Health Ranger Store explains freeze-dried food vs. dehydrated food

 When you're preparing before disaster strikes, much of your time and effort will go into securing a survival food supply for your family.

This can get expensive, which is why you should consider getting items that are worth each dollar, such as dehydrated or freeze-dried foods.

Both these processes preserve food for long periods of time, but they differ in how they remove moisture from the food. Here are some of the similarities, differences and benefits of dehydrated and freeze-dried foods.  

What is dehydration?

Dehydration is a food preservation process that removes moisture from food by exposing it to heat.

The food being processed is sliced or diced and placed in a dehydrator, which blows hot air over the food for several hours. The heat causes the water in the food to evaporate, which makes the final product dry and brittle.

Dehydrated food offers some advantages for emergency preparedness and survival. Compared to other preservation methods, dehydrated food is lighter and takes up less space than fresh food, making it ideal for backpacking or camping trips. Lastly, dehydrated food can be rehydrated with water, making it versatile and convenient for cooking.

If you have a dehydrator, it easy and inexpensive to dehydrate different herbs, fruits and vegetables at home.

What is freeze-drying?

Freeze drying is a food preservation process that removes moisture from food by freezing it and subjecting it to a vacuum. The food is placed on trays and frozen to around -40 F.

When the food is frozen, it is moved to a vacuum chamber, and the pressure is lowered. This makes the frozen water in the food sublimate (turn directly from a solid to a gas) without passing through the liquid phase.

The vacuum also pulls the water vapor out of the chamber, leaving the food dry and lighter.

Freeze drying also offers advantages over other food preservation methods. It preserves the nutritional content of the food since the low temperature and short drying time minimize the loss of vitamins and other nutrients.

Freeze-dried food is also much lighter and easy to transport since most of the water has been removed. Lastly, freeze-dried food has a long shelf life. Some freeze-dried foods can be stored for up to 25 years. 

Similarities between freeze-dried food and dehydrated food

Both freeze-dried and dehydrated foods remove moisture from food to preserve it longer compared to other methods. But there are some key differences between the two processes.

Freeze-dried food is more expensive to produce than dehydrated food because the former requires specialized equipment and a longer drying time.

One of the benefits of freeze-drying food is that it retains more of its original flavor, texture and nutritional content than dehydrated food, which is subjected to a lower temperature and a shorter drying time.

The benefits of freeze-dried food and dehydrated food

Both freeze-dried and dehydrated foods offer some benefits for emergency preparedness and survival.

Both are lighter and easy to transport, which makes either of them ideal for your bug-out bags or emergency kits. Both kinds of foods also have a long shelf life, making them a reliable food source when facing an emergency.

Lastly, both are versatile and convenient since you can rehydrate them with water or use in recipes like fresh food.