Last week we touched on the advantages of freeze drying food, but with all advantages come disadvantages. This blog is not meant to discourage anyone from freeze-drying, but to educate on the possible inconveniences of the process. The main disadvantages to freeze drying food would be that: the equipment is expensive, the process to freeze dry is slow, and not everything can be freeze dried.
Freeze drying at home may seem like a fun activity, but getting and installing a freeze dryer is a costly process. Freeze dryers can easily run well over $4000, with most having a hefty price tag of $4,500-$5,500. If this is something that you have a passion for, it can be a worthy investment, but it's not for the lighthearted. In addition to the cost of the machine, the steps and procedures to properly freeze dry food are very time-consuming, and can take 20-40 hours to do correctly. Time needs to be spent preparing the food, as well as laying it out and spacing it out properly. Especially with freeze dried candy as unlike other food, freeze-dried candy has a tendency to change shape and expand, so you have to be mindful of how you place it in the freeze dryer.
Lastly, not everything can be freeze dried, so you would have to be careful as to what you put into your freeze dryer. The main foods that cannot be freeze dried are oil-based foods like jams, syrups, chocolate, and honey. Putting those into the freeze dryer would leave an oily residue, and the process would not be able to fully complete.
All in all, freeze-drying is a cool and fascinating process, and the food that comes from it is super fun to eat, especially freeze dried candy. Everyone should be able to enjoy the crunchy sweet delight that is freeze dried gummy bears or salt water taffy, however, owning and freeze drying yourself is a big responsibility. The steps that go into buying and installing a freeze dryer, and then actually freeze drying may be more of a commitment than you want to engage in, and that's ok! That’s why we have the sweet lyfe. Checkout our store where you can browse all of our options, and here you can buy as much freeze-dried candy as you want, without all the hassle that comes with doing it on your own.