When you dehydrate food, you can make it last a long time. It is evident that as a survivalist that you want to ensure that your food stocks will last a long time. It is even better if you were to dehydrate food and then to seal it into airtight vacuum-sealed plastic material.
How long does dehydrated food last if vacuum sealed? Dehydrated food could last 2 years or more. Nevertheless, it depends on the moisture content present before the vacuum sealing has occurred. It is hard to get rid of one hundred percent of the moisture in foods. When moisture is present, there is a chance of mold or bacteria growth.
If you dehydrate food, why not just freeze it afterward to increase the amount of time that it can be stored? This is fine as long as you realize that depends on the type of food that you are dehydrating and freezing and that you need to vacuum seal right away. I’ll explain the technique for vacuum sealing and dehydrating fruit which is the simple case.
- If you are buying fruit that has been pre-packaged from a supermarket, you must take it out of its original packaging first in order to dehydrate it. I recommend the Snackmaster Dehydrator (click here to view), offered at Amazon since it dehydrated fruit easily.
- There are different methods to dehydrate fruit, the most common is heating it to evaporate all the moisture that is inside the fruit.
- You can also sun dry the fruit since warm air will push away the moisture plus the sun will heat the fruit to dehydrate it.
- You can also purchase a dehydrator which is designed to carry away moisture by using trays.
- It will be a trial and error process to find out which technique works best for certain types of fruit.
Here is a video showing how to vacuum seal dehydrated blackberries:
Vacuum sealing the dried-out fruit will greatly increase its shelf life if it is frozen afterward. This is a situation where you can actually store it for up to view 2 years before using it. Make sure that you don’t attempt to thaw out and refreeze your fruit because that will alter the quality of the fruit. It’s not going to necessarily cause a problem with bacteria growth, but the constant freezing and unfreezing of fruit will cause it to lose its consistency and its taste would be greatly altered.
Dehydrating Your Vegetables – How Long will they Last?
You can easily store vegetables for over 2 years because of their low sugar content. Again they have to be dehydrated and vacuum-sealed and then frozen in order to maximize storage time.
What should you watch out for an order to ensure that you are dehydrating your vegetables correctly?
- You don’t really need to worry too much about how long this is going to take. This technique does not take a lot of time. And what is good about it is that dehydrated fruits are easier to prepare and faster than food that has not been dehydrated.
- The nutritional value is maintained when dehydrating and freezing your vegetables. Also, try to make sure that you trim well the vegetables so that you don’t end up vacuum sealing and dehydrating parts of the plants that are not edible. This will decrease the incidence of bacterial growth or just wasted space to begin within your freezer.
- What I like is the fact that you can buy vegetables when they are at their lowest price, dehydrate and freeze them so that you have them during the times when these specific vegetables are expensive.
If you’re concerned about whether or not you can actually vacuum seal well-dehydrated foods because of their stiffness, I will explain how why is it possible
Can you Actually Vacuum Seal Dehydrated Foods?
The National Center for Food Preparation states that it actually is a good practice to vacuum seal your dehydrated foods to seal them well enough to prevent contamination.
If you were to simply place your dehydrated Foods in Ziploc bags and then freeze them, there’s a chance that you have trapped air inside of the packaging that contains moisture. This is going to lower the quality of any of the frozen foods and it could spoilage if the freezer temperature is not low enough
Make sure that you package your dehydrated foods in packaging that is small enough just for one meal. if you were to open a vacuum-sealed package, of course, is going to lose its integrity, and moisture is introduced into the vegetables, fruit, or other food products. Any introduction of air is going to increase the moisture level even if the food item is bone dry when packaged.
If you notice any sign of molding on the surface of your dehydrated foods, make sure that you throw them out right away because there’s a chance that all of the food contained in the package has been contaminated by mold spores.
Does Dehydrated Food Go Bad?
Yes, dehydrated fruit can go bad if stored for longer than the above timeline of 2 years. There are people that claim that certain foods dehydrated can last for over a decade, but it’s always best to be cautious when it comes to food because of possible botulism.
You can reduce the chance of your food going bad after you had removed its moisture content, by doing the following:
- Make sure that you rinse your food well before dehydrating. This is especially necessary for chicken since it can contain a lot of bacteria on its surface. Also, dry off the food using a paper towel because it’s going to take even longer to dehydrate if the item is already quite moist.
- Make sure that you wear latex gloves while handling any of the food that you’re going to dehydrate to prevent contamination.
- When you dehydrate fruit, try to use the highest temperature possible for the food item because this will kill off enzymes in the food. Enzymes in food will break down to its nutritional value.
- Ensure that you have removed a lot of the moisture by testing the items. A great way to test items is to try to bend it and if it doesn’t break into pieces when you do so, it still contains a higher level of moisture.
- Store your dehydrated items in vacuum-sealed packaging in order to prevent contamination due to contaminants that might be contained within the air.
Vacuum sealing your dehydrated food items is important for long-term storage. Storage of meat is another item that can go bad because of bacterial growth.
How Long Does Dehydrated Meat Last If Vacuum-Sealed?
I just wanted to make sure that you realize that even if you dehydrate your meat, it’s not going to kill 100% of the bacteria that might be contained. Make sure that you cook your meat at the right temperature before eating it.
The safest method for storing meat for the long-term is to dehydrate meat to turn it into jerky. You can make jerky from poultry or other raw meat products. I recommend the jerky maker made by Presto, click here to view this dehydrator on Amazon.
Dehydration of meats is actually a great way to store meat if you are a survivalist because it reduces the weight by 50%. This technique was used by North American Indians since they needed to store buffalo, bear, or even whale meat that was in quantities that were too large to consume all at once.
Regarding the length of time that the dehydrated and vacuum-sealed meat is going to last, depends on how it’s packaged of course. If the vacuum sealing is not 100%, air will be in contact with meat that will react with the enzymes that might be present in the meat. When enzymes are active, they can cause growth in bacteria and fungal components.
It is stated by the USDA that jerky can last up to 1 to 2 months. If jerky has been commercially produced, it can last up to one year. I feel that this period can be extended if the items are vacuum sealed and frozen. Nevertheless, stick with the limit set by the USDA.
Here are some ways to ensure fewer bacteria and fungal growth in your dehydrated and vacuum-sealed meats:
- Make sure that each package contains meat from one single piece of beef. in other words, do not mix together beef products from different pieces.
- Make sure that you rapidly chill fresh beef if you are a deer hunter. Some deer hunters allow the carcass to sit for long periods of time unchilled which will increase the multiplication of bacteria in the meat.
- Once you have broken the seal on the vacuum-sealed meat, make sure that you defrost it in the fridge instead of on the counter.
- If you are marinating the meat before dehydrating it or turning it into jerky, make sure that you do not reuse the marinade with another piece of meat that could cause cross-contamination.
- Also when marinating make sure that you marinate meat within the fridge instead of at room temperature to reduce the chance of bacterial growth.
