Yoli Blast Cap Technology: How Does Freeze Drying Work?

October 21, 2009

Disclaimer: Yoli products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

I get many questions about Yoli’s products and how they work. Many people are interested in the Blast Cap technology and how it works but I think another key aspect to the Yoli mission is understanding the power of freeze drying the Yoli nutrition so that all the key ingredients are locked in.

Below is a great video on how freeze drying actually works. It should help you understand the detailed process that goes into Yoli’s nutritional products and the clear value that Yoli delivers above and beyond what you see in the current beverage market…

Why Freeze Dry?

The basic idea of freeze-drying is to completely remove water from some material, such as food, while leaving the basic structure and composition of the material intact. There are two reasons someone might want to do this with food:

“Did You Know: Freeze-drying technology was developed by NASA for the long distance Apollo missions.”

Reason #1 – Removing water keeps food from spoiling for a long period of time. Food spoils when microorganisms, such as bacteria, feed on the matter and decompose it. Bacteria may release chemicals that cause disease, or they may just release chemicals that make food taste bad. Additionally, naturally occurring enzymes in food can react with oxygen to cause spoiling and ripening.

Like people, microorganisms need water to survive, so if you remove water from food, it won’t spoil. Enzymes also need water to react with food, so dehydrating food will also stop ripening.

Reason #2 – Freeze-drying significantly reduces the total weight of the food. Most food is largely made up of water (many fruits are more than 80 to 90 percent water, in fact). Removing this water makes the food a lot lighter, which means it’s easier to transport.

The basic idea of freeze-drying is to “lock in” the composition and structure of the material by drying it without applying the heat necessary for the evaporation process. Instead, the freeze-drying process converts solid water — ice — directly into water vapor, skipping the liquid phase entirely. In the next section, we’ll find out how freeze-drying machines pull this off.
Simple version of a yoli freeze dryer
With most machines, you place the material to be preserved onto the shelves when it is still unfrozen. When you seal the chamber and begin the process, the machine runs the compressors to lower the temperature in the chamber. The material is frozen solid, which separates the water from everything around it, on a molecular level, even though the water is still present.

Next, the machine turns on the vacuum pump to force air out of the chamber, lowering the atmospheric pressure below .06 ATM. The heating units apply a small amount of heat to the shelves, causing the ice to change phase. Since the pressure is so low, the ice turns directly into water vapor. The water vapor flows out of the freeze-drying chamber, past the freezing coil. The water vapor condenses onto the freezing coil in solid ice form, in the same way water condenses as frost on a cold day.

This continues for many hours (even days) while the material gradually dries out. The process takes so long because overheating the material can significantly change the composition and structure. Additionally, accelerating the sublimation process could produce more water vapor in a period of time then the pumping system can remove from the chamber. This could rehydrate the material somewhat, degrading its quality.
Once the material is dried sufficiently, it’s sealed in a moisture-free package, often with an oxygen-absorbing material.

As long as the package is secure, the material can sit on a shelf for years and years without degrading, until it’s restored to its original form with a bit of water (a very small amount of moisture remains, so the material will eventually spoil). If everything works correctly, the material will go through the entire process almost completely unscathed!

I hope this helps you understand the enormous value that Yoli is delivering with their products. This allows us to consume an abundance of nutrition in a simple and convenient way each day.