I dry most of my items to nearly brittle or brittle, and store them in the cupboard in bags or jars. I've done this with tomatoes, strawberries, apples, zucchini, and herbs. I often have to dehydrate items for 24 hours or more (I have the 10 tray excalibur). I don't know what's available for chemical additives, but I wouldn't be interested in them. I don't think we can expect to fully replicate commercially-produced food at home.

Don't toss those eggplant slices just yet! If they are crispy dry, you can grind them up and add them as a seasoning salt/salted eggplant seasoning to dishes.

What temp are you drying at? And what are you drying your tomatoes on? If you are drying on too low a temp and on solid mats that can be what is preventing your tomatoes from going brittle. Dry on mesh and/or also flip your slices during drying at 145.

Also, might sound kind of dumb.. but are you waiting to test your pieces at full cooled room temp? Most of the time stuff will be bendy and sometimes sticky when still hot from the dehydrator.

I use a pair of Nesco dehydrators. Dry all sorts of stuff. Carrots raw and cooked, celery, onions, mushrooms, sweet potato raw and cooked, tomatoes raw and smoked, peppers raw and smoked, corn, peas, squash puree to make squash flour, broccoli, summer squash, cucumbers, beets. Sometimes cooked dry beans, green beans or mixed veggies. A whole lotta different greens and herbs. Some fruits- strawberries, apples, pineapple, kiwi, and most of the different kinds of citrus. The occasional round of peach flour. Some odder stuff like smoked fish and jerky. A couple things like tomato sauce, enchilada sauce, and salsas. I sometimes dehydrate my own instant rice and instant pasta too :)

Not directly dehydrating, but I also make my own breadcrumbs and a handful of different spice/seasoning mixes.

I tend to store my stuff in glass canning jars. On the kitchen pantry shelf they are usually just the lid and ring. For longer term storage, I will either vacuum seal the jar, or sometimes vacuum seal in bags. A trick for bagged storage with sometimes pokey hard stuff that could potentially damage your bag. Put your dehydrated stuff into a paper lunch bag before putting into your vacuum seal bag.

I find that super dry is a key. If there is questionable water content or fat content, like some of the meaty stuff and sometimes smoked super-sweet tomatoes, or if a sweeter veggie or sauce just won't go brittle. Dehydrated grapes and plumbs too. Those go into the fridge or freezer.

A lot of the shelf-stable commercial dried fruits are still sticky and moist because they are meant to be that way for fresher eating without needing re-hydration. And yes, often have some sorts of chemicals- check the label to be sure. Most of them can be dried down to more brittle, but people don't usually like that, so it isn't commercially feasible to do so.

Even with nice sealed up dehydrated goods- storing them well is important too. Cool, dry, and has air flow. And stored dark is better.

Thank you, both. All of your comments make excellent sense and confirm what I am reading in various places. So far, I have dried everything on the mesh screens that came with my dehydrator. I have been following the temperature recommendations in the manual, so 125-135F. I dry everything until it is brittle, Beesneeds, I love to hear how many different foods you dehydrate. My goal will be to emulate you. Thanks again.

Welcome docmom.

Another thing to keep in mind is how you are going to use the dehydrated stuff. If you don't already cook with dehydrated food... there can be a bit of a learning curve. Some things you want/need to rehydrate before use. Others can be rehydrated during cooking.

For example, tonight I'm using some rehydrated caramelized onion (it gets stored in the fridge) instead of making a fresh batch in the bottom of a tomato pie. I rehydrated sweet corn for the pie too. And putting in a sprinkle of not rehydrated shredded raw zucchini in the bottom of the pie for a bit of anti-soggy insurance, and it will rehydrate during the cooking of the pie :)

Funny, I was reading about dehydrating yesterday - found some useful information here: https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/dry/pack_store.html