Experiment.

Dehydration of Food
Aim: To see the effect of dehydration on the preservation of fruit.

Introduction:
As we know, our body is composed of large amounts of water. We can get this water from
metabolic chemical reactions from eating food, and from drinking. Every food that we eat
contains water. Some foods contain a small amount of water, while some contains a lot
amount of water.
There are three different types of water in food. First one is bulk or free water. Bulk water is
the water molecule is surrounded by water molecules. Water in this type can easily be
removed such as by squeezing. The second type is trapped or capillary water. This type of
water is hard to remove because it is trapped by physical barriers. It’s held in the small
tubes inside the plants (known as the vasculature or vessels). The last one is bound water.
This type of water is the water that contact with the food molecules and is chemically
bonded with them. This means the atoms are joined together in some way and can be
harder to remove.
One type of food that contains a large amount of water is fruit. How do we know how much
water is inside the fruit? We can use one process which is called dehydration.
Dehydration is one of the easiest ways to preserve food. It is a process of removing the
water or moisture from the food through evaporation. By removing water in the food, we
also kill and stop the growth the microorganisms living on the food because they need water
in order to stay alive. This process prevents spoilage in food.
There are many ways to dehydrate food such as sunlight, in the oven or using a dehydrator.
A dehydrator is the fastest and the most efficient way because we can control the
temperature, and don’t have to wait for the right weather conditions to begin.
During the process of dehydration, the fruit lose weight. The weight lost is due to the
evaporation of water. That is called moisture content which is the amount of water per unit
mass of food. We can calculate this by finding the difference of weight between the mass of
food before dehydration, and the mass of food after dehydration, then divide the difference
by the weight of the food before dehydration. After that we multiply by one hundred to
make it percentage.
In this experiment, the fruit we will prepare are strawberries, blueberries, apple, and
pineapple. We will dehydrate the foods by different amounts and observe their
decomposition (or lack thereof) over the next 2 weeks.

Variables:
Independent Dependent Control variables Possible
variable variable confounding
variables
- Time spent in - growth of mould - Temperature of - Which shelf food is
dehydrator drying dehydrator placed on within the
- Moisture content - Slice size of the fruits dehydrator
of food at different - Surface material that - Proper recording of
stages of drying food in placed on times
Safety considerations:
Knives and Mandoline’s are very sharp pieces of equipment please read the instructions
below and watch the video.

General Knife Safety Tips

 Secure your chopping board.
 Never wave a knife in the air.
 Keep your knives clean.
 Create a flat surface on your ingredient before cutting it.
 Take your time.
 Don't leave your knives lying around.
 Sharpen your knives.
 Always hold a knife in your dominant hand.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_njPgJ8g4VE&t=87s

Mandolin Safety
Mandoline’s come with some type of holder that is designed to hold the food securely as it
is moved across the mandoline towards the blade – these are typically called hand guards.
This holder usually has prongs to hold the food in place as it is pushed across the
mandoline’s surface. A food holder, or hand guard, should always be used rather than your
fingers or hands. This is the most important aspect of mandoline safety to keep in mind
when operating the utensil in order to avoid cuts and injuries.
Another important aspect of mandoline safety is to make sure that when you are operating
the utensil, you are not distracted in any way. It only takes a split second to lose focus on
what you are doing and inadvertently cut yourself on the blade of the mandoline. As with all
sharp objects, care should always be taken whenever handing this kitchen gadget. A
mandoline is not an overly dangerous object but care and common sense should always be
utilized to ensure the utmost in mandoline safety.
In addition to the process of cutting food on a mandoline slicer, the utensil should be
cleaned after each use. Cleaning itself is an important part of practicing mandoline safety.
Not only does a clean mandoline operate more smoothly, causing less likelihood of a slipup
and an injury, but cleaning is also important when it comes to mandoline safety because of
food related issues that can arise when food is left on an object. Keeping your mandolin
clean ensures that there will be no bacteria building up on the surface of the utensil that can
potentially make you sick when used in the future.
Cleaning a mandoline can be potentially more dangerous that slicing foods on it because the
blade must be cleaned. Therefore, another aspect of mandoline safety relates to how the
blade is handled during the cleaning process. If the mandolin can be taken apart for
cleaning, it should be done so very carefully. When cleaning the blade, the blade should be
wiped in the direction against the sharp side of the blade so that your fingers are not
pressing towards the sharp side of the blade. Gently wipe around the blade with a mild
solution of soap and water using a towel. Do not use your fingers to clean directly on the
edge of the blade.
Wearing a cut resistant glove during the operation and cleaning of the utensil helps to
maintain mandoline safety. Safety gloves will not completely protect against cuts from the
blade, but can reduce the potential of injury.
Materials:
 Fruit
 Knife or mandoline
 Chopping board
 Dehydrator
 Scale
 Baking paper
 Mini grid slide to measure mould

