Best Powdered Eggs (Freeze Dried and Dehydrated Options)

Want to stockpile eggs for emergencies? Eggs are surprisingly one of the trickiest items to store long-term. Unless you invest in a freeze dryer machine, you’ll need to buy powdered eggs.

Best Whole Egg Powders

What Are Powdered Eggs?

Powdered eggs are real eggs that have all moisture removed from them. They are made by using either freeze-drying or spray drying.

Freeze Drying:

Freeze-drying involves putting foods into a special chamber that freezes the food so the water in it turns to ice. A pump then removes air from the chamber to create a vacuum, thus creating a low-pressure environment. The ice evaporates in this environment, and special condensers remove the water vapor, leaving you with dry food.

Spray Drying:

Spray drying is a process that turns liquids into dry powder.

To spray dry eggs, they are first preheated and then put into the spray drying chamber. Very hot air (up to 300F) passes through the chamber. The hot air causes moisture to evaporate rapidly, leaving behind a powder. The powder separates from the air and is removed from the chamber.

Which is better: Freeze-dried or spray-dried eggs?

Both freeze-dried and spray-dried eggs are very similar. Most people won’t be able to notice much of a difference between the final products.

However, freeze-dried eggs usually are slightly better in terms of texture. Freeze-dried eggs also reconstitute better. This is because spray drying heats the eggs, thus changing their composition.

Spray drying is usually cheaper and easier to produce large batches. Because of this, most powdered eggs are made with spray drying and not freeze-drying.

Can I Make Powdered Eggs At Home?

If you have a home freeze-drying machine, you can make powdered eggs at home. These machines are expensive, though, and not widely available. Spray drying machines aren’t designed for home use. They are usually massive industrial machines that cost thousands of dollars to buy.

Is it possible to make egg powder in a dehydrator?

No, it is not possible to make powdered eggs with a food dehydrator. The proteins get very hard when you dry eggs on a home dehydrator. They end up gross and rubbery when you try to rehydrate them and don’t even work for baking.

*Note that plenty of videos online show how to dehydrate eggs and blend them into a powder. The eggs will get dry – they lose all their desirable properties. You need a spray dryer or freeze dryer if you want to make powdered eggs!

Also read: Foods you can’t dehydrate

Powdered Eggs vs. Fresh Eggs

When cooked, powdered and fresh eggs taste the same. The texture of powdered eggs is sometimes a bit different, though, especially if you didn’t mix the powder with water well enough.

Nutritionally, both are great sources of protein and minerals. Powdered eggs have fewer vitamins and certain other nutrients than fresh eggs because those nutrients break down during production and storage.

So, fresh eggs are better than powdered eggs in texture and nutrition (though not by much). Fresh eggs are also usually cheaper than powdered eggs. However, powdered eggs are better in almost every other way.

Benefits of Powdered Eggs:

• Don’t break or crack
• Have a very long shelf life
• Easy to transport
• Take up less space in storage

*If you don’t want to buy powdered eggs, another option is to freeze eggs. There are also many egg alternatives you can use for baking.

What’s your favorite brand of powdered eggs? Let us know in the comments section below.

+ Resources