Exactly What is Freeze Dried Food?

Not all naturally occurring food can stay fresh and eatable for a long period after they have been taken of the trees. Meat can also not stay fresh after the animal has been butchered. In order to prevent the food quality from too much degrading, some techniques are adapted which also includes the method of freeze drying.

A freeze drying is a method by which a food object can be dried using a freezing method and the moisture is converted into ice and the food is preserved. The freeze drying for food often uses temperatures as low as -29 Celsius. Later when heat is applied, the product turns back into the normal state but the frozen water sublimes meaning that it turns directly from ice to water vapors and it is not converted into liquid water.

This can help in keeping the food somewhat fresh and its quality is not much compromised. Freeze drying is also considered as a better option than other methods of preservation because the freeze dried food can last for longer periods and also does not add up to any extra weight over the food products because nothing new is added only the water molecules are frozen which will later sublime when the food is heated.

Not all food products may be freeze dried because some of them can be consumed at once without any need of preservation like an orange, apple etc. which can be eaten at once. But there are some food related objects which needs storage even inside homes. Such objects include products like tea, coffee etc. which needs storage over some period of time.

It is however not necessarily true that fruits and vegetables cannot be dried or should not be dried. A number of stores can be seen to sell freeze dried vegetables and sometimes fruit as well. Freeze dried peas and other vegetables can be seen for sale which can be stored for even a whole year and can be used anytime during that period.

This type of food can help in emergency and traveling conditions where there may not be any food available easily. In these cases, freeze dried food can be kept which may only need a little heat for making them or the usual preparing procedure may be needed.

But it can still be said that fresh food can have the taste and nutrition which may be unseen and unheard in present days. The future may bring something unusual about which nothing may be said now and only patience can be adapted.

Mathew Paterson or Matt is an outdoor enthusiast, who loves hunting and camping. If he's not outside he's spending he's time writing and sharing his experiences about the two subjects. He hopes to help people improve their hunting strategies, how to best enjoy the outdoors and how to better plan for an emergency crisis.

GhillieGear.com is an online store that specializes in the latest Emergency Preparedness equipment, 72 Hour Kits, First Aid Experts, Survival Food and water. To purchase surival products visit: Ghillie Gear

For more information about this article and other articles related to this topic please visit http://www.GhillieGear.com


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How to Interpret Packaging Dates on Food

Dates on food are written in many different ways and can be hard for the average consumer to make sense of. Interestingly, only a few of those dates tell you about the safety of consuming food past the stamped on date.

All processed factory-packaged foods are dated. Unfortunately, most of the time the date is in a code that is of no help to the consumer. These dates are used by the manufacturer and grocery store manager in a product recall and is required of all items packaged in the same place, on the same date.

The federal government requires product dating only on poultry, infant formula and some baby foods. Depending on your state regulations, some perishable foods have to have an "open date" that consumers can understand when choosing a product to be sure its fresh. For many other foods, dates are put on products voluntarily by manufacturers to ensure consumers get a "fresh" product.

If you know what those dates mean, you can know whether or not you want to purchase an item and also how long you have to use it. Here are some of the common terms and what they mean:

Packed on - This means the date the food was placed in package. If you are looking at fruit, this date will not tell when the fruit was picked, only the day it was placed in the package. So, this only helpful if you know how long that food stays fresh.

Sell by - This is the last date on which a store should sell a product to you. Another term for this is "pull date." You can usually find a "sell by" date on bread and bread products, dairy products, cold cuts and fresh fruit juices. Bakery products are commonly sold a day or so after their sell by date but for a lower price. Most foods that have gone past their "sell by" dates you can still use safely.

Milk - can be used for about a week after the "sell by" date.

Raw fish, meat and poultry - If you are not going to use by the "sell by" date you can freeze it.

Fruit juices, coffee, tea, nuts, dried fruit and fresh cranberries - If you are not going to use by the "sell by" date you can freeze them. I make it a practice of keeping my coffee, tea and nuts in the freezer to ensure optimum freshness.

Best if used by (Use by) - By this date, you should use the product if you want maximum taste. You may still consume the product after this date, it just might not have as much flavor.

Expiration date (Exp) - Expiration dates usually appear on yeast and baby formula and sometimes on milk. After the expiration date, most foods should not be used. Apparently, eggs are the exception. Eggs that are federally graded must have expiration dates not later than 30 days from the time they are put in the carton. Stores can't sells the eggs after this date, but you can use the eggs safely for the next month or so assuming you refrigerate your eggs properly.

High acid canned foods (ex. tomatoes) should be used within !8 months of purchase. You risk the chance of them exploding when you open them if you keep them too long.

