燥。已经采用了许多数据处理和分析技术来明确上述技术的多元变量的含义。在这些技术的帮助下，干燥过程的多样性得到了调节，食品质量得到了改善。为了促进其工业应用，需要进行更多的研究，并建议沿该方向进行更实际的传感方法开发。