CuiZen Dehydrator CFD-20 - Manual (Page 6)

6
Congratulations on Choosing
the Computer Controlled Food Dehydrator.
This quality appliance is designed to give you many years of use.
For best results and trouble-free service we urge you to read this entire manual.
Dehydration - Preserving Food
Thousands of years ago, one of the few ways people had to preserve foods was by laying
them out to dry in the sun. Before such modern appliances as refrigerators and before
chemical preservatives, dehydration was an easy way to safely store foods for use at a later
time, when food was scarce or not in season. Your new food dehydrator applies modern
science to this ancient art to bring you a controlled, predictable and safe way to preserve
foods at home.
Dehydrating food opens a new dimension in preserving fruits, vegetables and meats to you.
Your new food dehydrator will be able to perfectly capture the fresh-picked in-season flavour
and nutrition of almost any food for out-of-season eating enjoyment. These dried foods can
be more easily stored because they are less likely to spoil and they take up less room as
well. They also weigh less making them perfect for camping or backpacking meals. Dried fruit
snacks are delicious and nutritious. Ingredients for your favourite soup recipes can be dried
and stored which also make great last-minute meals, ready to cook.
Your Dehydrator Unit keeps food in the drying chamber at a computer-controlled constant
temperature. Food is bathed in a constant stream of warm dry air which gently removes the
moisture from the food. The result is beautifully dried food every time.
You will find that drying food is practical and economical as well as easy. And it all starts with
your state-of-the-art food dehydrator.
What is Dehydration?
Dehydration refers to a process in which moisture is removed from food allowing the dried
food to be stored safety for later use. Its main benefit over other such ancient methods (such
as salting or smoking) is that it adds no flavours and removes few nutrients from the food
being dehydrated.
When done properly, few nutrients are lost during dehydration. According to the Food and
Drug Administration (FDA), dehydrating retains 95-97% of the nutrients in the original food.
In contrast, canning only preserves 20-30% and freezing only retains 40-60% of the food’s
nutrition.
Dehydrated food tastes good too! Since natural flavours concentrate as you remove
moisture, the dried product is naturally delicious.
As you will soon learn, reconstitution is an integral part of dehydration. Reconstitution
refers to the adding of water to the dried food. When allowed to soak in water, dried food
absorbs the water and swells back to its original size, shape and texture while retaining nearly
100% of its original flavour and nutrition.