dehydrater

[Thyme]

A friend recently got a nesco dehydrater. The instructions say to keep all dehydrated food in the freezer or fridge after drying. Now what is the point of keeping it in the fridge or freezer, I thought that was why you dryed food was to keep it on the shelf.Now she wont eat anything from here that has drieds in it because i keep all of mine on the pantry shelf.How do i convince her that it is safe?I use an excalibur dehydrater.

[NCLee]

Uhmmmm, wonder which model she has. ?? I looked on line to see if I could read their manual. Turns out there are several in pdf. Since I'm on dial-up that can be an extremely slow process.

IMHO, either there's something about her unit that doesn't dry as it should, or she's misunderstood something. Perhaps her manual states that Jerky should be kept frozen or refrigerated and she's applied that "rule" to everything. Could be that her manual states that if a load doesn't dry properly it should go into cold storage????

Ask her to let you read her manual. Or, get the model number from her and read the manual on line. Once we have a clue as to the reason that applies to her unit, we can then try to convience her that doesn't apply to all dehydrators. Or, that it applies to improperly dried food, etc.

BTW, I have an Excalibur, too. Started out with a Mr. Coffee that I gave away after a few attempts at trying to use it.

Lee

[Thyme]

It is a garden master by nesco. The instruction book says that all low acid food ,veggies ,meat ,fish are to be stored in the fridge or freezer after drying. This to me makes no sense. Why dry it if you have to keep it in the fridge or freezer after. Or is nesco putting that in the instructions to protect themselves from lawsuits?

[NCLee]

Did some searching to make sure my info is current, since that's the first time I've heard about this being in a dehydrator manual.

National Center for Food Preservation
http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/dry/pack_store.html
Dried foods should be stored in cool, dry, dark areas. Recommended storage times for dried foods range from 4 months to 1 year. Because food quality is affected by heat, the storage temperature helps determine the length of storage; the higher the temperature, the shorter the storage time. Most dried fruits can be stored for 1 year at 60ºF, 6 months at 80ºF. Vegetables have about half the shelf-life of fruits.

They've probably included that note simply to extend the shelf life of foods dried with their dehydrator. Could be some legal folks behind the scenes, as well. You may want to print out the page referenced above for your friend to read.

The only other thing I can think of is there have been some problems with homemade jerky. So rather than being specific about jerky, they're simply covering all the bases with a broad statement. ??

Hope this helps, a bit.
Lee

[CanNerd]

Sounds more like NESCO just trying to protect themselves from a lawsuit by people that have a problem if they don't dry/store the food properly and get sick. Much like the issue with the Rival "Crock-Pot" that intentionally runs hot and they admit it is a liability thing.

[Thyme]

Thank you for the replys. I showed her the website with no change in what she thinks. She says it is in the manual so it is what is right.Oh well 1 less person to feed when she is here. ,cause all of my drieds are vacuum sealed & put in tins in the closet of the pantry.

[NCLee]

Not much more than you can do, until she changes her mind. (sigh) At least you tried.

Lee

[Anon001]

I would ask her why she would go to the trouble of dehydrating if she has to freeze it.