Whenever you’re experimenting with diets, like the raw food diet, or you’re simply wanting to incorporate more healthy food and habits into your life, having handy tools around the kitchen to make raw living just a tad bit easier can mean the world. In this article, we’ll be providing you with raw food dehydrator reviews, covering our 5 favorite options!
Let’s get started, shall we?
What Exactly is Raw Food?
Raw food is food that hasn’t been exposed to high temperatures, or temperatures above 115 degrees Fahrenheit. Foods that remain below this temperature will retain all — or the majority — of their nutritional content, vitamins, and minerals, and so forth.
The Benefits of Dehydrating Raw Foods
There are many benefits to dehydrating raw foods at a temperature that will help them to retain the utmost amount of their nutritional content. The first, and likely most obvious, is that you’ll now have a way to preserve and store food rather than have it go bad and to waste. Dehydrated foods can last in storage over a decade, which means you’ll be stocked up and ready to go in the event of an emergency (or the on-the-fly trip to hike in the mountains).
By dehydrating raw foods, you’ll also be getting a plethora of essential nutrients and vitamins such as Vitamin C, Vitamin A, and Calcium, since these delicate nutrients won’t be totally destroyed during the heating process. So, instead of supplementing nutrients into your diet with pills and gummies, you’ll be eating the nutrients! Overall, by eating raw foods, even dehydrated ones, you’ll feel better, look better, and experience many health benefits!
Raw Food Dehydrator Reviews
Because the raw food diet focuses on health and healthy living, we’ll only be reviewing dehydrators that have little to no plastic and have BPA-free components. Bear in mind that dehydrators with less or no plastic are a tad more expensive than plastic dehydrators. If you’re looking for a budget buy, be sure to check out our article reviewing the Best Food Dehydrators under $100!
1. Magic Mill Food Dehydrator Machine
The Magic Mill Food Dehydrator Machine is compact, sleek, and functions exceptionally in a home setting. Its modest size, shiny black surface, and digital display make this dehydrator tastefully modern and perfect for matching virtually any kitchen’s decor. Unlike many food dehydrators, the Magic Mill dries food evenly in one go — without you having to rotate the trays. All of the operation and control is digital, including temperature control, the timer, and the Keep Warm function, in which the machine will run for up to another 24 hours at 95 degrees Fahrenheit.
This machine can dehydrate foods at 95 degrees to 165 degrees Fahrenheit (with the lowest temperature being best for raw foods and the highest being more ideal for meats) and can be set to 24 to 30-hour dry times. Keep in mind that the dehydrating process is in 30-minute increments. Once the timer ends, the safety system will prompt the machine to automatically shut off.
The door of the dehydrator is see-through so that you can easily view the progress of your food. By the way, did we mention that this dehydrator can dehydrate up to 7 pounds of food at once? It includes a large capacity of 7, removable, stainless steel racks, 2 fine mesh sheets, and 2 fruit leather trays — all of which are dishwasher safe! Plus, a set of mitts are included with your purchase (how much better can this dehydrator get?).
Lastly, the Magic Mill Food Dehydrator features a rear-mounted 480-watt fan for even heat distribution and avoiding flavor crossing.
What We Like:
- The sleek appearance and modern digital display function
- Modest size — perfect for any-sized kitchen or countertop
- The thermostat can be used for both raw foods and meats
- 24 to 30-hour dry times (in 30-minute increments)
- Automatic shut-off after timer ends
- BPA free
- Powerful 480-watt, rear-mounted fan
2. COSORI Premium Food Dehydrator Machine
With thousands of positive reviews, it’s clear that the COSORI Premium Food Dehydrator Machine is an option well worth considering. It contains 6 food-grade, stainless steel trays, 1 mesh screen, and 1 fruit roll sheet and is super easy to use thanks to its digital display and four buttons including the ON and OFF button, Temperature and Time button, and up and down buttons to control the temperature and timer. The timer can bet set in 30-minute increments up to 48 hours.
This dehydrator is FDA compliant and safe to use with BPA-free tray liners (that go alongside the food-grade stainless steel drying trays) and it features an automatic shut off so that when the timer ends, the dehydrator shuts off by itself. It also has overheat protection, which responds by shutting the machine off if it detects that it’s getting too hot. The COSORI is also pleasantly quiet to use at less than 48 decibels, which is the level of noise found in the average library. Both the trays and tray liners are easy to clean and dishwasher safe, just be sure to place the tray liner in the top rack of your dishwasher and remove them before the drying cycle.