Low acid canned foods - Fish, meat, most vegetable and fruits will keep in the pantry for two to five years.

For more helpful information about Shelf Life Ingredients visit us at Fasthowto.com


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Dead Birds & Fish??

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Loving my new food dehydrator & Food Saver!!

This past weekend I went grocery shopping and got a great deal on some apples! So, of course, I had try out my food dehydrator and my new foodsaver!! So far all that had been done in the Dehydrator has been the beef jerky that my son has been making. So I got the apples , diced them up, and treated them for a few minutes in some lemon juice. Then I remembered that I had some leftover strawberries and pineapples in the fridge and decided to do them too. I started the food dehydrator at 9:30 am and by 3:30 pm the apples were done and about 2 hours later the pineapples and strawberries were also done. Yay!!
Then the fun part - I hooked up my Food Saver and got out the roll of bags that came with it. You have to make your own bags with the rolls, but with the heat seal thing on the Food Saver it was a breeze. I made 3 bags - put the stuff in them , stuck it on the machine, and sucked out all of the air. When the vacuum is done it automatically seals the bag with the heat seal. I love it. I had a little assembly line going on.
I can really see how this summer when I garden and go to farmer's markets these two items are going to be heavily used!!! I knew when I bought these at the time of year that I did , that I would not use them a lot. My son has been using the dehydrator a lot for beef jerky , but this time of year is not really a economical time to be buying fresh fruit and veggies. I do want to try some other type of things in it when I can. Like , for example, whenever I buy canned refried beans , we never use the whole can. Well , I have seen online where you can dehydrate them and powder them up. The add water to them when you want to reconstitute them. That could really save some money in our house. Usually a quarter of a can of refried beans gets thrown away in our house.
I diced the apples up because we love oatmeal in our house. Sometimes we add apples, strawberries, and bananas to it. Makes it yummy and gives you something different than just plain old oatmeal!!





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How Much Does it Cost to Use a Food Dehydrator?

A common misconception is that it is expensive, electricity wise, to operate a food dehydrator. This is not true, even though dehydrators use electricity to operate their heating system and fans for longer periods of time, sometimes up to twelve and eighteen hours.

Food dehydrators are used to dry various foods by eliminating the water within the food. The water content of food is very high, typically between 80% to 95% for various fruits and vegetables and 50% to 75% for different meats. In order to minimize dehydration time, best dehydration practices to follow include slicing food into 1/4 inch or less strips and evenly spreading the food throughout the unit's trays in order to maximize the amount of the food's surface that is exposed to the unit's heat and air flow.

However, even following best dehydration practices, a food drying process can take multiple hours. One temptation is to try and speed up the drying time by increasing the dehydrating temperature. This is not recommended and can result in case hardened food; that is, food that is dried and hard on the outside but moist and containing water on the inside. Case hardened food will spoil due to microbial growth.

So what do typical dehydrators cost to operate? Obviously the costs depend on the state and local area that you live in, however, within the U.S., on average, running a 750 watt unit for one hour would cost about 8 cents. Cost per state, per hour, for the same 750 watt unit varies from about 5 cents on the low end in North Dakota to almost 22 cents in Hawaii.

A typical dehydrator may run for twelve hours. As an example, assuming a dehydrator user lives in the state of California, a food dehydrator calculator can be used to estimate electricity costs required to run a 750 watt food drying appliance for, say, 12 hours straight. In this case the electricity cost would be about $1.21. In fact, most food drying units power on and off during the drying cycle so this would be a maximum electricity cost.

If the same Californian user bought about 3.7 pounds of apples at $1.29 per pound and dried those apples during that 12 hour time period, the user would have about 1 pound of dried apples and the cost of the dried apples would be $4.77. The total operating cost for one pound of homemade dried apples would thus be about $5.98. This homemade cost compares favorably to a well known national brand of dried apples that was recently selling at a major grocery store chain for $2.79 for a 5 ounce bag or a cost per pound of $8.93. Savings for homemade dried apples, made with a dehydrator, versus store bought - about $3.00.

Dehydrate your own dried fruit, dried vegetables and jerky at home using your food dehydrator. You'll continuously save money versus store bought dried fruit and jerky and obtain a return on the cost of the food drying appliance. Further, you can control the ingredients that go into your food (most store bought dried fruit and jerky contain excess sugars and salts) and make great tasting food.

Visit Food Dehydrator to learn how to dehydrate food and make beef jerky and dried fruit. Use our food dehydrator content and calculators to discover the benefits of food dehydrators and dried food.

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