Fruit Dehydrator

A small appliances which is used for drying fresh fruits is called a fruit dehydrator. This kitchen appliance is available in various sizes. You can use one for drying not only fruits but also vegetables and meats. A fruit dehydrator has a food drying area. Inside the machine, some amount of air is heated up gently and blown through the food drying area. A dehydrator can take several hours to several days for drying a juicy fruit adequately enough for preservation. In case you are planning to buy a fruit dehydrator for making dried fruits, the present article is a thing for you.

Fruit Dehydrator: Instructions
Before putting the fruits inside a dehydrator, you need to prepare them well. Needless to say, wash all the fruits thoroughly with water. Core fruits, if necessary. You have to core some fruits like apples to remove seeds and other hard structures inside it. There are some fruits which you need not to core. Simply cut or slice them with uniformity. Uniformity will ensure that all the fruit slices dry at the same time in a fruit dehydrator. The next step to preparation of fruits is peeling them. Many people skip this step. Don't consider skipping this step as peeled fruits take shorter time to dry than the fruits which have not been peeled.

Add a small amount of lemon juice to the fruit slices. Lemon juice will prevent the fruits from getting dark when kept for a long period of time. You may use vinegar to meet the purpose but the result will be better with lemon juice. With this step, you are done with the preparation of the fruits and are ready to put them inside a fruit dehydrator.

There are drying trays in a fruit dehydrator. Place the prepared and pre-treated fruit slices in a single layer on individual drying trays. Do not place even a single fruit slice over another. If you do, you may end up with spots of fruit slices not dried completely in the overlapping spot. A dehydrator usually comes with a booklet which contains information on the drying time for different fruits. When the slices of fruit have reached the desired dryness, they are ready to be served or stored.

Fruit Dehydrator: Pros and Cons
You must be aware of the importance of fruits for your health. By providing you vitamins, minerals and fibers, they prevent early aging, reduce the risk of cancer and even promote weight loss. Fresh or dried, fruits boosts your health anyhow. Perhaps, this is the reason why fruit dehydrators are gaining popularity so fast. But the question is whether dried fruits are as good as fresh fruits. Is there really a need to use a dehydrator?

When you dry a fruit, the process of dehydration removes water soluble vitamins such as vitamin C and B, and minerals like potassium along with water. Since a dried fruit does not provide you with these vitamins and minerals, it does not benefit you the way a fresh fruit does. Secondly, with the removal of water from the fruit, the sugar in it gets more concentrated. This means that you consume more calories from a dried fruit than the same amount and type of its fresh form. Thus, you can say that the dried fruit nutritional value is lesser than their fresh forms. However, a dried fruit gives you the same amount of fiber and roughage as its fresh counterpart does. They can be stored for as long as a year. It means that you can be have your choice of fruit any time of any season. You can actually replace unhealthy snacks with dried fruits, and prevent yourself from unnecessary health issues.

Thus, there are both advantages and disadvantages of having dried fruits. Eating dried fruits would not cause harm to your health but it will also not benefit it as much as its fresh forms can. If you wish to have dried fruits, make it a point that you do not replace your required intake of fresh fruits. Be careful with the usage of dried fruits and also, a fruit dehydrator, and enjoy eating to the fullest.