Freeze-drying – a way to get healthy seasonal products all year round

"Our food substances must be medicine and our medicines must be food substances" /Hippocrates/

Nutrition, like breathing, is an important human need necessary for proper functioning. It includes not only the actual consumption of food, but also the most complex processes of its digestion, absorption and assimilation in the body.

The body is like a big factory

Each cell and tissue of the body is a small laboratory in which specific chemical reactions constantly occur and nutrients necessary for life are synthesized. If even one chemical element is missing for the synthesis, the entire chain of chemical reactions will be interrupted, which may result in a "failure" of individual organs and their systems. For normal life, it is absolutely necessary not only to regularly take macro- and microelements (nutrients), but also their correct proportions. The fact is that chemical elements are not synthesized in the body, but come from outside (from food, air) and pass through the skin and mucous membranes.

Naturally the best

Causes of micronutrient deficiency :

- digestive (unbalanced diet, hunger, etc.);

- diseases, both directly related to impaired absorption of trace elements in the gastrointestinal tract, and not;

- bad habits such as smoking and alcohol;

- emotional stress.

Moreover, it should be borne in mind that the demand for vitamins and a number of macro- and microelements may increase significantly under the influence of negative environmental factors of a physical, chemical and biological nature. Therefore, vitamin deficiency observed in large population groups is associated with an insufficient supply of a number of macro- and microelements, which is related not only to their deficiency in diets, but also to the participation of vitamins at various stages of their absorption and metabolism.

Prevention of vitamin and microelement deficiencies:

- rationalization of nutrition,

- development and use of specialized products enriched with microelements,

- the use of multivitamin and multivitamin-polymineral complexes, including biologically active dietary supplements that are a source of these microelements in quantities corresponding to the physiological needs of the body in order to supplement their insufficient food intake.

How to maintain the natural quality of e.g. seasonal products?

One of the modern and most promising methods of processing products without losing their natural beneficial properties is the freeze-drying method, which is also widely used in pharmaceutical production. Freeze-drying   is the drying of tissues and other biological objects in a frozen state under a vacuum. In this case, water is removed from frozen products by sublimating ice, i.e. transforming it into steam, bypassing the liquid phase. The freeze-drying method allows obtaining dry tissues, preparations, products, etc. without losing their structural integrity and biological activity . During freeze-drying, most proteins are not denatured and can be stored for a long time. After moistening, freeze-dried food quickly regains its original properties. Lyophilization is used when it is necessary to long-term storage and preservation of various products of biological origin, obtaining dry donor blood plasma, dry sera and vaccines, in organ and tissue transplants, in the pharmaceutical and food industries.

Freeze-drying is an expensive technology, it becomes economically viable when producing expensive products, for example, ecological, environmentally friendly berries and fruits. Previously, in the food industry, it was used mainly to fulfill orders from the military, defense and space industries precisely because of the possibility of obtaining high-quality products that did not take up much space, were light and could be stored for a long time. Currently, freeze-drying is actively used in business. It turned out that there is a demand for the preparation of premium products, and this method allows you to save up to 95% of nutrients, vitamins, enzymes, biologically active substances . If freeze-dried products are poured with water, they will be restored within 2-3 minutes. In addition, they weigh several times less than fresh products, do not require special storage conditions and can be stored for 2-5 years at a temperature no higher than + 39 ° C.

Wide application of freeze-drying

According to experts from the Danish company NiroA / S (one of the leading manufacturers of freeze-drying equipment), the global production of freeze-dried food is approx. 70,000. tons, of which 40 thousand tons are vegetables, 25 thousand tons are meat and fish products and 5 thousand tons of fruit including berries. The global market for freeze-dried products is growing at a rate of approximately 3.5% annually.

Vacuum freeze drying is most widely used in technologies for the production of drugs, enzymes, ferments, herbal extracts and other items that must ensure the preservation of all useful components of raw materials in a dry product for a long time. Product freeze-drying is one of the most modern methods of reversible preservation of microorganisms and biological products, which ensures the highest quality dry product and high recovery of lactic acid bacteria with minimal process time and, therefore, minimal costs.

In food production, vacuum freeze drying is used as a preservative by freezing fresh products and removing liquids from them, which allows them to almost completely retain nutrients, trace elements, vitamins and even their original form, natural taste, color and smell for a long time. Freeze-dried foods make it unnecessary to use any flavors, preservatives and dyes. This fact is remarkable because products that have undergone freeze-drying are absolutely suitable for baby and dietary food . One of the most important advantages of vacuum drying products is the low shrinkage of the initial product, which avoids their destruction and quickly restores freeze-dried products to dry, which have a porous structure after drying, by adding water.

Powdered fruits and vegetables

Fruits, vegetables, dairy products, meat, fish, cereals and soups, mushrooms, spices are preserved using the freeze-drying method. Vacuum freeze dryer products have a very wide range of applications, both as ready-made instant products (powder) and as semi-finished products for further processing in the confectionery, food concentrates, meat and dairy, perfumery and other industries.

The high quality and biological value of ready-made freeze-dried products result from the fact that only fresh raw materials can be processed. Used products are not resistant to freeze drying. Usually, immediately after freeze-drying, product powders are prepared from which further convenient, useful and natural medicinal and prophylactic products are made: tablets, capsules, bio-cocktails, teas, drinks in various compositional solutions.

Easier absorption

The absorption of elements in the digestive tract when they enter the food is the most important issue that allows us to understand a lot about the exchange of elements in the body. It is known that the absorption of different elements is very different.

Currently, there are many drugs that correct physiological deficiency of vitamins and minerals. Most of them are a complex of various microelements. Rational choice of drug is based on several principles:

• the medicine must contain essential vitamins and minerals;
• the content of microelements should correspond to the recommended daily intake;
• the ingredients of the preparation should not have unfavorable interactions with each other.

Freeze-dried products are known to have good solubility , and when water or saline is added to them, they can be easily converted to their original parent state. For this reason, the assimilation of such products begins already in the oral cavity. The oral mucosa has an abundant blood supply, therefore substances are absorbed through the mucosa   they quickly enter the right atrium through the internal jugular vein and the superior vena cava.

Saliva, which is constantly present in the oral cavity, plays an important role in the adsorption of substances by the mucous membrane. Due to the presence of saliva, substances can be destroyed without additional mechanical action (chewing). It should be noted that the pH of saliva, the secretory productivity of the salivary glands and age-related changes in oral tissues have a significant impact on the bioavailability of the substance.

Again, thanks to the rapid solubility of freeze-dried products, they are quickly absorbed in the body's digestive tract, which distinguishes them favorably from dietary supplements obtained using other methods. Although they are not considered food substitutes, they complement food and play a very important role in providing the body with trace elements, vitamins and other essential substances that are not found in the required amounts in the food we eat. microelements and vitamins available to us, which are found in fruits and vegetables all year round.

Lyophilization of bacteria