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
