Is freeze dried food nutritious and does it last?

There is one thing for certain, freeze-drying food extends the life of an edible product that would otherwise rot in its fresh form.

If you’re look to store fruit, vegetables or almost any food product as part of a food supply then there is no doubt that freeze dried food should be part of your inventory.

Food that is refrigerated just doesn’t last very long. All you have to do is look in the back of your own fridge to see that a week is all you can expected before a food starts to deteriorate and get moldy.

Frozen food can last up to two years. Although freezer burn will start to set in and beyond 24 months consuming frozen food becomes a dubious proposition.

Canned food has a typical shelf life of three years. The challenge there is the metal in the can start to deteriorate. If a can starts to rust, gets dented, or swells the food inside can become compromised.

Frozen food is good in the freezer for one to two years, After that, it starts to decline and freezer burn can set in.

It gets better with dehydrated food. It has a shelf life of up to four years.

However freeze-dried food will last up to 25 years and does not need to be rotated like other foods. It is perfect for home storage.

So a food stash should contain freeze-dried foods, such as freeze dried strawberries or other freeze-dried fruits sold in both the USA and Canada.

The freeze-drying process used low temperatures to dry out the food under pressure and then the ice that forms is sublimated away (meaning water in food is turned into a gas and it is removed easily). The process removes 98 percent of a good’s water content according to Go Ask Alice at Columbia University. Research shows that while freeze-dried fruits and vegetables contain slightly lower amounts of certain vitamins, they are rich in antioxidants and fiber. Researchers say that the amount of nutrients lost from freeze-drying is minuscule.

Freeze-dried foods are also calorie-rich because they become concentrated. For example, if you consume 1 cup of fresh soursop, a tropical fruit used in natural medicine, the equivalent freeze-dried soursop has an eight to one ratio. So one-eighth of a cup of freeze-dried soursop matches one cup of fresh soursop. This is important because in the case of soursop people consume it for the phytochemicals it contains for anti-cancer natural medicine regimes.

The bottom line is that freezed dried food of any kind provides a long shelf life, calorie-dense and nutrient-rich way to preserve food that is ideal for emergency food reserves at a reasonable cost.