Get your nutrition with certified organic dehydrated foods.
Certified Organic Dehydrated Foods - The Facts
What is Dehydrating
Dehydrating removes the moisture from foods. Dehydrated food has a longer shelf life than most other methods of food preservation. Many of the foods we eat have been preserved, either by canning, freezing or drying. When foods are preserved, regardless of the method, they lose nutrients over their fresh counterparts. In a few unusual circumstances, drying can improve some compounds in food. For instance, drying increases the antioxidant properties of blueberries, and although this is the exception rather than the rule, dried foods are still a good dietary choice. Drying kills most bacteria, so drying food to preserve it is a safe and practical option. To use it, just add water.
You Already Eat Dehydrated Food
Dehydrated food is healthy food, especially when it is grown organically. In fact, you already buy lots of dried food and probably don't even realize it. Those pasta noodles you prepared in boiling water last night are dried, as are the garlic and onion powder seasonings in your cupboard. Rice, powdered milk, packaged soup mixes, cereal, packaged gravies and sauces, flour, beans and peas are also dried. Bread mixes and packaged dinner mixes that only require adding water and meat contain many dried ingredients too.
The Advantages of Dehydrated Food
Dehydrating increases a food's shelf life and does a few other things too. Eliminating the water from foods makes them lighter and more compact. Lighter foods are less expensive to transport and store. Think of the difference between a fresh potato and a half-cup of potato flakes, and you've got the idea.
Dried foods are often a bargain economically too, and they can be a more eco-friendly choice. Lighter weight, more compact food is less expensive to package, transport and stock on grocery shelves. That's one of the reasons prepackaged soups are typically sold dried or condensed instead of fresh. Consumers experience a savings at the checkout counter, and with less material going into landfills and reduced energy expenditures the environment benefits too.
Dehydrated food creates less waste in the kitchen too. Fresh foods spoil; frozen foods begin to spoil once they've been removed from the freezer, and canned foods begin to spoil once the can's contents have been exposed to the air. With dried foods, there's virtually no spoilage. You use what you need and container the rest for later. Moisture, as in humidity, is the one great enemy of dried food because it creates an environment where bacteria can start to grow. If you are careful to keep humidity away from dehydrated food, most products can last indefinitely.
Organic Dried Foods
Because the drying process concentrates foods, it's important to make sure that all the ingredients are healthy, natural and nutritious. When foods are dried, the chemical fertilizers and pesticides in the ingredients don't go away. They are dried too in the process and remain to be ingested later.
Certified organic dehydrated foods are made to a higher standard than conventionally dried ingredients. Certified organic farms are monitored by the federal government to make sure that they use responsible practices, like prudent crop rotation, natural soil replenishment and good water management. Crops on organic farms are grown without the use of synthetic fertilizers, insecticides or pesticides, and livestock are raised on organic feed.
When you look for the certified organic label on your dried food products, you know that the ingredients are safe to eat and don't harbor dangerous chemicals or additives.
Certified organic dehydrated foods are made from the best ingredients, are safe, nutritious and convenient to use. Look for the certified organic label on dehydrated foods the next time you shop.
