As a relatively new technology for home use, plenty of people have questions about the industrial-grade preservation process also known as lyophilization. I’m not a scientist, but I’ve studied up and have enough experience to weigh in:
By removing residual oxygen inside packaging to below 0.01%, oxygen absorbers effectively preserve packaged foods without the need for food additives/preservatives and without the need for vacuum sealing.
You will not be able to distinguish eggs in an omelet from fresh eggs. So too it goes with shrimp (just soak in water for 15 min, cool and eat like you normally would) and so many other things. The milk you make and put up is nothing like the horrible stuff many of us grew up with.
The capacity of the freeze dryer isn’t necessarily how much you can fit inside, but also includes how long it takes to freeze-dry a batch. The vacuum pump, condenser, and compressor strength can all make a difference since they reduce process time rather than increase vacuum chamber size.
Given our experience, the decision to purchase a freeze dryer again if we had a do-over is a pelo-brainer, we would get it every time.
Freeze dryers utilize a sophisticated preservation method called sublimation, where frozen water in food transforms directly into water vapor without passing through the liquid phase.
As you can see, the capacity more or less doubles with each model but the cost does not. The larger Know More models use more energy to process the larger batches of food as well, so don’t neglect energy costs when you compare these as that impacts efficiency as we discussed earlier.
This is one reason why the dehydrated pasta you purchase at the supermarket tastes different than the fresh pasta made in a good Italian restaurant.
Freeze drying maintains nearly all of the nutritional value of fresh food. Other methods of preservation, such as canning and dehydrating, use high temperatures that destroy much of the food value.
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Cost analysis is a much more crucial consideration when you are looking at larger machines. Processing a mix of emergency food twice per week on your own Home Pro XLarge model should see an investment payback of just 11 weeks, according to our freeze dryer calculator.
On freeze dryer dependability: I have the medium Harvest Right. It worked flawlessly, but heading toward a couple years in, went south.
It’ll draw an average of 1080 W/hr while running, even with the much smaller batch sizes. Still, if you plan on using your freeze drying appliance occasionally or as a hobby, then this model will more than fit the bill.
Vacuum pumps are crucial because they create the low-pressure environment necessary for sublimation to occur in freeze-drying. They help remove air and moisture from the chamber, allowing for efficient and effective preservation of materials.