What kind of screen is food-safe for dehydrator trays?

[Tirza]

I know that some dehyrdrators come with what looks like window screen on the trays. Mine came with plastic canvas, which has holes too large for some doughs. On a previous thread we were talking about spreading cracker dough right on the tray so it would dry faster. Obviously I couldn't do that-it would press through. So I got my husband to buy some window screen for me and I cut it to size. Now I am wondering if this stuff is really food-safe. It is the fibreglass kind, not aluminum.

[juliebove]

What kind do you have? Mine is the American Harvest and it came with a couple of "fruit leather" sheets. These are what I use. I had to buy many more of the sheets though. They're mainly what I use.

[Revvell]

If you dry it wet on a screen of any sort, it seems to me that it will stick to and around the screen making it difficult to remove which is why I use teflex sheets. After it dries so it doesn't stick anymore, flip it over.

Yes, it takes longer than just putting on a screen yet, I can easily wash the sheet. I'd love to hear if someone does it another way.

[Tirza]

So far I only have the L'Equip. It is rectangular, heats from the bottom like the round ones, with a hole up the middle of all the trays. I got Teflex sheets and cut them to size, and they work fine, but someone mentioned that using them increases the drying time for her crackers and that she only spreads the dough directly onto her trays. I had to get the screen to be able to do that, and it did work very well. I do like it, but I am concerned about any possible chemical reactions with the acids from things like tomatoes, onions, etc. Don't want to poison us. That is of course why I didn't get the aluminum screen. I thought that there was some made of nylon, and wondered if that would be good, but it seems that they only had the fibreglass. At least that won't rust.

[juliebove]

The sheets will cut down on the drying time, but I don't think there's any way around that. You will have to put them on there at least for a while. Otherwise you'll have a mess as they drip through the tray! Some things can be put on the solid sheet then when flipped put on the mesh sheets. Mine also comes with (or can be ordered separately) some mesh sheet with smaller holes in them, but I wouldn't try putting a flax cracker directly on them unless it had already been partially dehydrated on the solid sheet first.