Fruit drying and warm water baths

[veganman]

I am wondering about the temperature that fruit is dried at and the practice of some fruit being subjected to a warm water bath (150 - 180 degrees). Some figs and dates are treated this way. Even Living Tree Community (http://www.livingtreecommunity.com/faq.asp) says that is how some of their fruits are treated. They are also dried at 120, 140, 160 degrees - depending on the fruit. Living Tree has a pretty good reputation regarding raw, so I am now confused. The owner said he doesn't believe that this affects the enzymes, but I have my concerns.

Does anyone have any knowledge or experience around this?

[juliebove]

I'm no expert at this but I know it has something to do with the internal temperature of the food. I've read that here in the Pacific Northwest we sometimes have to use a higher temp. to start with on the dehydrator due to our moist air. I will sometimes start out slightly higher for the first hour or two and then turn the dehydrator down.

The book that came with my dehydrator recommends a brief hot water soak prior to dehydrating some fruits because it helps break the skin down and supposedly hastens the dehydration process. Now granted, this is for every day dehydrating. Not necessarily for raw foodists. The first thing I dehydrated was some raisins just to see how the dehydrator worked. I knew what a raisin should look and taste like. This is why I chose to do those. I did give the grapes a soak for a minute in water that had been brought to the boil first. It didn't seem to help. They still took about 2 days to get done. I knew these would not be considered raw. I just wanted to get a feel for the dehydrator before I tried any raw recipes.

[veganman]

Thanks Juliebove. That is great info.

My concern is that which is sold on-line and in HF stores.