Give your food storage flavor with dehydrated fruits and vegetables

give-your-food-storage-flavor-with-dehydrated-fruits-and-vegetablesCan you recall a time when you were enjoying a nice juicy strawberry and thought to yourself, “You know what would make this snack so much better, the absence of water”? Chances are that would never happen. So why do we dehydrate? Ever craved strawberries in the dead of winter? Learn the drying tricks of the trade and never lust after out-of-season fruits or vegetables again. Dehydrating simply refers to the removal of water from food. This process preserves the particle, allowing it to be used months down the road. Be thrifty; don't throw away that green pepper you didn't use for the salad or the extra bananas you bought because they were on sale. Dehydrate them quickly, gather the food in one of our <a title=Search for plastic bags at Container and Packaging Supply href=https://www.containerandpackaging.com/catalog/plastic-bags/30/>plastic bags</a> then house the bag in a <a title=Search for metal tins at Container and Packaging Supply href=https://www.containerandpackaging.com/catalog/deep-metal-tins/79/>metal tin</a>. Once packaged, they can be added to your food storage stockpile, ready to be used quicker than Bruce Wayne responds to the bat signal. Methods to the dehydration madness The science of dehydration is inexact and flexible, so it's no surprise that there are several methods used to dry food. Sun and oven drying are options but mechanical dehydration is the most convenient and nutrient yielding tactic. <center><a title=Find products to help preserve and store your dried goods at Container and Packaging Supply href=https://www.containerandpackaging.com/><img src=http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QOrumum3jnw/TbnF7NTV7bI/AAAAAAAAABo/zynVEn5KZuM/s400/513x513_dehydratediagram.jpg alt=Quick guide to properly dehydrating produce border=0 /></a></center> Prepare for the heat up When drying fruits or vegetables the food should be uniformly sliced, this promotes even drying throughout the product. Other measures can be taken before dehydration occurs to preserve color, taste and additional food values. Fruits can be pretreated in a variety of solutions, each resulting in a different effect. For instance, an ascorbic acid dip assists in destroying bacteria that could be lurking on the fruit while a honey dip aims to reduce browning discoloration. Vegetables are pretreated through blanching, either heated in boiling water or over steam, debilitating the enzymes and stopping decomposition. Drying: Time to hurry up and wait Now for the tricky part, how long does the food need to dry? This is a loaded question with many implications. The type of food and its original level of water presence come into play along with surrounding air movement and humidity factors. As a rule of thumb, expect to dry fruit from 6 to 36 hours and vegetables anywhere from 3 to 16 hours. The key to determining whether the food has been fully dried is based on consistency. Fruit should be pliable, your bananas shouldn't be soft, but you don't want to break your teeth on them while snacking either. When checking out your veggies remember snap peas, as these units should snap when broken. Chances are you'll find a few dehydrated pieces with more moisture retention than the rest. Reduce the chance of a mold outbreak by gathering the dried fruit together in a small container and placing the not so dry pieces in their midst. This practice is called conditioning, actively distributing particle moisture throughout all the fruit or vegetable units. The storage hideaway Storage essentials and techniques for dehydrated products are not as stringent as canning guidelines. Aside from keeping your food in a dark, cool and dry place the additional details depend on your preference. We recommend keeping dried product in our <a title=Search for plastic bags at Container and Packaging Supply href=https://www.containerandpackaging.com/catalog/plastic-bags/30/>plastic bags</a>, which allow for easy and convenient usage. Add another layer of security by stowing your bagged food in one of our <a title=Search for metal tins at Container and Packaging Supply href=https://www.containerandpackaging.com/catalog/deep-metal-tins/79/>metal tins</a>. This packaging set up not only provides a dark environment for the supply but keeps your food protected against possible insect infestation. Opportunities to increase your personal food storage are presented every day. Dehydrated fruits and vegetables should be used within a year, so remember the importance of rotating food storage. Our <a title=Search for plastic bags at Container and Packaging Supply href=https://www.containerandpackaging.com/catalog/plastic-bags/30/>plastic bags</a> are available in a variety of sizes to fit your dehydrated product needs. While you're stocking up on them browse our <a title=Search for metal tins at Container and Packaging Supply href=https://www.containerandpackaging.com/catalog/deep-metal-tins/79/>metal tins </a>as well, and be prepared when your next dehydration date rolls around.