DEHYDRATION OF FRUITS AND VEGETABLES. 17 



the information go officially before the public, so that the public will 

 •Ask for it and so the farmers will raise the raw material necessary, 

 and on that basis it will mean millions upon millions of tons increased 

 food production by way of vegetables. 



The Chairman. By this process there are no perishable products 

 lost? 



Mr. HoEST. No, sir. The highly perishable products are converted 

 into nonperishable products. 



Senator Eansdell. No expensive glass vessels are required to hold 

 them? 



Mr. HoRST. No glass, no cans; pasteboard is all that is needed. 



Senator Eansdell. And pasteboard is made of waste products 

 from the top of trees that would otherwise be thrown away? 



Mr. HoRST. I do not know 



Senator Eansdell (interposing). It can be made of that material. 



Mr. HoRST. I understand it is made of cheap wood pulp. 



Senator Gkonna. Do the vegetables preserved liy this process lose 

 their flavor? 



Mr. HoRST. Vegetables will not lose their flavor as compared with 

 cooked vegetables. If you take a raw vegetable, dry it, and then 

 soak it — that is, put the water back in it — it is not going to taste, 

 uncooked, the same as the fresh fruit or vegetable does before dried. 

 But if you take the two products and cook them, then you have the 

 dried product at least as good as the fresh product, unless, per 

 chance, you take your fresh product directly on the farm and eat 

 it on the farm. You get a crispiness and snappiness on the farm 

 that you do not get in the city. 



Senator Gronna. In this tremendous reduction of potatoes, for 

 instance, which contain a high percentage of alcohol, are any of those 

 ingredients lost? 



Mr. HoRST. There is absolutely nothing lost. 



Senator Smith of Georgia. AU, the alcohol, all the liquid, in the 

 potato is lost by evaporation. 



Mr. HoRST. You have got Dr. Alsberg here and I would be afraid 

 to say anything about chemical action in his presence, but it is my 

 impression that alcohol is not formed in the potato at the time you 

 are using the potato, and in the drying process the only thing that 

 is taken out is the water, and the United States Department of 

 Agriculture, Bulletin No. 841, I believe it is, states that in drying 

 vegetables water is all that is taken out, and that flavor, texture, and 

 food value are unimpaired. 



Senator Smith of Georgia. The water is withdrawn then before 

 the process of producing alcohol from the potato takes place? 



Mr. HoEST. Yes, sir. 



Senator Noebis. That is true of every vegetable, is it not? 



Mr. HoEST. Yes, sir. 



Senator Noeeis. You could get the alcohol out of them, but if you 

 dry the potatoes when fresh you would dry them before they hap- 

 pened to be any alcohol in them ? 



Mr. HoEST. Yes, sir. 



Senator Geonna. My question, of course, was really this : Has the 

 ingredient, as I call it, which makes the alcohol, become lost in drying 

 the potato? 



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