How is dehydrated food processed? Although all food dehydration involves minimizing the moisture content, yet there are a number of ways food can be dehydrated. Since the water content is the primary component of most foods, removing the water reduces the weight and bulk. There are three important steps in processing: Gathering the food products Sorting, cleaning, preparing the food products Dehydrating the food products Packaging/packing the food products after dehydration There are three main dehydration processes: heat dehydration solar dehydration cold-process dehydration Heat processing is the most prevalent of the dehydration methods, due to the relatively low cost of processing, although it takes away some of the nutrient value and taste. The end products are more or less of the same taste and nutrition value when reconstituted, as their fresh counterparts. Cold-process ( FREEZE - DRIED ) dehydration means food products are processed and dehydrated in very cold ( freezing ) temperatures, and hence retain their nutrition and taste almost EXACTLY as fresh, when reconstituted. Dehydrated foods and dried foods differ in the amount of dehydration. For example, all BDM products are dehydrated down to 7% - 4% or less moisture. ( Depending upon the product and method of your choice ) The less moisture, the more compact the dehydrated foods become, and the less likely to spoil. Freeze-dried foods go through a slightly different process than Heat dehydrated food. With heat dehydrated food, the water is removed without freezing the food first. Starting with the best produces the best results. It makes sense that the best dehydrated food comes from the best and freshest farms. Fruits and vegetables can be picked at the height of ripeness, and selected for the perfect size. These are inspected, then washed, then processed (decored and peeled), then washed again prior to being dehydrated. At BDM, we specialize both in HEAT DEHYDRATED and FREEZE - DRIED products.