The Sunny Side of Food Drying

Drying is among humanity’s earliest methods of preserving food, a practice that dates back thousands of years. As Chapter 5 of Desrosier’s 1970 classic The Technology of Food Preservation succinctly notes: “Drying is one of man’s oldest methods of food preservation.” While technologies have advanced, the fundamentals remain unchanged. The objective is clear: remove enough water from food to prevent spoilage and inhibit microbial growth. Today, drying still underpins global food supply chains, fr…