What’s the difference between dehydration and freeze drying?
Dehydration and freeze drying are somewhat similar, in that they both remove moisture from foods. Freeze drying usually involves pre-cooking (in the case of meats), then freezing the ingredients, followed by a rapid drying process under vacuum. Dehydration or ‘air drying’ is a slower, slightly gentler process that can take place at different temperatures (above 120F for meats and below 104F for other ingredients) and takes varying amounts of time depending on the ingredient. Generally freeze drying results in a much longer shelf life since more of the moisture is removed, but most freeze dried foods are much more costly than dehydrated foods, which generally only have a 1 year shelf life.
