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Why Dehydrate Food?

Welcome to "Why dehydrate food," and it's a good question. If you're considering this food-preservation method, keep reading!

boarded up empty grocery storeCourtesy of Camtasia - Registered User

Question: "Why dehydrate food?"
Answer: So you have emergency food on hand when the grocery stores have run out.

Or when another pandemic like Covid-19 hits (heaven forbid) or its variants. Plus, it won't go off and doesn't take up as much room as fresh foods.

Supply chains around the world still face major issues in the transportation of goods.

Dehydrate, Freeze, or Canning?

But why dehydrate food over freezing, or canning, you ask? It's the time factor along with three important reasons why dehydration works better.

In order to store food properly for long-term storage, you need to keep three things at bay:

   1. Air

   2. Light

   3. Water

When those three things are addressed, your success in storing food for the long term will be greatly increased.

What If I Want to Freeze Foods?

Mylar bag with four vacuum-sealed packets of dehydrated peas inside

What's wrong with freezing food?

Not only do you have to have electricity to keep the foods frozen, but you also need mass amounts of freezer storage space.

But what happens when the power goes out?

You can't run one of those noisy generators forever.

And more often than not, those packaged frozen meals get 'freezer burn' which is simply a case of air being converted to ice. This brings me to:

Point 1: Air. When dehydrating foods, we remove the air using a food vacuum sealer. Point 1 'done.'

Point 2: Light. Keeping foods away from direct light also prolongs their shelf-life. Storing our dehydrated food in Mylar bags takes care of Point 2.

Regarding Point 3: Water... when you freeze foods, the water is in there, and again, you need electricity to keep the food frozen.

When we dehydrate food, we're taking the water out. And to make sure your foods stay as dry as possible, we add oxygen absorbers to the vacuum-sealed bags. Point 3 covered!

Six Simple Steps sample pages - free eBook and 7-part Mini Series on how to dehydrate food at home - safely!

Download our FREE eBook: Six Simple Steps

To help you understand why we dehydrate food and the food dehydration process, download our free Six Simple Steps eBook today simply click the link. The free eBook covers the necessary steps to safely dehydrate fruit, vegetables, and (cooked) meats!

And while you're downloading that freebie, treat yourself to our "How to Grow & Dehydrate Herbs" too! Click the book in the sidebar if you're on a desktop computer, and/or click here to visit the Herb Book page.

It's my free gift to you for taking the time to visit my Easy Food Dehydrating website!

Save Money on Electric Bills by Dehydrating Foods

A great way to save cash is by dehydrating fruit and vegetables. Fact: you do not have to store fresh foods in the refrigerator for days and weeks at a time.

When the foods have been dehydrated, they can last for years without electricity—and that's a great energy-saving cost right there.

Dehydrating is Affordable and Easy to Do

Another reason why you should dehydrate food is that it's affordable and very easy to get started at home. Simply visit our dehydrator page and/or check out dehydrator reviews online and choose which dehydrator suits your home situation best.

If you are a large family, you may choose a dehydrator with the capacity to have nine trays dehydrating all at once. For just the two of you, maybe a simple four- or five-tray dehydrator would be sufficient.

There are many brands of dehydrators—some have stackable trays and some have trays that pull out like a chest of drawers. I have one of each type of dehydrator.

I have not found one to be better than the other, but I have found unique purposes for each. I have a Nesco dehydrator and an Excalibur dehydrator.

The pull-out trays can allow the dehydrator to be used for proofing bread dough by simply leaving the bottom tray in and omitting the trays that would be above it.

Butternut Squash on a Nesco Dehydrator tray

Why Dehydrate Food? It's Ideal For Long-Term Storage

Stackable Benefits

The benefit of a stackable dehydrator is that when you only need to use four trays you can - instead of having to use six static trays (of an Excalibur-type dehydrator with pull-out trays). You can do that without the nagging thought of those empty trays wasting space and using expensive electricity!

The next step is to purchase a vacuum sealer machine. Its purpose is twofold:

  • Draw the air out of the bag
  • Seal the vacuumed bag

You could call it a day right there or go one step further and protect your dehydrated packages by placing them into Mylar bags—made of shiny un-tearable material–which keeps out light, moisture, air, and yes, bugs—depending on where you intend to store them, i.e. the garage, for instance.

The Mylar bags are also sealed, but there is no need to vacuum them. Simply use a Sharpie pen to write the contents on the bag and date it.

Space Savings Too

A different kind of savings can be achieved in the way of space saving!

Eight whole bunches of celery can be stored in just one single-quart Mason jar! Can you believe that?

And it takes no electricity—great energy savings—and no fridge space to store it either!