How to Make Dried Tomatoes

Tomatoes are the favorite garden vegetable in the world. It is rich in vitamins and minerals and can prevent chronic disease and deliver other health benefits. Since tomatoes are perishable, people usually process them into dried types for storage or as value-added products for income generation. Then how to make dried tomatoes? There are several ways. Making dried tomatoes can be as easy as drying under the sun or by drying with hot air tomato drying machine.

I. Why Making Dried Tomatoes

1. Longer tomato shelf-life

2. Better taste

Dried tomatoes are sweeter and more intense than fresh tomatoes. Their flavor is concentrated. That’s why sweet tomatoes are considered to have the best flavor when dried.

3. More concentrated non-water soluble nutrients

Although water-soluble nutrients like B vitamins and Vitamin C are lost in the drying process, non-water soluble nutrients like Vitamin A, Vitamin K, minerals and fiber actually become more concentrated as a result of the drying process.

II. How to Make Dried Tomatoes?

There are several ways to make fresh tomatoes lose most of their water contents, such as sun drying outdoors, dehydration, microwave drying, hot air oven drying. Then how to make dried tomatoes? Which is the best solution? Let’s have the comparison and analysis.

1. Sun drying

Sun drying is the most common way to dry tomatoes. How to dry tomatoes by the sun? First, you need to prepare cheesecloth to cover them to ensure bugs and dust cannot get at them. And drying tomatoes in 100°F heat with little humidity is ideal, which is difficult to get under natural conditions. Generally, it takes one or two days to dry tomatoes. If temperatures cool at night or humidity is high, you should bring drying tomatoes in at night then set them back outside the next day. So it is obvious that sun drying is featured with long drying period, natural condition limits and small-scale food drying.

2. Food dehydrator

People often choose food dehydrator for food drying to get a better effect. In food dehydrator, dry tomatoes at 120°F for 8 to 10 hours then turn the slices over and dry them for another 6 to 8 hours or until they are crisp. A food dehydrator is suitable for small-scale and homemade drying.

3. Microwave drying

It is not recommended to use the microwave way for tomato drying. If cooked on high power levels too fast, tomatoes, particularly their edges, can burn in the microwave.

4. How to make dried tomatoes by hot air circulation oven

No matter what method you use, making dried tomatoes requires two things: consistent heat and air circulation. Hot air circulation oven is the suitable equipment. It adopts hot air circulation drying with high temperature resistant axial flow fan and automatic temperature control system. Most hot air is circled inside the oven, and the drying process in hot air tomato drying machine is high heat efficiency and energy saving. Moreover, hot air drying oven is designed for small-scale, medium scale and large scale. You can choose accordingly for making dried tomatoes. Characterized by successful design and the application of advanced technology, hot air tomato drying equipment is widely used in the market.

III. Advantages of Hot Air Tomato Drying Machine

Now you know how to dry tomatoes, let’s see the advantages of hot air tomato drying equipment:
1. The transmission system of hot air drying oven is made of stainless steel or stainless steel chain mesh belt. So the tomato drying machine can regulate working speed so as to keep different materials in suitable drying situation.
2. Electrical heating elements of hot air tomato drying equipment are characterized by high radiation coefficient, low energy consumption, and fast temperature rising.
3. Except for the drying oven rack, the hot air tomato drying machine is made of stainless steel. The thermal insulation materials adopt the alumina silicate fiber, which ensures good heat preservation capacity.
4. The hot air tomato drying equipment is equipped with a voltmeter, an amperemeter, the digital temperature controller, electrical machine, speed controller to ensure its operation in good condition.