Besides reducing waste, a food dehydrator can preserve nutrients and enzymes, and help you make your own house specialties. Here are 3 reasons why you should invest in a food dehydrator.
Reduces waste
Using a food dehydrator will significantly reduce the amount of food you throw away. By reducing the amount of food you use, you’ll also be able to purchase produce that is in season. The same goes for vegetables and fruits. By dehydrating produce in season, you can easily stock up on your favorites and make snacks in bulk. The extra fruit and vegetables will not go to waste, so you’ll be helping the environment at the same time.
Despite advertisements for food waste dehydrators, these devices are not appropriate for composting. According to the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, unprocessed dehydrated food waste is not compostable and must be blended with other materials before it can be composted. Additionally, dehydrating food waste creates large amounts of fungus, which can cause problems for your compost pile. So, be careful when you decide to use a food dehydrator for your composting efforts. Food dehydrator manufacturers in usa provide good quality food dehydrators that reduce a lot of waste.
A food dehydrator reduces food waste by about 10% in weight and volume, making it an excellent tool for recycling. When you’re done, you’ll be left with a benign powder that may have between ten and twenty percent of the initial weight. Although the residual waste produced from the dehydrator is not harmful to the environment, it still has a negative impact. This residue will need to be hauled to a landfill or another processing solution. Landfills emit dangerous levels of methane gas and are also often prohibited by many municipalities.
In addition to being healthy, dehydrated foods also reduce food waste. Fresh fruit and vegetables lose much of their nutrients and antioxidant content within a day or two of refrigeration. In addition to this, dehydrated foods can be easily stored in plastic freezer containers with tight-fitting lids. Dehydrated food is also light and portable. That means that you’ll have less waste than if you’d used a conventional fridge.
Preserves nutrients
A food dehydrator helps you preserve the nutrition in your food. Its dehydration process reduces food’s weight by 70 to 95 percent. This reduces storage space by one-sixth. Your dehydrated foods will store well without having to be stored in the fridge or freezer. In addition, dehydrated food requires no special storage containers, which will allow you to keep it fresh for a long time. Food that has been dried is much more nutrient-rich than fresh foods.
Several health benefits come from preserving fruits and vegetables. Dried food contains more calories per gram than fresh foods. For example, a medium-sized plum has about six milligrams of vitamin C compared to 1.3 milligrams in the same weight of uncooked dried prunes. Additionally, dehydrated fruit has less water and more solid fruit content, which means more nutritional punch per ounce.
Foods can also be stored longer if they contain oxygen absorbers. These absorbers are packets of iron shavings that oxidize when exposed to oxygen. By removing oxygen from food, this process keeps nutrients and enzymes in food and extends its life. Dehydrating is very similar to cooking, but differs in temperature. Foods dehydrated in a food dehydrator are not overly cooked and will retain their vitamins and enzymes.
Foods that are rich in vitamin C can be easily dehydrated and added to snacks. Dehydrated kale chips, for example, are packed with vitamin K, which promotes heart health and counteracts the effects of blood thinners. As always, check with your doctor before using a food dehydrator, and enjoy the healthy snacks you make with it! While you’re at it, make sure you follow all health guidelines.
Preserves enzymes
The process of vacuum-drying food is an effective way to preserve the enzymes that make them good for human consumption. Vacuum-drying eliminates the air from the food, making the water vapor pressure inside the food higher than that outside. This results in the food evaporating faster. Vacuum-drying also prevents the oxidation of enzymes that normally activate in foods during the drying process.
Food preservation involves handling and treating food to slow down the deterioration process. Some methods may introduce beneficial bacteria to the food, while others slow down the oxidation process, which causes food to become rancid. Additionally, some methods inhibit visual deterioration, such as a browning reaction in apples after food preparation. The process of drying prevents the degradation of the food’s color and flavor and food dehydrator helps do so.