<\/p>
It\u2019s actually pretty similar to regular drying. Molecules in a liquid are more tightly bound than in a gas, but at the surface, there are always some that get bumped enough by their neighbours to jump clear \u2013 like a snooker ball getting bounced off the table by a powerful shot.<\/p>\n
Drying is just molecules getting progressively jostled out of the liquid until they\u2019re all gone. The same thing happens with the molecules in a solid too but, since they\u2019re bound even more tightly, it happens more slowly. A vacuum speeds the process up dramatically, because there are no air molecules to ricochet the \u2018jumpers\u2019 back down, and so any that do break free can make good their escape.<\/p>\n
Freeze drying is very useful for food preservation. The food is first frozen to prevent the food from spoiling, and it is then dried slowly in a vacuum for several days, with carefully controlled heat, to gently remove the water without affecting the food structure.<\/p>\n
Discover more about food:<\/strong><\/p>\n Asked by: Jonathan Neville, Luton<\/strong><\/p>\n To submit your questions email us at questions@sciencefocus.com (don\u2019t forget to include your name and location)<\/em><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n By Luis Villazon Published: Friday, 04 February 2022 at 12:00 am It\u2019s actually pretty similar to regular drying. Molecules in a liquid are more tightly bound than in a gas, but at the surface, there are always some that get bumped enough by their neighbours to jump clear \u2013 like a snooker ball getting bounced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":5817,"template":"","categories":[30],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/02\/how-does-freeze-drying-work.jpg",1200,511,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/02\/how-does-freeze-drying-work-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/02\/how-does-freeze-drying-work-300x128.jpg",300,128,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/02\/how-does-freeze-drying-work-768x327.jpg",768,327,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/02\/how-does-freeze-drying-work-1024x436.jpg",800,341,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/02\/how-does-freeze-drying-work.jpg",1200,511,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/02\/how-does-freeze-drying-work.jpg",1200,511,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Luis Villazon Published: Friday, 04 February 2022 at 12:00 am It\u2019s actually pretty similar to regular drying. Molecules in a liquid are more tightly bound than in a gas, but at the surface, there are always some that get bumped enough by their neighbours to jump clear \u2013 like a snooker ball getting bounced…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/5816"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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