Method:
Each group is to alter the method below to take into consideration the variables listed for a
single fruit. This is so that you can be specific about how to get the fruit pieces a similar size
to control for this variable. Write method as steps below:
1. Watch knife safety video and set up chopping space accordingly.
2. Cut (insert your fruit here) into 3 mm thick slices (adjust this point to whatever
thickness you think is appropriate and include more detail on the shape of pieces
such as; discard small end pieces).
3. Weight each slice of fruit and record weight in excel spreadsheet.
4. Place slices on baking paper on the metal wire rack, make sure to label each piece
perhaps using permanent mark on the baking paper.
5. Place all pieces on the same level in the dehydrator.
6. Set dehydrator to 60 degrees.
7. After (insert time) hours remove one slice of each food, return the remainder to the
dehydrator.
8. Weight slice of fruit and put on mould growth tray, make sure to label how long each
piece has been in the dehydrator.
9. Repeat steps 7 and 8 at (insert time) hours and (insert time) hours.
10. Leave one piece overnight to completely dry out.
11. Once all pieces have been taken out, move tray to science lab to allow mould
growth to occur, put on the bench in a spot not in direct sunlight (as sunlight kills
mould).
12. Use overnight piece to calculate moisture content (see results section for
instructions).
13. After 2 weeks measure mould grow using mini grid slide.
 The dependent variable is the area of mould (mm2) measured by placing the mini
grid with 1mm2 grids above the moulded area of the sealed bread sample. The
squares with over 50% of mould coverage are then counted. If mould is larger, you
can use a ruler to estimate area.
14. Record mould growth in your excel spreadsheet.

Results:
Create your results in excel and copy tables and graphs across. You should have the
following in your results:
 Calculation of the percentage moisture of each fruit using the longest time condition.
Each group will do one fruit and we will share the results in class. For example for
pineapple on piece might be in the dehydrator overnight, this will be the driest
sample, therefore we use this to calculate the moisture content of pineapples using
this equation:

If your group was doing pineapple they would have one calculation showing the
pineapple moisture content.
 Use the above values to calculate how much water is left in your other pieces of
fruit. For example if your overnight strawberry lost 3 grams of weight/water, and
your 2 hour pieces only lost 1 gram, then your 2 hour piece still has 2 grams of water
in it.
 A table with photos of your fruit at different time points.

1 hr 3 hr 24hr
Piece 1
Piece 2
Piece 3
 A table showing how much mould grew on each piece of fruit. Use the mini grid slide
to measure the area of the mould. Each square is 1mm2

 A graph with time on the x-axis and mould growth on the y-axis
Discussion questions:
1. Why did the weight of the samples decrease?
2. Which fruit had the highest moisture content (you will need to compare your
results with you friends to find out)?
3. Which fruit had the lowest moisture content (you will need to compare your
results with you friends to find out)?
4. Which sample had the greatest mould growth? Why?
5. Which samples grew no mould? Why?
6. Were there any problems with the method in your experiment? Did you have
any difficulties? What would you do differently next time.