Which Is Better Dehydrated Or Freeze-Dried?
- Place the food on a tray or plate after spreading the food out
- Place the tray in the freezer — the food needs to be frozen at the lowest temperature
- Allow the food to stay in the freezer until it’s completely freeze-dried – 2 to 3 weeks
- Once the process is complete, pack it in an air-tight storage bag and store it in your freezer or pantry.
The brands we tested:
- Mountain House
- Legacy Food Storage
- Wise Company
- My Patriot Supply (Patriot Pantry)
- Rainy Day Foods
- Daily Bread/Food Insurance (Pipers)
- NEW! Augason Farms
Freeze dried foods can be expensive, and are certainly always far more than canning or dehydrating your own garden produce. But if you are willing to put in the effort and shop the sales, you can get them for around the same cost as grocery store foods.
Vegetables that can be freeze-dried include:
- Asparagus
- Beans
- Broccoli
- Carrots
- Celery
- Corn
- Eggplant
What is the difference between freeze dried and dehydrated food?
As I have told you before, freeze-dried food has most of its water content removed. Dehydrated food , however, has a considerable amount of its water content sealed in. As a result, dehydrated foods have a chewy texture and are sweet in taste.
Dehydrated foods contain between 30-50% of their water content compared to the 2% water content in freeze-dried foods. What this means is that while these two methods aim at extending your food’s shelf-life, dehydrated foods are more susceptible to microbial growth than freeze-dried foods.
Freeze drying and dehydration are two popular ways of boosting the shelf life of food for future consumption. However, with the ongoing hyped up craze about dehydrating machines and all their benefits, it’s understandable if you are lost between storing your foods by freezing or ​ switching to a food dehydrator.
On the contrary, freeze-dried food has almost 98% of its water content removed. This translates to a reduced foothold for bacteria that make food go bad. This also means that fewer (if any) additives are used.
Freeze drying is a 3-step process. It involves selecting the type of food that you want to dry and freezing it.
This method is usually quite costly especially in terms of power. Store-bought freeze-dried foods are also considerably costlier than their dehydrated alternatives.
Basically, both freeze-dried and dehydrated foods can be rehydrated and be used in a variety of dishes. All in all, freeze-dried food offer more options in that, they don’t vary much from fresh foods upon rehydration. Dehydrated foods, on the other hand, remain very different from fresh their fresh food derivatives.