Freeze Dried Food vs Dehydrated Food Wait, they're different?!

September 20,2024

Many people use the terms “freeze dried” and “dehydrated” interchangeably when referring to dried food. While both freeze dried and dehydrated result in a very similar end product (eg, dried shelf stable food), the process is very different and the results vary as well! Dried food is inclusive of both dehydrated food and freeze dried food; simply put, the term dried food implies that the water content of the food item has been reduced either by old fashioned methods such as air and sun drying or by modern appliances such as dehydrators or freezers and vacuums. It's important to note that while all dehydrated or freeze dried food is “dry food”, not all “dry food” is dehydrated or freeze dried. In order to be dehydrated, food has had between 90-95% of the moisture removed; for freeze dried, this percentage is