Why do dried fruits and such last longer than their fresh counterparts?
In: Chemistry
Bacteria thrives in water, so if you take all the water out then it is very hard for bacteria to reproduce. If you would like to test this try leaving a piece of bread in a container with some water and see how much faster it gets moldy compared to a dry piece of bread.
In general, organisms need three things to grow right: time, temperature, and moisture. If you remove or drastically change one of those elements it becomes increasingly difficult to grow. Dried fruits have much less moisture making anything that would cause it to spoil much more difficult.
There are exceptions of course, like the acidity of a liquid or other organisms that can survive incredible environments, but this will hold true for the most basic of life forms.
One of the ways fruits go bad is by growing mould. Mould likes warm, damp environments. By drying the fruit, you remove the moisture that the mould needs to survive.
The more juice something has, the more germs can live in it. If you get rid of the juice by cooking or dehydrating, less germs can live there.
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