Dehydrated food has many good points, but can it really bebetter than standard methods of preserving food? Well, it seems that it can andit’s cheaper too.
Methods of Preservation
When it comes to preserving foods, there are 3 main methods. These are:
- Canning
- Freezing
- Dehydrating
Canning preserves foods by trapping them within an air tightcontainer and heating them to a high temperature. This kills off all themicroorganisms on the food, preventing it from spoiling.
Freezing can preserve food simply by keeping it at very coldtemperatures. This causes the moisture in the food to solidify and makes itvery difficult for bacteria to function and survive.
Finally, dehydrating is used to preserve food by removingthe moisture from it entirely. Bacteria need to absorb moisture from food tosurvive, so without this they die off and the food can be kept for much longer
Each of these methods has its benefits, but they all havevarious costs that should be considered when selecting the best option. Thisinfographic will show you the overall costs for each process over one year.
The Advantages of Dehydrating
As you can see, dehydrating food is the cheapest way toachieve a reliable method of preservation. This allows it to be a very flexibleresource in your kitchen.
For those that aren't yet convinced by our infographic, thefigures stated were selected on the grounds of equality between each method.Each product is of similar quality to the others with the same predicted lifespan. It is possible of course to adjust them to favour other arguments, butwhen all is equal, a dehydrator comes out on top and can even rival cheaperproducts for the other methods.
Another perk of dehydrating foods, outside of simple cost,is that they can be rehydrated back to their original state, something thatcan’t be done when canning foods. Furthermore, the rehydrated food will stillcontain nearly all its original nutrients and retain an amazing taste andtexture. This for us is a massive benefit as even freezing often comes with thedisadvantage of reduced taste or a less appealing texture.
