IT'S DEHYDRATED

Cue (NZERS), Issue 28, 31 July 1945, Page 24

IT'S DEHYDRATED

■v . j ANTED—-flirts for Dehydration.” W This ' strange advertisement appeared in am Auckland .■ newspaper some months ago. Readers raised their eyebrows. What would, science do next? ’ Were the girls for shipment to the boys overseas in a compact form They had heard of such z a thing done with certain' members <of reinforcements for 2 NZEF, but with girls, well . . . The explanation ( is • merely that it was an attempt to obtain labour for a dehydration factory at iPuikekohe, one of four in operation in the Dominion. / . '

The dehydration of food is no new craze, but the widespread and extensive industry that has grown up is a direct result of the war. The Arabs two thousand years , ago - found a way to dry milk; the Red' Indians made great use of pemmican, a dried meat ; and raisins, apples, apricots, and figs in driQd form have been on the market for many yearA Even the immigrant ships going to New Zealand in the ’forties carried dehydrated vegetables. The old saying, ’’There’s nothing new under the sun” is certainly borne out when it comes to dehydrationin fact, it was the sun that pointed the way to dried foods. • _• ,

The industry came into existence in its present vast form because of the urgent need to get food to the Allied armies, to Britain and to . liberated

countries. • Not only did dehydration solve the question of sending! large quantities of food across the world and across continents often on shattered transport systems, but l it answered the immediate problem of reducing to a minimum refrigerating facilities and storage room, and saving shipping space. ‘lt offered a way of transporting perishable foods from one end of the world to the other. Above all it probably was largely responsible for saving Britain from starvation and for making possible the supplying of Allied troops in various' theatres of war. • '-1 • ' ■' ' '

The need for such a process, was urgent and research - workers were set the task of meeting it and meeting it in a hurry. Working at high pressure, the chemists evolved for each category of vegetable drying-out. processes which left its vitamin and mineral salt content practically unimpaired most important matter since vegetables constitute the main source of Vitamin C in our diet. No less necessary was it for the finished product to be palatable and easy cook. And so the Low: Temperature Research Station at Cambridge . got down to work and proved it possible to dehydrate vegetables so that they became almosindistinguishable from the fresh commodity, both in ’ culinary and nutritional , qualities, simply by replacing; their extracted' water-content at tn, e

time of cooking. But an even bigger problem presented . itself to develop laboratory /processes into practical methods of mass production.-:

'An experimental plant was established, ' complete with scientists, technologists, engineers, and operatives. Six months 'dragged-by before success was achieved. A ’’tunnels drier” was designed and built which was capable of processing up to 800 tons ofp cabbage and 900 tons of potatoes and carrots per month. Soon dehydration plants were springing up all over Britain and America, in Rhodesia, Morocco, Tunisia, Palestine, the Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Algeria and the British Dominions, including/ of Zin'hur^e,' New • Zealand?///./' •/ '

, From the most .recent figures avails able, Britain has over .thirty factories, Australia thirty-two, Canada twentyfour, and .-New* Zealand four. In the United /States there are over 300 factories. Every twelfth pint of milk and every third egg are being dehydrated /in'the States, and of the vegetable crop 18,000,000,0001 b., are ear-marked each season for dehydration.', Britain estimated that she was at one, time importing three million tons.of water in foodstuffs every year, unnecessary I bulk that could be obviated by dehydrated goods. It can ; be imagined what a saving this has been in shipping space. In fact, some : vegetables are being transported with a saving of up to ninety-six per cent, in shipping space: and ninety-five per' cent, in weight. \ '

New Zealand 'has not lagged behind in the matter of dehydration. At first she had the advantage of learning from the mistakes and improvements made by countries which had had an earlier' start in the industry. Her ‘ products are reputed to be of an extremely high quality. Her four factories are State-controlled, and they were designed and are now operated by the Internal Marketing Division.

The latest methods are used, and farm products have quite ah adventurous time before they are packed away for shipment. \ •?

