An apparatus and method for microwave vacuum-drying of organic materialssuch as food products. The dehydration apparatus (20) has a vacuum chamber(24) with an input module (28) at one end and a discharge module (32) at theother. The vacuum chamber has access doors (80) spaced between the inputend (30) and the discharge end (34) which provide operator and maintenanceaccess. Microwave generators (86) are mounted on each access door andarranged to radiate through a microwave chamber and microwave-transparentwindow on the access door into the vacuum chamber. A pair of rollers (60) inthe vacuum chamber rotates the container of organic material (112) about ahorizontal axis, and a chain drive (64) pulls the containers along the rollersthrough the vacuum chamber.
