Have you ever wondered what the difference is between freeze-dried and dehydrated foods? There actually are some distinct differences and those differences matter. In fact, if you’ve tried storing food and had less-than-great results, you’ll find that turning to freeze-dried foods can turn things around for you.

What is freeze-dried? It’s is a modern, industrial technique of food preservation. It is a low-temperature dehydration process, which involves freezing the product while lowering the temperature to remove ice by sublimation. Here, sublimation is the transition of a substance directly from solid to the gas phase, without passing through the intermediate liquid phase.

During the process, a higher content of moisture is removed from the product, around 98-99% of moisture. Therefore, the shelf life of the product is longer, which can be up to 25 years.

One huge difference is in texture. The texture of freeze-dried food is light, and semi crunchy, almost like Styrofoam. Many freeze-dried fruits melt in your mouth, as do many other freeze- dried items, like ice cream. The texture ends up light and airy. This is due to the freezing and vacuum holding the food structure while temperature fluctuation within the vacuum chamber evaporates the water. The food’s structure is preserved, while water is removed, leaving air pockets.

With dehydrated food, the moisture is removed at a consistent heat, often with the addition of a fan to circulate the air. As an end result, vegetables that are dehydrated are often hard, crispy, and will bounce if dropped onto a table top or counter top. Fruits that are dehydrated often have a leathery, or chewy, texture. Some berries, like strawberries, or very thinly sliced apples can have a crisp texture closer to a chip, but otherwise fruit is often chewy and leathery.

For the chip like texture, dehydrating leafy greens like kale for kale chips, or cucumber and zucchini for snacking chips, can be a great idea. Whereas, freeze drying these same vegetables results in a crumbly, powdery texture. Freeze drying juicy fruits like watermelon or peaches is a great idea, and results in a delicious snack that tastes like fresh fruit.

The process of preserving food always reduces the nutritional value of heat sensitive vitamins, like vitamin C. Freeze drying retains more nutrients, compared to dehydrating, since food can be frozen at its prime, and then freeze dried as space or time is available. The low temperatures, and ease of freezing more than just one freeze drier load of food does help with preserving the food’s nutritional value.

Dehydrated food has a potentially slightly lower nutritional value, as the heat can degrade some of the vitamins or reduce their concentration. However, food picked at the peak of ripeness and either dehydrated or freeze dried quickly will still have higher nutritional value than food picked before it’s ripe for shipping, or food processed several weeks after it’s been harvested. Vitamin C begins to degrade naturally once food is harvested.

Finally, reconstituting freeze-dried food is quicker and easier, and its flavor and texture have tested as being superior to dehydrated food. But there is one area where dehydrated food reigns supreme: it costs less then freeze-dried.

In closing I’ll circle back to my opening remarks: If you’ve struggled to store food and want to try again, freeze-dried may be your answer. Although more expensive than dehydrated foods, you’ll be pleased with how easy it is to convert freeze-dried foods into tasty, pleasing meals. The freeze-dried route may turn things around for you.

And with the continuously rising costs of food as our new norm, storing your favorite foods might just make good sense. Just some “food for thought.”