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Drying (food)
 
 
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Drying is a method of food preservation
Food preservation

Food preservation is the process of treating and handling food to stop or greatly slow down spoilage caused or accelerated by micro-organisms....
 that works by removing water
Water

Water is a common chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of life. In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or States of matter, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor or steam....
 from the food, which prevents the growth of microorganism
Microorganism

A microorganism or microbe is an organism that is microscopic . The study of microorganisms is called microbiology, a subject that began with Anton van Leeuwenhoek's discovery of microorganisms in 1675, using a microscope of his own design....
s and decay
Decay

Decay may refer to:*Decay , a comic book character*Decay , a french musicband*Bacterial decay, decomposition of organic matter*Radioactive decay...
. Drying food using the sun and wind to prevent spoilage has been known since ancient times. Water is usually removed by evaporation
Evaporation

Evaporation is the slow vaporization of a liquid and the reverse of condensation. A type of phase transition, it is the process by which molecules in a liquid State of matter spontaneously become gaseous ....
 (air drying, sun drying, smoking or wind drying) but, in the case of freeze-drying, food is first frozen
Frozen food

Frozen food is food preserved by the process of freezing. Freezing food is a common method of food preservation which slows both food Decomposition and, by turning water to ice, makes it unavailable for most bacteriuml growth and slows down most chemical reactions....
 and then water is removed by sublimation.

Bacteria and micro-organisms within the food and from the air need the water in the food to grow.






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Drying is a method of food preservation
Food preservation

Food preservation is the process of treating and handling food to stop or greatly slow down spoilage caused or accelerated by micro-organisms....
 that works by removing water
Water

Water is a common chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of life. In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or States of matter, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor or steam....
 from the food, which prevents the growth of microorganism
Microorganism

A microorganism or microbe is an organism that is microscopic . The study of microorganisms is called microbiology, a subject that began with Anton van Leeuwenhoek's discovery of microorganisms in 1675, using a microscope of his own design....
s and decay
Decay

Decay may refer to:*Decay , a comic book character*Decay , a french musicband*Bacterial decay, decomposition of organic matter*Radioactive decay...
. Drying food using the sun and wind to prevent spoilage has been known since ancient times. Water is usually removed by evaporation
Evaporation

Evaporation is the slow vaporization of a liquid and the reverse of condensation. A type of phase transition, it is the process by which molecules in a liquid State of matter spontaneously become gaseous ....
 (air drying, sun drying, smoking or wind drying) but, in the case of freeze-drying, food is first frozen
Frozen food

Frozen food is food preserved by the process of freezing. Freezing food is a common method of food preservation which slows both food Decomposition and, by turning water to ice, makes it unavailable for most bacteriuml growth and slows down most chemical reactions....
 and then water is removed by sublimation.

Bacteria and micro-organisms within the food and from the air need the water in the food to grow. Drying effectively prevents them from surviving in the food. It also creates a hard outer-layer, helping to stop micro-organisms from entering the food.

Food types

Many different foods are prepared by dehydration. Good examples are meat such as prosciutto
Prosciutto

Prosciutto is the Italian language word for ham . In English language the word is almost always used for an aged, dry-Curing , spiced Italian ham that is usually sliced thin and served uncooked....
 (a.k.a. Parma ham), bresaola
Bresaola

Bresaola is Drying salted beef that has been aged about 2-3 months until it becomes hard and a dark red, almost purple colour. It is made from Round steak and is lean and tender with a sweet, musty smell....
, and beef jerky. Dried and salted reindeer
Reindeer

The reindeer , also known as the caribou when wild in North America, is an Arctic and Subarctic-dwelling deer, widespread and numerous across the northern Holarctic....
 meat is a traditional Sami
Sami people

The S?mi people, are the indigenous people Indigenous peoples of Europe inhabiting S?pmi , which today encompasses parts of northern Sweden, Norway, Finland and the Kola Peninsula of Russia....
 food
Food

Food is any substance, usually composed of carbohydrates, fats, proteins and water, that can be Eating or Drinking by an animal or human for nutrition or pleasure....
. First the meat is soaked / pickled in saltwater for a couple of days to guarantee the conservation of the meat. Then the meat is dried in the sun in spring when the air temperature is below zero. The dried meat can be further processed to make soup
Soup

Soup is a food that is made by combining ingredients such as meat and vegetables in Stock or hot/boiling water, until the flavor is extracted, forming a broth....
.

