Freeze drying, as compared to other drying processes such as spray drying, or air drying, is used on our sprout products because it is better at retaining the characteristics of the raw food. It is well known that the process retains more flavor components and results in reconstituted textures that most closely approximate the un-dried material. In effect, freeze drying is the least damaging of the drying processes available to food processors. It is not used more extensively simply because its cost is much higher than other processes.

The ability to minimize damage to food attributes and components during drying is the reason for claims that the process is also less damaging to enzyme activity. That is, more enzymes will be active (still able to catalyze chemical reactions) in a freeze dried food than in the same raw material dried in another manner. In fact, the results are so marked that many vegetables dried for commercial use as ingredients in dry soup mixes or army field rations are first put through a blanching treatment to inactivate enzymes that would survive the drying process - for most of the food industry, extreme shelf life is much more important than retention of nutritive properties.

A clear example would be to consider that freeze drying is the method of choice in the lab for preserving protein activity, or even entire organisms, in a dry sample. Freeze drying is the only good way to get a product with a reasonable shelf life that can still be said to be alive.

Freeze drying's ability to better maintain the nutritional properties of foods is documented in many studies. A comparison of drying methods shows why:
 

	Proteins can be denatured by high temperature, oxidation, or by reactions with other cell components, often other proteins.
	Freeze drying occurs in an oxygen-free vacuum at very low temperatures (-20F). And since the product being dried is in a frozen state, there is little mobility at the molecular level - and if molecules can't move, they can't react with each other either.
	Spray drying or air drying, on the other hand, is done in normal atmospheres at much higher temperatures; and since moisture in the product is in a liquid phase, denaturing reactions are free to occur. In general, if a denaturing reaction can occur, higher temperatures and more mobility will make it happen faster and more often.

Dynamic Nutraceuticals' goal of producing a dry, shelf-stable food that is as close as possible to the raw sprout could not be achieved by any other drying method.