What We Like:
- Highly rated and raved about by thousands of users
- 6 food-grade stainless steel trays
- Comes with a mesh screen and fruit roll sheet
- Digital display and simple function
- Safe to use: BPA-free, FDA compliant, Auto Shut Off and Overheat Protection
- Trays and tray liners are dishwasher safe
- Quiet and safe to use
3. Chefman Food Dehydrator Machine
Sleek black and perfect for matching any type of kitchen decor, the Chefman Food Dehydrator Machine is stylish and of decent quality. It has 6 food-grade, BPA-free plastic trays, and a beautiful digital display to control the time and temperature of the dehydrator. Operation is exceedingly simple, as the display only has 4 buttons for powering ON/OFF, setting Time or Temperature, and lowering or adding to the temperature or time. This dehydrator can operate at temperatures ranging from 95 degrees to 158 degrees Fahrenheit, making it an ideal option for dehydrating fruits, vegetables, and meats alike.
You can dehydrate up to 19.5 at a time and, as a safety precaution and to prevent your food from burning, the Chefman will automatically shut off once the time has ended. There’s no need to rotate the trays, as the Chefman has an efficient means of drying food. The frontal, transparent window allows you to view the process so that you can remove the food at your preferred dried stage.
It’s also highly rated and relatively affordable at a little over a hundred dollars, making it a decent budget-buy.
What We Like:
- Sleek, black appearance
- Beautiful digital display
- Easy to operate
- Relatively affordable
- Viewing window
- Can cook up to 19.5 hours at a time
- No tray rotation needed
- Can cook at as low as 95 degrees and as high as 158 degrees Fahrenheit
4. Ivation 10 Tray Commercial Food Dehydrator Machine
A tad on the expensive side, though possibly well worth the money, the Ivation Commercial Food Dehydrator Machine is an excellent choice for large families, or for those concerned about having an abundant food supply in storage. It features a whopping 10 stainless steel trays (no plastic!) along with a stainless steel body. The entire dehydrator is also made with BPA-free parts. So not only is the unit aesthetically appealing, but it’s also free of harmful chemicals. Both the trays and drip tray at the bottom of the dehydrator are easy to clean and dishwasher safe.
It features a sleek digital display with four easy-to-use buttons for temperature, time, and power control. The temperature ranges from 95 degrees to 167 degrees Fahrenheit, making it perfect for thicker fruits, vegetables, and all kinds of meats. The powerful rear-mounted fan is run by 1000 watts to evenly dry foods without flavor crossing and heat coming from all angles. You can heat food in 30-minute increments for up to 24 hours at a time.
What We Like:
- Trays and body are made with stainless steel rather than plastic
- BPA-free materials (the entire unit)
- Wide temperature range to tackle bigger jobs
- Runs in 30-minute increments for up to 24 hours
- Powerful 1000-watt rear-mounted fan
- Sleek design
- Drip tray and stainless steel trays are all dishwasher safe for easy cleanup
5. JAYETEC Food Dehydrators, Commercial Stainless Steel Dehydrator Raw
* This is a review of the silver JAYETEC Food Dehydrator. Other JAYETEC products are available for purchase in the same listing.
The JAYETEC Commercial Stainless Steel Dehydrator is unique in that it is an elongated, rectangular dehydrator rather than your average box dehydrator. It features 6 stainless steel drying trays that are removable for making dehydrating thicker fruits, veggies, or meats easier. This dehydrator is very simple to use and consists of an ON/OFF switch and a dial to set the temperature. There is also a handy drying guide to help you decide which temperature would be best for whatever you’re trying to dehydrate. The JAYETEC dehydrator has a temperature range of 95 degrees to 158 degrees Fahrenheit, making this unit great for all types of foods and various thicknesses.
So you can keep track of the process your dehydrated food is making, this dehydrator features a front glass viewing window. It features overheat protection so that the unit will automatically shut off if it detects it’s getting too hot, along with an automatic shutoff feature for when the timer ends so that your food doesn’t burn.
What We Like:
- 6 stainless steel trays
- BPA-free unit
- Temperature range is delicate enough to dehydrate fruits and tough enough to dehydrate thick meats
- Viewing window
- Automatic shutoff and overheat protection implementation
- Handy drying guide
- Easy operation
Final Thoughts
When it comes to our raw food dehydrator reviews, we’ve decided that our favorite is the Magic Mill Food Dehydrator Machine is the way to go! The unit is sleek and black with a modern digital display, making it great for any type of kitchen decor, it’s a powerful machine capable of drying even the toughest meats or the most delicate of fruits, it features a Keep Warm function, is safe to use, and has a viewing window to check on the progress.Β
Overall, no matter which raw food dehydrator you decide on, we’re confident that each of them will serve their purpose and perform well!