Vegetables arrive fresh from the fields, and little time is wasted before they are in the soaker-washer elevator and losing, their outer coating of/earth. In the case of carrots 1 the skins are removed by treatment in a caustic solution and, later/ by a rotary washer which cleans off the caustic'' with a series of spray pressure jets. Then they are ready for trimming, ‘ They are carried along on a conveyor between rows of girls who cut off the tops, remove blemishes and slice them, if too large, into quarters. The carrots,

or whatever is on the conveyor, go one way and the trimmings go . another bound for the compost heap. Then the carrots are diced and spread on trays ready for drying and blanching.

Now comes one of the most important processes—the Turkish hath —in which steam is passed over the vegetables to preserve their colour and

vitamin content and to prevent/deterioration. : Port four minutes they pass through this steam at a tempera _ tare of 212 degrees; Fahrenheit,' and come out slightly cooked and ready for drying. The drying process is carried out in a drying-tunnel of -two compartments. A truck-load of vegetables. spends forty minutes', in the first compartment at a temperature /-of 210 degrees, banks of steam radiators supplying the heat which is circulated by electric fans. Then the truck automatically passes into the second compartment where v the heat is 150 degrees, the cooler temperature being to stop scorching as the moisture is expelled. The whole, process is done automatically, controlled by cycle clocks and operated electrically. By this, drying the moisture content of such vegetables as carrots is reduced from about sixty to below five per cent., preferably under three, per cent. A bigger reduction takes place in the dehydration of cabbages. «' . ’ Careful' packing is most important. As soon as a tin is filled with the finished product,' carbon x dioxide gas is pumped in to keep out the air, 'and the container is soldered and lacquered. Changes of temperature cannot' now affect the vegetables. _ '/ ,\ /. / '

Ard what of the, finished result? Well, opinions differ. The soldier has few words of praise for dehydrated products. A meal of dehydrated meat, dehydrated potatoes, dehydrated carrots, dehydrated prunes and ’’Shanghai ballast” is usually, in hi® opinion, not worth the dirtying of a dixie. But on the other hand a \ certain public body in New Zealand had; a meal .of dehydrated products and found it delightful. ' The - statement has been made, that, 'because less water is absorbed with dehydration ( than was in;/the product originally, the cooked vegetable has a higher food value, and the flavour is morconcentrated, with the result that some people prefer to eat . their vegetables dehydrated than

fresh. It takes' all sorts to make a world. .

There is, of course, a great deal in the cooking, and two cooks can produce vastly different results with exactly the same dehydrated products. Great care is taken to see that the factory products reach the highest possible standard; and in a New Zealand factory each day chemists test the goods for colour, texture, flavour, smell, and vitamin content. They- even have to taste each vegetable and make notes in their little books exactly what they think of their meal. This testing and tasting keeps the product at the high, est possible standard, All the time, too, the chemists are keeping, abreast with . the latest developments in the quick-changing new industry .and endeavouring to find ways of reducing costs, which are still too high.

Prejudiced though the soldier may be, there is a great deal to be said for dehydration. Successful dehydration -as it affects New Zealand' households cciuld mean green' vegetables all the' year round. It could. mean , onions

which need no peeling and cannot stain the housewife’s hands: cabbages and carrots purchased ready for the spot, potatoes already peeled and ’‘eyed”. On a broader front, dehydration could he the answer to famine in 'some lands while plenty rules in others, for in no other way can great quantities of food be transported .across the ’ world so economically and Quickly. Think what dehydrated milk, green vegetables, meat, and' eggs could ‘ mean .to. such countries as China and India, /and. think what a part it could play & preventing' the criminally wastefufood gluts that occur from time to tini p —the burning of wheat and coffee in America and even the dumping/..j apples and potatoes ,in New Zealantv Yes, dehydration can be made 0 appear an excellent scheme, but s °®," howthe., fresh green' vegetables,/ new potato, and the roast* of lamb s * g have a greater attraction for the s vicemanmuch greater. z