Who makes this
Twenty-five years of taking water out of vegetables.
Easy Meals is a small South African producer. The drying is hot air rather than freeze drying, which costs a great deal less and, done properly, keeps just as well.
(01)The method
Air, not ice.
Freeze drying gets talked about more and costs far more, and it takes about a day to do what hot air does in an hour. The quality argument for it is real but small, and it disappears entirely if the hot-air drying is done by somebody who knows what they are doing.
Most of that knowing is airflow rather than heat. The job is to take surface moisture away as fast as it arrives, in stages, and the bed height and the air matter more than the temperature dial.
What comes out keeps its taste, keeps most of its nutritional value, and weighs a fraction of what went in.
(02)What gets checked
Every batch is measured, and the paper is kept.
Under 8% moisture
Measured on a moisture analyser, batch by batch. It is what makes twelve months of shelf life a fact rather than a hope.
pH below 4.2
Checked on canned products. Below that line most spoilage organisms do not grow, and pressure cooking in the retort handles the rest.
Thickness to spec
Caramel and condensed milk are measured on a viscometer against a set distance in a set time. Too fast is too runny.
A retained sample of everything
A sample of every batch is kept for its shelf life plus a month, so a question about something you bought last year can still be answered.
Labelling carries ingredients and nutritional information as South African regulation requires. People read it at the stall before they buy, which is a good reason to get it right beyond the legal one.
(03)Going further
Two pages for anyone who wants the detail.
The science
What dehydrated food is
Why removing moisture preserves food, the three stages of hot air drying, what case hardening is, and how it compares with freeze drying.
For buyers
Product specification
Cut sizes, moisture, microbiological limits, packaging, allergens and the legislation it answers to. The page your quality desk asks for.
Put a hundred grams in water and see for yourself.
Send us a message and we will tell you what we have, what it costs, and when we are next at a market near you.