DEHYDRATED FOODS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 136, 6 December 1943, Page 3

DEHYDRATED FOODS

O.C. SYDNEY. November 19. Manufacture in Australia of dehydrated foods has increased enormously and is still expanding under the stimulus of Service demands. Equally, processes of manufacture have improved to withstand climatic conditions experienced in areas where troops are serving. To reduce wastage the Food Division of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Reserach is testing dehydrated foods in artificially-produced weather conditions similar to those obtaining in South-west Pacific areas. In tiny chambers, kept at temperatures ranging from 50 to 100 degrees, ticklish adjustments are made to lessen deterioration by heat of dehydrated meat, eggs, fruit, and vegetables in battle areas. Prevention of such deterioration is now regarded as of major concern. A 401b sheep carcass is reduced in a few hours to a 71b packet of meat granules, an eighth of an inch across, and looking something like tiny balls of mud. Thousands of tons of these granules are produced annually, accounting for tens of thousands of sheep and lambs. Potatoes are the principal- dehydrated vegetables. They are reduced to one-sixth of natural weight, and one plant now turns out more than 15 tons a week.