To have the longest shelf life, food should be dried until 95% or more of the moisture is removed food can be dried to a higher moisture content (lower moisture removed percentage), but the food will have a short shelf life. To dehydrate food you need both airflow and heat. In dehydrator devices, a temperature dial gives the operator control over how hot the air is, and the air temperature generally ranges from 95 F to 165 F depending on the food group. But first, let's define what the two processes are.ĭehydrating Food: Accomplished either by 1) sun dried or air dried, placing food outside in the sun on days where there is low humidity and high temperatures or 2) utilizing an electrical device with trays that has a fan either at the bottom forcing air up vertically or in the back forcing air through horizontally. So what exactly makes these two processes so different? I'm going to focus on the three big points: equipment, texture, and nutrition. In order to be dehydrated, food has had between 90-95% of the moisture removed for freeze dried, this percentage is higher, usually around 98 or 99%. It's important to note that while all dehydrated or freeze dried food is “dry food”, not all “dry food” is dehydrated or freeze dried. While both freeze dried and dehydrated result in a very similar end product (eg, dried shelf stable food), the process is very different and the results vary as well!ĭried food is inclusive of both dehydrated food and freeze dried food simply put, the term dried food implies that the water content of the food item has been reduced either by old fashioned methods such as air and sun drying or by modern appliances such as dehydrators or freezers and vacuums. Many people use the terms “freeze dried” and “dehydrated” interchangeably when referring to dried food.
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