Do you remember Grandma Meri and her candied fruits? What delicious treats we made using only fruit, water, and sugar, right?

Let me tell you another of her secrets. When Meri picked fruit, especially in summer, she dried it in the air so it would not spoil. This way, she could keep it for much longer, creating a tasty snack and a great source of fiber.

However, times change and dreams grow. Now Lili, her granddaughter, enters the story. Lili has inherited her grandmother’s curiosity, but she does not look at the orchard—she looks at the sky. Lili wants to be an astronaut!

Lili has a dream: to reach the stars. But as a future astronaut, she knows that in space every gram matters. Even though she loves her grandmother Meri’s candied fruits, taking them on a trip is a problem: they are heavy because of the syrup and, let’s be honest, too sticky! In a zero-gravity cabin, where washing your hands is not easy, a drop of floating sugar could be a disaster for the instruments.

Lili has done her research and knows that the food industry has made a big step into the future: freeze-drying. Thanks to this technique, there are now even sweets that keep their color and flavor, but become light and crunchy because they lose their water.

For Lili, it is not just food; it is the technology that will help her survive far from Earth without losing the flavors of her home.

But what exactly is freeze-drying? What is the difference between drying and dehydration?

We are about to move from the heat of the sun to the vacuum of space and extreme cold. Are you ready to enter the freeze-drying chamber?