According to statistics from the United States, there are more than 100 kinds of food produced by freeze drying technology in the world (2005), which can be divided into the following categories.
(1) Cooking ingredients: meat, eggs, fish, shrimp, shellfish, sea cucumber, vegetables.
(2) Seasoning foods: onion, ginger, garlic, spices, pigments, soup.
(3) Fruits: apples, bananas, pineapples, strawberries, pears, peaches, etc.
(4) Beverages: coffee, tea, fruit juice, vegetable juice.
(5) Health foods: ginseng, yam, honey, turtle, cordyceps.
(6) Local products: mushrooms, day lily, toon, etc.
(7) Food industry raw materials: egg materials, bean materials, dried fruit powder, plant protein powder, etc.
(8) Special foods: food for field operations such as aerospace, navigation, military, mountaineering, and exploration.
In recent years, the demand for freeze-dried food in Europe, the United States and Japan has increased rapidly. In Europe, freeze-dried food accounts for 50% to 70% of all dehydrated food; freeze-dried food accounts for more than 50% of all convenience foods in the United States; freeze-dried food accounts for nearly 60% of dehydrated food on the Japanese market. Despite this, countries such as Britain, Germany, the United States and Japan need to import a large amount of freeze-dried food every year, including onions, asparagus, cabbage, carrots, mushrooms, potatoes, as well as beef, eggs, fish and shrimp. The import volume of freeze-dried vegetables and freeze-dried fruits in Nordic countries such as Sweden, Norway and Denmark is still increasing year by year.
The price of freeze-dried food in the international market is 4 to 6 times that of hot air dried food, and it is gradually becoming a bulk food in international trade. According to statistics from the General Administration of Customs, since the mid-1990s, the annual export volume of dehydrated vegetables in mainland my country has increased at an average rate of 30%; the export volume of dehydrated vegetables in mainland my country exceeds 1/2 of the global total output, and the export volume of Taiwan accounts for about 2/3 of the global total output.
My country is a large agricultural country with abundant vegetables (including local specialties), meat and aquatic resources. The freeze-drying technology of freeze dryers (the price of domestic freeze dryers is only 1/3~1/2 of that of imported equipment) is used to develop bulk foods such as freeze-dried vegetables, freeze-dried beef, and freeze-dried eggs, which are sold to the international market. This is an export-earning project with promising prospects, high profits and low risks. At present, the freeze-dried foods produced by freeze dryers in my country are basically for external demand, mainly including cooking ingredients, food industry raw materials, seasoning foods and health foods, with an annual output of less than 20,000 tons. According to industry insiders, my country's freeze-dried food for both external and domestic demand will enter a period of substantial growth in the next decade; by 2015, the consumption of freeze-dried food will exceed 150,000 tons, including fast food ingredients, soup ingredients, drinks, etc., for the addition of instant noodles. The huge demand for freeze-dried food in domestic and foreign markets provides a great opportunity for the development of my country's food freeze-drying technology and freeze-dried food industry.
