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Food Dehydration - Step 5 - Packaging
Food Dehydration - Step 5 - Packaging
Dry your own fruits, vegetables and other foods
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Storage containers
Choosing the right storage container is as important as properly drying the fruit or vegetables.
Glass containers, such as regular canning jars, are excellent for
storage because any moisture that collects on the inside can be seen easily
Modern vacuum food sealers do a great job and have become
inexpensive.
See this page for complete vacuum food sealer
descriptions and choices or a few examples at right
Packaging the dried foods
- Packing/Sealing the dried food: Dried foods are susceptible to insect contamination and re-adsorption of
moisture and must be properly packaged and stored immediately.
First,
cool completely. Warm food causes sweating which could provide enough
moisture for mold to grow.
Package dehydrated
foods in sealed containers, See the next step for proper vacuum sealing
Keep in mind, Vacuum
food sealers and their bags a a great alternative to glass jars, which weigh much more and can break.
- Vacuum Packing Dried Produce -
This helps to get moist air out of the jars and seal them. Never vacuum pack your dried vegetable
unless you know they are truly dry, either by drying to a brittle stage or by calculation. For vegetables, dry to 90% solids level.
-
Fill canning jars with dried fruit.
-
With the lid lightly screwed down, place jars in a 325 F oven for 15 minutes.
-
Using oven-proof gloves, tighten the lids when you remove the jars from the
oven.
-
About an hour later, when the jars have cooled, test the lids on the dried fruit to see that they have sealed. Just press in the
middle of the lid. If it is sealed, it will be sucked down. If it can be flexed up and down, it is not sealed.
-
Fruit that has been sulfured should not touch metal. Place the fruit
in a plastic bag before storing it in a metal can. Sulfur fumes will
react with the metal and cause color changes in the fruit.
-
Pack as tightly as possible without crushing.
- Pack food
in amounts that will be used in a recipe. Every time a package is
re-opened, the food is exposed to air and moisture that will lower the
quality of the food.