The Benefits of Freeze Dried Foods for your family.
As a busy parent, ensuring your child gets all the necessary nutrients can prove a challenging task. This is where freeze dried ingredients and superfoods come in—a quick, easy, and practical solution to add much-needed nutritional content to your child's meals and snacks. Read on to discover how these superfoods and freeze-dried foods could be just what your family's health needs.
Understanding Freeze Drying
Freeze drying also, known as lyophilisation, is an innovative process that involves preserving food by removing its moisture content while preserving its structure and maintaining its nutritional value. The procedure kicks off by freezing the food, and then placing it in a vacuumed environment to extract its frozen water content. As a result, freeze-dried foods can last for an extended period, retain their original flavours, and be rehydrated easily. This method is instrumental in reducing food waste and is an excellent form of providing nutrient-rich food to your child.
How Freeze Dried Foods Retain Nutrients
You might be wondering, how do freeze dried foods retain their nutrients? To answer that, it's important to first understand the process they undergo. Unlike traditional drying methods, freeze drying involves a process called sublimation which eliminates the water content from the ingredients, preserving the nutrients intact.
Freeze dried foods retain up to 97% of their original nutritional content.
The process of freeze drying can be simplified in three main steps. First, the food is rapidly frozen at low temperatures, typically around -40°C. Next, the frozen food is placed under vacuum, which allows the ice to directly convert into vapour without going through a liquid state, hence minimising the damage to the nutrient structure. Finally, the food is gradually heated, evaporating the frozen water present in the food and leaving behind the nutrients.
- Freezing: The food is quickly frozen to extremely low temperatures. This locks in all the essential nutrients and natural flavours and importantly, maintains the food's cellular structure and integrity.
- Vacuum: Next, the frozen food is placed under a vacuum. This enables the water, now frozen solid, to change directly from a solid state to a gaseous state, a process called sublimation.
- Heat: Finally, the heat is gently increased, letting the ice evaporate from the food, creating a dried product. The result is a light, crispy texture and preserved yummy flavours.
Because this process happens relatively quickly and without exposure to high temperatures or liquid, freeze dried foods retain most of their nutritional value. In fact, studies show that freeze dried fruits and vegetables retain nearly 100% of their vitamin C content! Now that's a powerhouse of valuable nutrition with every bite.
"The magic of freeze drying lies in its ability to retain nutrients. It's not just about making food last longer, it's about preserving the vitamins and minerals that are essential for your child's growth and overall health."
Think about the convenience of having all-time favourite fruits like strawberries or bananas at your fingertips, all year round. No fuss about them getting spoilt, always ripe and packed full of vitamins. That’s the magic of freeze dried foods!
How does Petite Eats use freeze dried ingredients?
At Petite Eats, we take great pride in our use of freeze-dried ingredients to create nutritious, tasty meals and snacks for children. We understand the importance of retaining as much nutritional value as possible from our ingredients, and freeze drying methods allow us to do just that.
You might wonder, 'How exactly does Petite Eats use these freeze-dried superfoods and ingredients?' Allow us to walk you through our procedure.
Selection
Firstly, we carefully select high-quality, natural ingredients. We aim for those with a high nutrient density and superior flavour profile. Our selections include a wide range of fruits, vegetables, grains, and superfoods such as chia seeds and quinoa.
Preparation
After selection, we prepare these ingredients using methods that minimise nutrient loss. Once prepared, these ingredients are ready for the freeze-drying process.
Freeze Drying
The third step is where the magic happens. This is when the freeze drying process comes in. The prepared foods are frozen and then placed in a vacuum chamber. Here, low pressure allows the frozen water in the food to sublimate directly from solid to gas, avoiding the liquid stage. The end result is a lightweight, long-lasting ingredient that keeps almost all its nutritional goodness intact.
Reconstitution
Later, when you're ready to use our Petite Eats meal or snack, the freeze-dried ingredients only need a little water to rehydrate and become just as fresh and tasty as the day they were picked. This convenience factor is one of the reasons why so many busy parents turn to Petite Eats for nutritious meals and snacks for their children.
Formulation of Final Product
Finally, we blend these freeze-dried ingredients into our recipes to create a range of healthy meals and snacks - from smoothie blends to cereals to our brand new Instant Puree Powders. We aim to provide a variety of options to ensure that children get the necessary nutrients they need in a format they'll enjoy.
In essence, Petite Eats uses freeze-dried ingredients to maximise nutritional content while offering convenience for busy parents. Our range of meals and snacks provides a quick and easy solution to feeding your children with the necessary vitamins and minerals they need for a healthy diet.
