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What is Dehydration?
Dehydration - Preserving Food
Congratulations on Choosing the
Computer Controlled Food Dehydrator
This quality appliance is designed to give you many years of use.
For best results and trouble-free service we urge you to read this entire manual.
Dehydration refers to a process in which moisture is removed from food, allowing
the dried food to be stored safety for later use. It’s main benefi t over other such ancient
methods (such as salting or smoking) is that it adds no fl avors and removes few nutrients
from the food being dehydrated.
When done properly, few nutrients are lost during dehydration. According to the
Food and Drug Administration (FDA), dehydrating retains 95-97% of the nutrients in
the original food. In contrast, canning only preserves 20-30% and freezing only retains
40-60% of the food’s nutrition.
Dehydrated food tastes good too! Since natural fl avors concentrate as you remove
moisture, the dried product is naturally delicious.h
As you will soon learn, reconstitution is an integral part of dehydration. Reconstitution
refers to the adding of water to the dried food. When allowed to soak in water, dried food
absorbs the water and swells back to its original size, shape and texture while retaining
nearly 100% of its original fl avor and nutrition.
Thousands of years ago, one of the few ways people had to preserve foods was by
laying them out to dry in the sun. Before such modern appliances as refrigerators and
before chemical preservatives, dehydration was an easy way to safely store foods for
use at a later time when food was scarce or not in season. Your new food dehydrator
applies modern science to this ancient art to bring you a controlled, predictable, and
safe way to preserve foods at home.
Dehydrating food opens a new dimension in preserving fruits, vegetables and meats
to you. Your new food dehydrator will be able to perfectly capture the fresh-picked,
in-season fl avor and nutrition of almost any food for out-of-season eating enjoyment.
These dried foods can be more easily stored because they are less likely to spoil and
they take up less room as well. They also weigh less making them perfect for camping
or backpacking meals. Dried fruit snacks are delicious and nutritious. Ingredients for
your favorite soup recipes can be dried and stored which also make a great last-minute
meals, ready to cook.
Your food dehydrator keeps the temperature in the drying chamber at a computer-
controlled constant. Food is bathed in a constant stream of warm, dry air which gently
removes the moisture from the food. The result is beautifully dried food every time.
You will fi nd that drying food is practical and economical as well as easy. And it all
starts with your state-of-the-art food dehydrator
