Effect of Cold Plasma Pretreatment Coupled with Osmotic Dehydration on Drying Kinetics and Quality of Mushroom (Agaricus bisporus)

Osmotic dehydration (OD) is widely used to partially remove water from plant tissues and enrich it with functional compounds. The high mass transfer resistance of the plant cellular membrane presents a significant barrier to water diffusion in OD. This research shows the positive effect of atmospheric cold plasma (CP) pretreatment on the OD and subsequent convective drying of mushrooms. Microstructure observations showed that CP exposure in the range of 30–90 s significantly changed the surface morphology, which facilitated moisture diffusion and calcium infusion during OD in 30% glucose + 1% calcium hydroxide solution. CP pretreatment, followed by OD, reduced the drying time and energy consumption of convective drying by up to 36.7%. Furthermore, it improved the antioxidant activity, total phenolic content, and vitamin C retention of dried mushrooms by 1.36, 1.45, and 2.24 times, respectively, compared to the untreated samples. It was found that this three-stage drying improved the physicochemical and texture properties of the product more effectively than either CP or OD treatment alone.