COMMERCIAL DEHYDRATION" 6 



aged. Food thus scientifically dehydrated can be brought back to 

 approximately its fresh condition by being soaked in water, which it 

 readily absorbs, and can be kept for long periods if protected by 

 proper packaging. The moisture content of the new dehydrated 

 vegetables ranges from 3 to 7 percent, in contrast to 10 to 25 percent in 

 sun-dried or home-dried products and at least 10 percent in foods 

 dehydrated during the first World War. The advancement in the 

 art of drying foods is the result of the combined investigations <>i 

 horticulturists, chemists, physicists, engineers, nutritionists, home 

 economists, plant breeders, and others. 



Drying is probably the oldest form of food preservation. Cereals, 

 nuts, and some fruits are dried by nature's own process. Sun-dried 

 food was used by primitive man and in early civilizations. The 



Pigube 2. — A head of cabbage in he dehydrated is prepared by removing the outer 

 leaves, trimming, coring, and shredding. Dehydration takes out must of the 

 water — and raw cabbage is 88 to 95 percent water. 



American Indians dried meat, corn, and fruits before white men came 

 to this continent. The New England colonists dried codfish, corn, 

 and berries, and later apples and other fruits. Drying codfish for 

 export was the first commercial food industry of North America. 



Many of the familiar dried fruits, such as prunes, raisins, apricots, 

 and peaches, are sun-dried to a large extent, though artificial drying 

 is gradually supplementing or displacing the older method. Most 

 vegetables cannot be sun-dried successfully, as they begin to deterio- 

 rate before evaporation is well started. 



In Former Wars 



Because they increase the need for preservation and transporta- 

 tion of foods, wars have often brought about innovations and im- 

 provements in food-processing methods. Early in the Napoleonic 

 wars, the French Government offered a prize for the discovery of a 

 new method of preserving food, and after years of work on the prob- 

 lem Nicolas Appert, a Paris confectioner, won the award with the 

 process which has developed into modern canning. 



The Civil War gave a great impetus to canning in this country. 

 Also, according to a publication of the period, the Union troops were 

 furnished with ''desiccated vegetables" because they were believed to 

 be ''serviceable in arresting tendencies to scorbutic disease | scurvy |. 



