Patent ID: 7208188

Claim:
A method of producing a dried food material comprising the steps of: blanching a food material to obtain a blanched food material; mixing a vehicle with the blanched food material to obtain a vehicle-mixed food material; drying the vehicle-mixed food material with heated air while softening the vehicle-mixed food material; discontinuing the drying step when the weight of said vehicle-mixed food material decreases to 20% to 70% and an amount of water in a free state remains within said vehicle-mixed food material to obtain a rehydratable dried food material; press-molding the rehydratable dried food material to obtain a press-molded food material; and freeze-drying the press-molded food material to obtain a freeze-dried food material; wherein the press-molding treatment performs the pressing with a force of 0.05 kg/cm 2 to 0.50 kg/cm 2 .