Bamboo and wood chopsticks have become the mainstream tableware for households and the catering industry due to their natural environmental protection, comfortable hand feel, and high cost-effectiveness. However, bamboo and wood materials have their own natural wood fiber structure, strong water absorption, and fine pores. In daily processing and drying processes, there are pain points of external dryness and internal dampness. Traditional methods such as air drying and hot air drying can only evaporate the surface moisture of tableware and cannot penetrate the core layer of chopsticks. The hidden moisture remaining in deep layers can keep chopsticks in a damp state, ultimately causing problems such as moisture regain, mold growth, and bacterial growth, affecting the service life and safety of tableware.
The conventional drying method relies on an external heat source to gradually transfer heat, and the heat penetrates slowly and unevenly from the surface to the inside. To improve production efficiency, most drying processes shorten the processing time, which leads to the rapid evaporation and drying of moisture on the surface of the chopsticks, forming a dry and hard outer layer. However, a large amount of residual moisture still remains in the pores of the wooden fibers inside the chopsticks. This state of "surface dryness and internal moisture" is the reason for the subsequent moisture and mold growth of tableware.
The application of microwave drying and sterilization technology has effectively improved the industry problem of incomplete dehydration of bamboo and wood chopsticks, and solved the problems of external drying and internal moisture, as well as moisture regain and mold growth from a technological perspective. Unlike traditional external heating modes, microwave technology adopts the principle of overall material heating, which can penetrate the surface of bamboo and wooden chopsticks and directly act on the water molecules in the internal wooden fibers.
During microwave processing, the moisture inside and outside the chopsticks is heated and vaporized synchronously, achieving uniform and thorough deep dehydration, eliminating residual moisture inside the chopsticks, and avoiding external dryness and internal moisture. The entire drying process does not require high-temperature baking of the surface, and there will be no problem of surface drying and internal water locking. The moisture content of the dried bamboo and wood chopsticks is uniform and stable, and the material is dry and transparent, greatly improving the drying stability of the tableware.
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