Freeze Dryer

Freeze drying is far superior to air dehydrating, and gives food that rehydrates quickly and retains far better nutrients, texture, and flavour. 

Dehydrating retains around 30% nutrients, while freeze drying retains around 97% of nutrients. 

Freeze dried food can be reconstituted in cold water unlike dehydrated food which is better from a safety point of view too. Plus certain foods that don't rehydrate well from dehydrated rehydrate very well from freeze dried. Things like dairy products, chicken, and eggs. Peas are also much better rehydrated from freeze dried than from dehydrated. 

You can also make great freeze dried snacks like beetroot chips, freeze dried lollies & fruit, yoghurt drops and so much more! 

Freeze dried breastmilk is another fantastic use of the freeze drier, as you can turn your breastmilk into powder which is shelf stable and can be used in the same ways as formula.

Because of the size of the freeze dryer, hire works like this:

You come to our Kaiapoi premises, and load up the freeze drier with your food. We give you a quick briefing and help set the batch off.

We text you when your load has around 4-12 hours till collection time.

If your load requires turning into powder before the batch is finished, (such as breastmilk), you will have to return to do it yourself.

Running a load for up to 24hrs costs $100, with every additional 24hrs or part thereof being an additional $10. 

Repeat customers get 20% off their 2nd freeze dryer hire onwards.

• Lolly batches take under 24 hours 99% of the time.
• Pre-frozen veggies and fruit take around 36 hours.
• Non-pre-frozen meals take around 50-70 hours.
• High-liquid meals like soups take up to 90 hours if not pre-frozen.
• Pre-frozen breastmilk takes between 36-90 hours depending how full the trays are.

It is best to only run similar foods in each batch. This helps the freeze drier with detecting when a batch is done. Our freeze drier has 6 trays, so you could for example run 6 different meals easily, but it would be better not to run cooked meals and yoghurt drops in the same batch.

Each of the 6 trays can hold approx 1 x 2L ice cream container worth of food. If freeze drying frozen mixed veg, each tray can hold a 1kg bag.

When booking, please message us with what food you will be freeze drying.

You are responsible for any cleaning of the freeze dryer and trays required after use.