How to dehydrate

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Principles of dehydration

• There should be sufficient heat to vapourise and remove the liquid water from food.
• Foods should be dried rapidly but not so fast that the outside becomes hard before the moisture inside has a chance to evapourate
• The required latent heat of vapourization is 540Kcal/kg water and must be supplied to the water molecules in the food to volatilise them.
• Pre-treating some foods before drying preserves their colour and nutrients and prolong shelf life
• Drying should not be interrupted, once drying is started, dont stop or allow the food to cool down in order to start drying again later. Moulds and other spoilage organisms can grow on partly dried foods
• The foods should be uniformly dried by spreading thin layers of uniformly sized pieces of food on the drying racks.
• Foods harvested must be prepared for dtying as soon as possible.
• .....................................................

Excerpts from the book, Basic principles of food processing and preservation:Easy notes. By Ukponmwan, Ifueko Oghogho