Food Dehydration is the removal of water process from a material.  In the past, people sun-dried foods to preserve them.  Today, food can be dried in large commercial dryers called food dehydrators to produce high quality products.

Benefits of Food Dehydration:

1. Reduce spoilage of food
2. Increase food’s storage life
3. Reduces food weight which lead to easier and cheaper transportation
4. Allow people to enjoy the food such as seasonal fruits all year round

Nowadays, food dehydration has become popular in our everyday lives.  Some people have tried to build their own food dryer but the safest and easiest way is to purchase a home food dehydrator that is now available.

Considerations when choosing a Food Dehydrator:

1. It should consist of a fan to circulate the heated air throughout the dryer and across food surfaces.
2. Select a heating capacity suitable to your needs.  For example, 500-watt heater maybe suitable for those who intend to dry small amounts of product.  For those who intend to dry foods in larger amounts should consider more powerful heater such as 1-kilowatt.
3. Size of the machine suitable for your space available.
4. How easy to clean the machine.
5. Machine size expansion feature.  If you are new to food drying, you may choose to buy a small machine but when you get used to food drying, you will like to have a larger capacity.  Many models come with such expansion option.

When you experiment your food dehydrator, remember to keep records of what you have done. Such as; drying times, temperature, food amount, how you prepared it, date in which the food was dried.  Such information is good for future reference and improvements.  Always remember that an overly dried product is safer than an insufficient dried product to prevent microbial growth.