Science: Powdered Foods

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"Why ship them water?" demanded a group of foodmen convened last week in Chicago. Their point: the U.S. shipped some 150,000 tons of water to Great Britain last year, still more tons to Iceland, the Philippines and other U.S. outposts. These torrential statistics represent the non-nutritive water content—75 to 95%—of fruits and vegetables.

The National Dehydrators Association believes that their small industry (1941 turnover: $12,000,000) is going to beanstalk like the frozen foods industry, which in 1942 will quick-freeze an estimated $90,000,000 worth of food—180 times its volume only ten years back. Pointing to the 114 dehydrating plants built by the Nazis since 1935 (before then Germany had only six), they suggest that if the U.S. is going to ship food to its troops and allies all over the planet, it had best get busy concentrating the food so that one boat can do the victualing of six.

Modern scientific dehydration is fast. Like fast-freezing, it preserves the flavor and some 90% of the vitamins of fresh food. Typical new technique is that of Sardik Food Products Corp. of Manhattan, which has spent the last decade and $2,000,000 on much research and little production. Sardik's vegetables are first cooked, cooled, pulped (fruits are pulped raw), then sprayed in a 3/1,000-in. film on revolving drums, where heat drives off 96% of their water in ten to 20 seconds. Steam rising rapidly from the food prevents oxidation, as when apples turn brown. Vacuums (or inert gases such as carbon dioxide) are sometimes used to keep air away. Tomatoes come off the drum like an endless sheet of red crepe paper, crumble into microscopic flakes which will store well for at least three years. Best products: tomatoes, potatoes, apples, bananas, peaches, peas, squash, pumpkin.

These dried foods in mass production will be 20% cheaper than ordinary foods, because they need not be graded for size or selected for beauty or packed in tin; and shipping and handling is simplified. When water is added and the food warmed up (not cooked again), it is best served, of course, as sauces, soups, pie fillings, etc. Food powders make good mashed potatoes—far better than the dark, gooey "shoeblack" potatoes dehydrated for the U.S. Army in World War I by some 15 processors, few of whom, with their crude techniques, survived the peace.* Though Army quartermasters are not keen about some of today's dried foods, they promise the chafing industry large orders as soon as a few improvements are made.