Drying for food preservation

During the past two years, scientists from the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, the Technische Universität Dresden/Germany and the Zittauer Fruchtveredlungs GmbH (ZIFRU) have been testing how dried food can be processed gently as to preserve as many vitamins and secondary plant compounds as possible.

The Jena university carried out a complementary study, examining the impact on the human body of frozen strawberries and strawberries dried using the vacuum microwave puffing technology. In both cases the anti-oxidative capacity in the blood increased and the immune system was strengthened, which can be explained by the number of vitamins contained in the strawberries.

After examining various processing conditions, the researchers noticed that the food not only kept its valuable substances after drying but it also showed other attractive characteristics such as a crispy texture, stable colour and puffed structure. Moreover, the scientists found that the method which was tested for strawberries can be transferred to other kinds of berries, apples and vegetables.