What is the difference between dehydration and freeze drying?

We had a lot of questions about one of our most recent posts which highlighted the benefits of freeze drying. We thought we would break down the differences between dehydration and freeze drying methods:

Dehydrating

Uses warm air and blowing air to remove 70-90% of the moisture out of the food. Food can store up to a year, depending how much moisture you’ve removed from the food.

Freeze drying

Instead of using heat, it uses really cold temps, and after dropping the temps, it creates a vacuum around the food and alternately heats and cools the food to remove the moisture, removing close to 90% of the moisture. Food can store 20-25 years.