Rising demand for nutraceuticals and waste reduction is driving research into sustainable valorisation of fruit wastes into value-added products. In this study, Ber peels were dried in hot air oven dryer (HAD) at temperatures of \(60^\circ C\) , \(70^\circ C\) and \(80^\circ C\) and microwave oven dryer (MWD) at 450 W, 600 W, and 800 W. The dried peels from both dryers were ground and blended with the wheat flour sample at 10 and 15% (m/m) mixture ratios. The fortified flour samples were used to develop cookies. The drying kinetics of the peels were modelled. Specific energy consumption (SEC) was computed, and the quality attributes (Total phenolic content (TPC) and antioxidant capacity (AOC)) of the formulated cookies were also determined using standard methods. It was found that all the drying rates fall under a single falling rate period. Effective moisture diffusivity was found to range from \(2.02429\times10^{-09}\) to \(3.13765\:\times\:10^{-09}\) and \(9.109\times10^{-09}\) to \(2.227\times10^{-08}\) \(\:{m}^{2}{s}^{-1}\) for HAD and MWD, respectively. The specific energy consumption ranges from \(\:4.9kj/kg\) to \(\:4.75kj/kg\) and \(\:26.7j/kg\) to \(\:17.5j/kg\) for HAD and MWD, respectively. Demir et al. model emerged more accurate in describing the moisture diffusion. Cookies fortified with dried peels showed improved TPC and AOC, with the highest TPC and AOC values observed in COB ( \(80^\circ C\) , 90:10) (668.67 ± 1.53 mg GAE/100 g), AOA ( \(60^\circ C\) , 85:15) (95%) and OW1 (450 W, 85:15) (679.00 ± 1.00 mg GAE/100 g), WP2 (600 W, 90:10) (94%) for HAD and MWD dried samples, respectively. Sensory evaluation revealed high acceptability, particularly at 10% substitution level in all dryers. This study established that MWD is more energy efficient in drying Ber peels, and that Ber peel holds great potential in improving the nutraceutical value of cookies, proving an alternative pathway for valorising it.
