Abstract: Fruits and vegetables and aquatic products have rich nutritional value. However, they are susceptible to spoilage due to high moisture content and excellent habitat for microbial growth. Drying is an effective way to extend the shelf life of fruits and vegetables and aquatic products. However, longer drying time and poor quality properties of dried products are the bottle neck that restrict the development of drying field. Thermal or non-thermal pretreatment technologies are employed to accelerate drying efficiency and enhance quality properties of dried products. Based on this, the research progress of novel blanching technologies (high humidity hot air impingement blanching, infrared blanching, microwave blanching, and radio frequency blanching) and non-thermal (edible coating, ultrasound, pulsed electric field, and cold plasma) pretreatments and their application prospects in the drying of fruits and vegetables and aquatic products are reviewed in this paper. This review would be of vital guiding significance for the drying of fruits and vegetables and aquatic products.