Dehydrated vegetables are particularly common in China, especially dried bamboo shoots, dried mushrooms, dried, dried fungus, etc. in rural areas, but these dehydrated vegetables used to be more traditional drying and drying methods. With the advancement of modern food processing technology, microwave drying and freeze vacuum drying are used in the industry, and dehydrated vegetable processing has gradually become a part of rural economic growth. From the perspective of the international market, the price of freeze-dried vegetables is higher, and the average price is more than 5 times the price of hot-air dried dehydrated vegetables, which has become the main direction of China's development of dehydrated vegetables.
Dehydrated vegetables, also known as rehydrated vegetables, are dried vegetables made by processing fresh vegetables through washing, drying, etc., and removing most of the water from the vegetables. The original color and nutrients of vegetables remain basically unchanged. It is easy to store and transport, and can effectively adjust the vegetable production season. As long as it is eaten, it can be restored by immersing it in clean water, and the original color, nutrition and flavor of the vegetables are retained.
There are two types of vegetable drying methods: natural drying and artificial dehydration. Artificial dehydration includes hot air drying, microwave drying, puffing drying, infrared and far infrared drying, vacuum drying, etc. At present, more applications of vegetable dehydration and drying are hot air drying dehydration and freeze vacuum drying dehydration. The freeze vacuum dehydration method is a current advanced vegetable dehydration and drying method. The product can retain the original color, fragrance and taste of fresh vegetables. Shape, and has an ideal rapid rehydration.
Freeze-dried dehydrated vegetables were first developed to improve astronaut rations. In the "Apollo" aviation program, NASA invented the technology of frozen and dehydrated vegetables to solve the problem that astronauts can eat vegetables to supplement vitamins in space. This technology is to remove too much water contained in vegetables, and the chlorophyll and vitamins contained in fresh vegetables can still be preserved, which is convenient for storage, storage and transportation. The cold dehydration treatment removes almost all the water in the food and reduces its weight by 20%, while retaining 98% of the nutritional content of the food.
It is understood that China's output of dehydrated vegetables has accounted for more than half of the world's total, and the average annual growth rate is more than 20%. The development of freeze-drying can add value to the deep processing of rich agricultural products resources and earn foreign exchange through export. Relevant data show that Lianyungang is the largest vegetable exporting area in Jiangsu Province. There are currently nearly 30 vegetable exporting enterprises, including 5 dehydrated vegetable exporting enterprises, mainly exported to Southeast Asia, the United States, the European Union, South Korea and other countries and regions. In the first seven months of this year, 119 batches of dehydrated vegetables and 3,208.80 tons were exported from Lianyungang area, with a value of US $ 30.504 million, an increase of 65.28%, 105.34%, and 387.34%, respectively.
Although China's dehydrated vegetables occupy half of the international market, its varieties are narrow and the scope is narrow. The development of the entire industry is still at a low level and needs to be further expanded.
At present, some developed countries process vegetables through dehydrated vegetables, frozen vegetables, etc., and their storage and processing volume have accounted for 80% of the total vegetables produced. China, as the world's largest vegetable production country, has only a few thousand vegetable processing enterprises, and its scale is small, its processing equipment technology is backward, and its product structure is quite unreasonable. Among them, there are only more than 20 types of dehydrated vegetables and more than 30 varieties. Compared with tens of thousands of vegetable varieties in China, the scope is too narrow. At the same time, most of the high-end dehydrated vegetables on the international market are produced in vacuum, and currently only a few manufacturers in China can produce such high-end dehydrated vegetables.
In summary, although the output and sales of dehydrated vegetables in China are far ahead in the world, they are slightly inadequate in technology. In the future, the production of high-end dehydrated vegetables with vacuum freezing equipment is a good choice for enterprises to transform and upgrade. Relevant enterprises should also seize market opportunities to help China's dehydrated vegetable industry flourish.