How Is Freeze Dried Food Made?
Freeze dried food is cooked or fresh foods that have been frozen then had the water removed. This creates a light weight, tasty, preserved food that can be quickly prepared.
The Process
The freeze-dried food process varies from one food to another, but following is a general process:
Test and Preparation
The food is first checked for purity. Fruits and meats are tested for bacterial counts. The type of preparation will be dependent on what products are currently being dried;
Some foods must be cooked before they are freeze dried. These types of foods are cut into small pieces and then put in large industrial kettles to cook, and then they are freeze dried;
Fruits and vegetables are purchased in a ready to use state, with the exception of peas and corn, which are quickly scalded, a process called blanching.
Freezing the Freeze Dried Food
The food is spread out on large metal trays that can be stacked up to 30 trays high on a cart;
The cart is wheeled to a room where the temperatures are extremely cold; causing flash freezing of the food.
Drying Chambers For the Freeze-Dried Food
After freezing, the carts are moved to the vacuum drying chambers. It is a long horizontal cylinder that is relatively long and holds the trays snugly in place, with semi elliptical ends that are hinged;
Once the food has been placed in the tube, it is closed and sealed. Most companies have at least 20 active drying chambers at any given time. The drying includes sublimation, which is when a solid food is forced to change to a gaseous material without becoming liquid;
Freeze Dried Food Ready For Market
After the drying process is complete, the freeze dried food is ready to be distributed to wholesalers who will bring them to market.
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![Sher Matsen]()
Sher is a contributing writer for DoItYourself.com. She's an experienced researcher with a wide range of interests relating to home improvement and gardening, and especially enjoys learning about kitchen cabinets and long-term food storage.![Stephini Candella]()
Stephini Candella is a Nutritionist, and attended the University of Texas for a B.S. in Nutrition and Didactics. She was a manager for a small gourmet restaurant, and has spent over 15 years cooking as a hobby for health. She has extensive knowledge of food science, micro-nutrition, history of the classic foods from across cultures, modern commercial and home cooking processes, disease restricted diet meal planning (cardiovascular, GAPS, diabetes), and popular diet trend (Paleo, Keto, Vegan) diets. Stephini most enjoys meal planning that focuses on simplicity and cost-effectiveness, and she strongly believes these are the foundations for delicious and healthy meals—the basis for a happy life. She is addicted to reading food labels, and uncovering the nutritional benefits of traditional cooking techniques of the classical foods across cultures. If you let her, she will talk your ear off over her fascination for how traditional fermentation cultivates the metabolic byproduct of certain bacteria into nutritional gold for human health. Stephini is also a CRLA (Certified Reading and Writing English Tutor) and has professionally tutored college students as well as K-12 students for an accumulated 15 years expanding to private school curriculum development and teaching in STEM and STEAM. She has been a professional researcher for multiple private and non-profit companies and organizations including the University of Texas Food and Housing Division. There, she researched and wrote recommendations for the University’s campus wide composting and food waste reduction initiatives, design and management of campus wide food waste studies, and the procurement of technologies best suited for large scale composting and food waste reduction. As a former Red Cross shelter manager, she has worked with her National Guard, and the US Army and Marines in search and rescue, procuring, and deploying multiple shelters serving thousands of evacuees. She has overseen the management of over 25 shelters in the state emergency operation center, and was held responsible for procurement of meals, medical supplies, and basic necessities. She also assisted in local county natural disaster rescues, providing insurance evaluations and recommendations for approving families affected by natural disasters to receive financial aid, housing, and food assistance. In addition, she volunteered for her local food pantry and domestic violence shelter where she prepared food. These discovered passions for emergency aid volunteer work led her to pursue national and state EMS licensures. She has traveled from Houston to New York to Seattle on a Leadership Scholarship, listening to world renowned scholars on the values of great leadership. Her favorite being the opportunity to sit and connect with the grandsons of Gandhi, listening to their first hand childhood experiences growing up alongside their grandfather organizing and executing his activism. Presently, Stephini conducts research and assistance on customer relationship management campaigns for 30 year veteran executives and business owners as an operations manager for a small, boutique executive assistance CRM firm. She has retired into a quiet, family-centric life, and can be found living between her home and college towns where she is raising her children. There, she is imparting her love for DIY learning and food on to them in the hopes that self-directed creativity and production will bring to them the same sense of holistic wellness that she’s experienced for herself.
