The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1944-09-28
NUT RITION AND
LABOR
DEHYDRATION ON
THE MARCH

Drying is the oldest type of food
preservation and has the most colorful
history Sun drying was used by
primative man. Into the tombs Of
Egyptian mummies dried foods were
often placed along with other treas
ures. The American Indians were well
onto the art of drying when the white
man arrived. They dried corn, meat,
and fruit, and taught white settlers
some of what they knew.
Wars have given great impetus to
the drying of food sbecause lightweight
less-bulky food may be carried more
easily, and because no refrigeration is
necessary In the Civil War the Union
troops were furnished "desiccated
vegetables" which were vegetables
dried and pressed. In the Boer War,
Great Britain fed large quantities Of
dried neutrality-suspicious. The de
velOpment Of our 50 called dehydrated
food was introduced in 1900 by Ger
many and other Central European
countries, and was further perfected
during the first World War. Approx
mately 8 million pounds of dehydrated
food was sent to the L. s. Army over
seas in 1918 In the last year, 296
million pounds of dehydrated food has
been used by the L. :. military war
services. This amount does not include
the 1-1/3 billion pounds of dried food
consumed by the military last year
Another reason for the increased
consumption of dehydrated foods is the
improvement being made in their quail
ity. The Union soldiers had hopeless
looking dull parcel of food which the
chef finally turned into soup In 1918
the American Expeditionary Forces in
France had pet song of disapproval
which began with, ''They feed us
carrots every day that taste just like
alfalfa hay" Today dehydrated food
has 500 much color and flavor that
Colonel Logan of the Quartermasters
Corps says he can't detect a fresh
cranberry from a dehydrated one after
both are cooked.
Dehydration is really a primative
preservation method done with modern
machines. From to Is per cent more
moisture is extracted from dehydrated
foods than is extracted from dried
foods. In dehydration, weight is re-
duced even more than bulk. The weight
of dehydrated product may be as
little as 1/10 the weight of the fresh
product The Government estimates
that a cargo of fresh food contained in
6 ships would require only l ship if
this same food were dehydrated.
The reason that more water can be
removed from dehydrated foods than
from dried food is that drying is done
in the sun or i'm the oven of stove
under relatively imperfect conditions,
while dehydration may be accom-
plished by controlled hot air which is
kept at 1S0-200 degrees f. when the
foods are fresh, and which coolS TO
140 degrees f. as the foods dry. Also,
the high vacuum method For this pro-
cess, foods are first frozen so that they
will hold their shape when placed in
the vacuum. This vacuum draws water,
as vapor, out of the foods which
gradually become lightweight, we'll
shaped fragments. Foods prepared in
this manner retain a higher concen-
tration of vitamins, but sufficient
is not available for its unanimous ac-
ceptance because the dehydratiOn of
blood plasma and penicillin is given
priority by the high vacuum engineers.
Tomato juice and orange juice are
choice foods for this type of dehydra-
tion because the product has small
bulk, fresh natural flavor, high com