| abstract |
A method of making a porous, crunchy, dehydrated, vegetable, meat or seafood snack product. A piece of vegetable, such as potato, sweet potato, carrot, beet or parsnip, or a piece of meat or seafood, is frozen, forming ice crystals within the piece of food. The frozen piece is exposed to microwave radiation in a microwave-vacuum dehydrator at a vacuum pressure at which the boiling point of water is above 0°C, causing the frozen piece to thaw and water to evaporate from the thawed piece. The evaporation leaves pores that were formed by the ice crystals within the piece of food, resulting in a porous, crunchy, dehydrated snack product. |