Does freeze dried food have the same vitamin as fresh food?

Freeze drying is the process of removing almost all of the moisture from food by allowing water to sublimate from the frozen state directly to a vacuum. Sublimation means the ice in the frozen food turns into water vapor without melting. This is achieved through a special kind of freeze dryer or lyophilizer. Freeze dryers are also commonly used for the preservation and long term storage of valuable medical products such as vaccines, blood plasma and bacteria cultures (probiotics).

Freeze drying is one of the best ways to preserve the flavor and nutritional value of foods. In most cases, freeze drying retains over 90% of the original nutritional content, so it is nutritionally similar to the original food. Most vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients are retained at close to their original levels, including vitamin A, vitamin B, vitamin C and more.

Freeze drying works much better than air drying, oven drying, or sun drying at protecting nutrients. Unlike heat drying methods that can result in nutrient losses of 50% to 80%, freeze drying only has nutrient losses between 5% to 10% of the original product.

Freeze dried food is lightweight and easy to transport. It's widely used for camping, backpacking and other outdoor activities where long term food preservation and small packaging size is important. It's also used by astronauts in space missions where shelf-stable food with good nutritional value is essential.

Since freeze dried foods have minimal moisture, they can be conveniently packaged in small, air-tight, light weight containers. They can be stored at room temperature for longer than a year.