Instructions / Assembly

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All fruits dried with skins intact should be packaged and frozen for a minimum of 48 hours to
prevent any possibility of insect infestation. Onions and tomatoes are especially prone to
absorbing moisture from the air and should be packaged immediately after removing
from the dehydrator.
Record Keeping
Recording the following information can be helpful in improving your dehydrating techniques
and determining quantities of food to dry each season.
• Date dried.
• Quantity dried, including weight of produce before and after drying.
• Drying time.
• Packaging: size of containers and packaging materials used.
• Storage temperature.
• Length of storage time before use.
By labeling storage containers with the contents and date dried, you can keep track of
your supply, rotate as needed, and avoid mix-ups.
Note: For best operation, always use at least 4 trays when drying in your dehydrator.
Drying Time
Drying times may vary, depending on the type and amount of food, thickness and evenness
of the slices, percentage of water in the food, humidity, temperature of the air and the altitude.
Drying times may also vary greatly from one area of the country to another and from day-to-day,
depending on the climatic conditions. Record keeping helps you predict future drying times
for specific foods.
Testing For Dryness
Food must be carefully monitored near the end of the dehydration process
to prevent over-drying. Over-dried foods lose quality in texture, nutrition and
taste. To test for dryness, remove a piece of food, allow it to cool, and feel
with your fingers to determine dryness:
• Fruits should be pliable and leathery with no pockets of moisture.
To check if fruit is dry, tear a piece in half and watch for moisture beads
along the tear. If there aren’t any, it is sufficiently dry for long term storage.
• Fruit roll-ups should be leathery with no sticky spots.
• Jerky should be tough but not brittle.
• Dried fish should be tough. If the fish is high in fat, it may appear moist
due to the high oil content.
• Vegetables should be tough or crisp.