There are several ways to preserve food so that it will last longer. One system that leaves you with several options is freeze-drying.

Starting a food storage supply may give you a piece of mind that is not possible anywhere else. There are many different reasons as to why people choose to not start food storage.

One of the first reasons that people decide against food storage is because of the maintenance that they feel the food storage system will require. A lot of people do not understand what food storage actually is.

Food storage does not mean that you just buy a lot of food from a grocery store and shove it into a closet. The process and the foods that you will put into your system will be much different than you would first imagine.

Freeze-dried foods are a very plausible option for a food storage system. This sounds scary, intimidating or even unappetizing for many people.

The process is something that is easy to understand if you take the time to learn. When you realize what the process entails you may be much more likely to buy the freezer-dried food.

First, the food is frozen. When the food is frozen in a large scale lab it is usually done in a freeze-drying machine.

There is something called the triple point. This is the temperature at which the solids and the liquid phases of the food can exist together.

The food has to be frozen so that the temperature goes below the triple point. When the temperature goes below the triple point the food will not melt but instead will go through the process of sublimation.

When labs freeze dry other materials they create large crystals in the material to make it easier to freeze. Creating large crystals in food can be detrimental to the taste of the food.

The eutectic point has to be reached very quickly when you are freeze-drying food. If you do not reach the eutectic point quickly the food will have a poor texture and the cells in the food will be destroyed.

To prevent the formation of ice crystals in food the food has to be frozen very quickly. They make the food extremely cold extremely quickly.

The temperatures that they usually freeze the food at are between negative fifty and negative eighty degrees Celsius. The process is critical in the freeze-drying process.

If the company is not able to freeze the food correctly it can be ruined in this process. Companies take this process very seriously and know that they cannot mess this up.

When companies freeze-dry food they usually do massive amounts of food at a time. Freezing the food incorrectly will ruin the whole batch and cost the company a lot of money.

After the food is frozen the primary drying process takes place. This is the process in which the food is put into a machine that lowers the pressure and increases the temperature of the food.

When the food goes through this first drying phase almost all of the water in the food is removed. This process may take a lot of time.

Food companies do not want to ruin their food and if the food is heated too much it will ruin the food. The entire nature of the food may be altered.

This process can take several days so that the food is not ruined. The pressure that the food undergoes happens in a partial vacuum.

During the primary of drying process it is important to note that the water is brought out of the food by heat. The heat is enabled by conduction and/or radiation.

There are a lot of people that do not understand that the convection effect is considered very inefficient. The primary drying is then followed by the secondary drying process.

The secondary drying process is also lowered in this stage to encourage desorption. This process gets the unfrozen water molecules out of the food.

This part of the freeze-drying process is governed by the material’s adsorption isotherms. All of the ice has to be removed from the food that is being worked on.

After the process is done the vacuum seal has to be broken. This is usually done by inserting inert gas. Nitrogen is usually the gas that is put into the vacuum to break the seal.

At the end of this process the water that is left in the food is extremely low. Only one to four percent of the water content is left in the food.

After this process takes place the food is put on the shelves and sold to people that are looking to start a food storage system.

Tom Selwick has worked in the food storage industry for the past 21 years. For quality food storage he recommends (http://www.dailybread.com) for your family’s safety and security.

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