Fruit
Fruit

The term fruit has different meanings dependent on context, and the term is not synonymous in food preparation and biology. In botany, which is the scientific study of plants, fruits are the ripened Ovary of flowering plants....
s change character completely when dried: the plum becomes a prune, the grape a raisin
Raisin

Raisins are Dried fruit grapes. They are created in many regions of the world, such as the United States, Australia, Chile, Argentina, Republic of Macedonia, Mexico, Greece, Turkey, India, Iran, Pakistan, China, Afghanistan, Togo, and Jamaica, as well as South Africa and Southern Europe and Eastern Europe....
; fig
FIG

FIG may refer to:* F?d?ration Internationale de Gymnastique* International Federation of Surveyors...
s and date
Date Palm

Phoenix dactylifera, commonly known as the Date Palm, is a Arecaceae in the genus Phoenix , extensively cultivated for its edible sweet fruit....
s are also transformed. Drying is rarely used for vegetables as it removes the vitamins within them, however bulbs
Bulb

A bulb is an underground vertical shoot that has modified leaf that are used as food storage organs by a dormancy plant.A bulb's leaf bases generally do not support leaves, but contain food reserves to enable the plant to survive adverse conditions....
, such as garlic
Garlic

Allium sativum L., commonly known as garlic, is a species in the onion family Alliaceae. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, and chive....
 and onion
Onion

Onion is a term used for many plants in the genus Allium. They are known by the common name "onion" but, used without qualifiers, it usually refers to Allium cepa....
, are often dried. Also chilis
Chili pepper

Chili pepper is the fruit of the plants from the genus Capsicum, members of the Solanaceae, Solanaceae. Botany considers the plant a berry bush....
 are frequently dried. Edible and psilocybin mushroom
Mushroom

A mushroom is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or on its food source. The standard for the name "mushroom" is the cultivated white button mushroom, Agaricus bisporus, hence the word mushroom is most often applied to those fungi that have a stem , a cap , and gills on the unde...
s, as well as other fungi, are also sometimes dried for preservation purposes, to affect the potency of chemical components, or so they can be used as seasonings.

For centuries, much of the European diet depended on dried cod
Cod

Cod is the common name for the genus of fish Gadus, belonging to the family Gadidae, and is also used in the common name of a variety of other fishes....
, known as salt cod or bacalhau
Bacalhau

Bacalhau means codfish in Portuguese language, but the word almost always refers to dried and salted cod and the dishes made from it, as fresh cod is rarely consumed in Portugal....
 (with salt) or stockfish
Stockfish

Stockfish is unsalted fish, especially cod, dried by sun and wind on wooden racks on the foreshore called flakes, or in special drying houses....
 (without). It formed the main protein source for the slaves
Slavery

Slavery is a form of forced labor where a person is compelled to Labor for another . Slaves are held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase, or birth, and are deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to receive Remuneration in return for their labor....
 on the West Indian plantations and was a major economic force within the triangular trade. Dried shark known as Hákarl
Hákarl

H?karl or k?stur h?karl is a food from Iceland. It is a Greenland shark or basking shark which has been cured with a particular fermentation process and hung to dry for 4-5 months....
 is a delicacy in Iceland
Iceland

Iceland, officially the Republic of Iceland , is an island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean between mainland Europe and Greenland....
.

Methods


There are many different methods for drying, each with their own advantages for particular applications; these include:

  • Bed dryers
  • Fluidized bed dryers
  • Freeze Drying
    Freeze drying

    Freeze-drying is a dehydration process typically used to Food preservation a perishable material or make the material more convenient for transport....
  • Shelf dryers
  • Spray drying
    Spray drying

    Spray drying is a commonly used method of drying a liquid feed through a hot gas. Typically, this hot gas is air, but sensitive materials such as Medication, and solvents like ethanol require oxygen-free drying and nitrogen gas is used instead....
  • Sunlight
    Sunlight

    Sunlight, in the broad sense, is the total spectroscopy of the electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun. On Earth, sunlight is Filter ed through the Earth's atmosphere, and the solar radiation is obvious as daylight when the Sun is above the horizon....
  • Commercial food dehydrator
    Food dehydrator

    A food dehydrator is an appliance that uses warm air to Drying of foods. This is usually done to preserve foods that do not normally store well....
    s
  • Household oven


See also


  • Dried fruit
    Dried fruit

    Dried fruitis fruit that has been drying , either naturally or through use of a machine, such as a food dehydrator. Raisins, prunes, and Date palm are examples of popular dried fruits....
  • Meat extract
    Meat extract

    Meat extract is highly concentrated meat stock , usually made from beef. It is used to add meat flavor in cooking, and to make broth for drinking....
  • Bouillon cube
    Bouillon cube

    A bouillon cube or stock cube is dehydrated broth or Stock formed into a small cube about 15 mm wide. It is made by dehydrating vegetables, meat stock , a small portion of solid fat , salt and seasonings and shaping them into a small cube....
  • Instant soup
    Instant soup

    Instant soups are a kind of soup. They are produced on an industry. Later they are treated in different ways to food preservation them. Usually they are dried, canned, or treated by freezing....
  • Instant noodles
    Instant noodles

    Instant noodles are dried or precooked noodles fused with oil, and often sold with a packet of flavoring. Dried noodles are usually eaten after being cooked or soaked in boiling water for 3 to 5 minutes, while precooked noodles can be reheated, or eaten straight from the packet....


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