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The Difference Between Dehydrated & Preserved Food

Dehydrated food has many good points, but can it really be better than standard methods of preserving food? Well, it seems that it can and it’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 tight container and heating them to a high temperature. This kills off all the microorganisms on the food, preventing it from spoiling.

Freezing can preserve food simply by keeping it at very cold temperatures. This causes the moisture in the food to solidify and makes it very difficult for bacteria to function and survive.

Finally, dehydrating is used to preserve food by removing the moisture from it entirely. Bacteria need to absorb moisture from food to survive, 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 have various costs that should be considered when selecting the best option. This infographic 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 to achieve a reliable method of preservation. This allows it to be a very flexible resource in your kitchen.

For those that aren't yet convinced by our infographic, the figures stated were selected on the grounds of equality between each method. Each product is of similar quality to the others with the same predicted life span. It is possible of course to adjust them to favour other arguments, but when all is equal, a dehydrator comes out on top and can even rival cheaper products 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 that can’t be done when canning foods. Furthermore, the rehydrated food will still contain nearly all its original nutrients and retain an amazing taste and texture. This for us is a massive benefit as even freezing often comes with the disadvantage of reduced taste or a less appealing texture.