Freeze Dried and Dehydrated Foodstuff: Which Is The Better Technique for Lengthy Phrase Survival Foodstuff Storage
The Approach of Freeze-Drying
Freeze-drying is a complicated method of preserving refreshing or previously-cooked foodstuff by eliminating up to 98% of the food’s humidity, leaving intact the food’s texture, flavor, aroma and dietary value.
The approach requires that the new or cooked foods be rapidly frozen at temperatures as minimal as -50°C. The frozen meals is then placed into a vacuum chamber. This vacuum chamber lowers the force, and raises the temperature to just about 0°C.
At this particular temperature and pressure, the ice crystals in the foodstuff evaporate into water vapor, bypassing water’s liquid kind, by way of a approach called sublimation.
This process preserves the cell framework and dietary content of the meals, ensuing in a solution that, when rehydrated, quite carefully resembles the authentic meals.
The procedure also helps prevent the water from getting reabsorbed by the food and thus decreases its weight significantly.
Most foodstuff things this sort of as fruits, greens and meats are well-suited to freeze-drying, and can be utilised for prolonged-time period foodstuff storage and preservation.
The Process of Dehydration
Dehydrating foods is a foods preservation technique which has been used for generations. Native Individuals dehydrated their buffalo kills in their looking camps to make it less difficult to transport. Pemmican (a dehydrated concoction of buffalo meat mixed with excess fat and berries) was a staple of numerous of the nomadic North American tribes. This low-heat dehydration approach included possibly air drying (with nearby campfires), or sun drying strips of meat on drying racks.
Dehydrators are a present day approach for gradually removing the moisture from food with out actually cooking it. A downside of dehydration is the minimal quantity of meals which can be dried at one particular time. The good factor of dehydration is that this approach of processing for food storage can be simply done at residence.
How Do These Two Techniques Affect the Meals?
Freeze-dried foodstuff protect a lot of the authentic color, shape, aroma and freshness of fruits, vegetables and meats. Freeze-dried foodstuff does not normally include additives or preservatives, so it stays accurate to its first form. And the appear, texture and taste of the meals continues to be following re-hydration.
In Fruit Container to minimal-heat dehydration, freeze-drying permits for the preservation of pre-cooked foods, such as recipes these kinds of as soups, stews, stroganoff, and the like. An apparent advantage is that since the meal was ready in its entirety prior to freeze-drying, all you need to have to do is simply insert h2o, then heat for a number of minutes in purchase to generate luxurious meals.
Rehydrating freeze-dried foodstuff takes just a number of minutes, simply by introducing boiling water. Some foodstuff, like many fruits and vegetables, require no re-hydration just before consuming.
Dehydrated foodstuff shrink throughout processing as the moisture is removed. So the foods item alone is significantly more compact than its unique measurement.
The re-hydration time of dehydrated foodstuff takes a bit for a longer time than freeze-dried, but it stills preferences like the unique kind of the food. Some dehydrated food items incorporate included ingredients to improve flavors or assist in preservation. As with freeze-dried fruits and veggies, dehydrated fruits and veggies can be eaten with out any re-hydration.
The two techniques of foods preservation enhance the prolonged-term storage daily life of foodstuff. Most commercially developed freeze-dried and dehydrated foodstuff have a shelf lifestyle of 15 to 20 a long time, if properly packaged and saved in a awesome, dry surroundings.
In addition to their currently being a reliable supply of foodstuff in an unexpected emergency or extended-phrase survival state of affairs, due to the fact of their gentle excess weight and ease of portability, these foods are also wonderful for having on camping, mountaineering and hunting outings. They are also a clever choice to preserve in an crisis highway-facet kit for the automobile, or in your bug out bag.
If you pick to keep these meals in your automobile as part of an emergency kit, please remember to rotate them periodically. Temperatures in a vehicle can reach extremes, the two hot and chilly. High heat as nicely as continuous temperature fluctuations add to a lot quicker degradation of equally dehydrated and freeze-dried meals.
Which Type is Much better for Use?
Everyone is different, and each person has their own individual tastes and preferences. With that in mind, there are a number of things to contemplate just before producing a decision amongst freeze-dried or dehydrated meals.
Home-developed fruits and vegetables are greater preserved by way of dehydration, considering that the typical man or woman are not able to find the money for the high priced machinery utilized in freeze-drying.
Food items utilized in daily cooking and food preparation ought to most likely be freeze-dried. This permits the foodstuff to be speedily re-hydrated as it is cooked prior to serving. If accessibility and portability are essential, than both sort of preserved foodstuff must meet up with individuals distinct demands. Once once again, it’s a issue of individual preferences.
In a nutshell, the two dehydrated and freeze-dried food items are excellent choices for prolonged-phrase foods storage, as effectively as for daily use or for climbing, tenting, etc. They the two offer light-weight-excess weight, transportable, convenient foods. The major difference is that freeze-dried food items tend to far better maintain the shape, texture and flavors of the original meals.
Most men and women will locate that a combination will function ideal for their needs. One-product foodstuff this kind of as vegetables, potatoes, and other staples and grains are nicely-suited to lower-heat dehydration. Freeze-drying is a lot more acceptable for meats and fruits (whose texture can be preserved), and for pre-cooked meals with a selection of substances these kinds of as soups, stews and sauces.
