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Molasses is an important by-product of sugar beet or sugar cane refining industry and it was one of the first sweeteners used in human nutrition. Sugar cane molasses has unique characteristics that can make it suitable for application in food industry, especially in confectionery and bakery products. On the other hand, sugar beet molasses has not had greater application in the human diet, primarily because of its strong smell and taste of the beet, which makes it unattractive for consumption. Since recent investigations showed that sugar beet molasses can be used as a hypertonic solution in osmotic dehydration of different materials of plant and animal origin, the objective of this work was to review recently studied sugar beet molasses in terms of its applications in osmotic dehydrations of fruits and vegetables. Previous studies showed that sugar beet molasses is an excellent medium for osmotic dehydration of fruits and vegetables (apple, carrot, plum, etc.) primarily due to a high content of dry matter (80%, w/w) and specific nutrient content. An important advantage of using sugar beet molasses as a hypertonic solution is an enrichment of the dehydrated material in minerals and vitamins, which penetrate from molasses into the plant tissue. Concentration of sugar beet molasses solution and immersion time had the biggest influence on the process of osmotic dehydration of fruit and vegetables, while the temperature of the solution was the least influential parameter. The effect of immersion time on the kinetics of osmotic dehydration in sugar beet molasses increases with an increase in concentration of hypertonic solution. Fruit and vegetables dehydrated in sugar beet molasses had a higher dry matter content compared to samples treated in sucrose solutions. Besides, application of sugar beet molasses in osmotic dehydration of fruits and vegetables had some other advantages such as lower cost of molasses compared to sugar and its liquid aggregate state. Molasses caused darkening of osmotically treated materials due to transfer of colouring compounds (melanoidins) from molasses solution to plant tissue. The intensity of this darkening depended on immersion time and concentration of molasses solution. An increasing trend in tissue firmness observed in dehydrated samples after 1 h of immersion was proportional to the concentration of molasses solution.

Different working temperatures were tested in order to confirm their effects on the quality of fish after osmotic dehydration. Microbiological profile and chemical content in fish were investigated, before and after osmotic treatment in sugar beet molasses solutions. Based on results it was concluded that molasses as hypertonic solution had great influence on the quality of the final product. The fat content decreased by 1.5% in sugar beet molasses solution at different temperatures (20°C and 50°C). The average percentages of fish sugar showed a significant increase during osmotic dehydration at the two temperatures. Osmotic dehydration treatment had great impact on nutritional improvement of fish meat, especially on the mineral composition. Results indicated that the process of osmotic dehydration with sugar beet molasses is hygienically safe. Using sugar beet molasses as an alternative medium in osmotic dehydration opens new opportunities for innovation in dehydrated products.