/ UTAH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 69 
INVESTIGATIONS IN DEHYDRATION. 
BY T. H. ABELL.* 
United States Government reports show that 15 per 
cent of all the food stuffs produced in this country spoils 
before it reaches the markets, and 25 per cent of all that 
reaches the markets, spoils before it reaches the con- 
sumer. With multitudes of poorly fed people in many 
regions of the world, there is certainly a pressing need 
to save this wasted food. Food experts tell us that the 
solution of this problem is to be found in dehydration. 
The canning industry preserves large quantities of per- 
ishable products for use in large centers of population; 
the dehydration industry will furnish easily transportable 
forms of food for the frontiers of the world. Newly 
perfected or soon to be perfected methods of dehydration 
will furnish a product, light of weight, small in bulk, non- 
perishable, which, when properly treated, can be made 
to resume the bulk, appearance and flavor that it had 
in the original fresh state. 
Dehydration has been practiced for at least six 
thousand years, it is as old as civilization. The earliest 
records from Egypt and Asia refer to dehydration. Dried 
foods were found in vessels in the ancient temples of 
China. The Egyptians perfected the art of drying to 
such an extent that they successfully preserved their chief 
citizens that we might excavate and exhibit them in our 
museums. 
The methods of dehydration used today in different 
foreign countries differ only slightly from the older meth- 
ods, and differ from each other mainly in the treatment 
previous to drying. In Egypt and China the vegetables 
are dipped for two minutes in boiling water. In Ger- 
many they are subjected to the action of steaming for two 
minutes and then dried in rotating drums in which the 
temperature goes as high as 500 degrees to 700 degrees 
F. In tropical regions where the products are dried in 
the sun, they are first treated with warm solutions of 
* Assistant Horticulturist, Utah Agricultural Experiment Station. 
