For our chemistry project, we researched the dehydration of food. Dehydration is the loss or removal of two atoms of hydrogen for each atom of oxygen in a water compound. In other words, it is the process by which water is removed from a substance. This process is common practice in the food industry because it is a way of drying food. Food dehydration is the world's oldest method of food preservation. Before the invention of refrigerators and freezers, there were limited options on how to preserve food. Therefore, food dehydration grew to become one of the most widely used preservation techniques in the world.

We focused on the space program's use of dehydrated foods to show what the benefits of dehydration are. Dehydration of food is popular and effective for many reasons. Because substances decrease in size when water is removed from them, more of that substance can be shipped or stored in a confined area. This is greatly helpful to food industries as well as the space program, where in both, shipping is an expensive, but necessary, facet of business. Dehydration of food also prevents spoilage. Because the there is no water in dehydrated food, the growth of bacteria is diminished. Microorganisms, enzymes, and other biological and chemical reactions cannot function in the absence of water.

There are many different processes by which water can be removed from a substance. One is direct drying and the other is indirect drying. For our lab, we used indirect drying. We sliced, peeled, and dipped apples to prepare them for the process of dehydration. These are the steps one must undergo before actually drying food. Our apple did become dehydrated to a certain extent, but not as much as it would have if we had a proper dehydrating machine. There is still some moisture left in the apple slice, thus allowing bacteria and enzyme growth. With direct drying, when special tools are used, most of the water is taken from the substance. This is why dehydrated food is so helpful to astronauts in space.

 

 

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