Dehydration Technologies

Vacuum drying is becoming increasingly important in the food industry to reduce energy costs and develop novel ingredients and products. The Food Processing Center has installed a Vacuum Belt Dryer that provides continuous, gentle and safe drying of food products at low temperatures.

Vacuum Belt Drying is a dehydration method that is especially suitable for products that undergo a glutinous and/or highly viscous phase such as fruits and vegetables, fruit and vegetable juice concentrates, animal and plant proteins, seasoning powders and yeast extracts.

At the Food Processing Center, a variety of dehydration options are available for running process comparison trials, new product and process development, and ingredient evaluations.

In addition to Vacuum Belt Drying we offer:

• Spray Drying, utilizing a custom dryer with a feed rate of approximately 25 pounds per hour, to make product for extensive testing and research
• Freeze drying to provide unique rehydration characteristics and gentle moisture removal
• Operation of an evaporator/condenser for removal of water from liquids under vacuum to minimize heat damage
• Convection drying utilizing impingement or traditional convection technology