Abstract: A process of converting food waste to a dry rehydratable, edible food material, including the steps of collecting large quantities of edible food and food scraps at one location, feeding food and food scraps to a device for chopping to comminute the food and food scraps to a mixture of food pieces, feeding the mixture of food pieces to a device for grinding the mixture to a flowable mixture of homogeneous food particles, feeding the flowable mixture of homogeneous food particles to a filter to extract a portion of liquid therefrom to product a more flowable mixture of homogeneous food particles, subjecting food particles to intimate contact with ultra-violet radiation to kill unwanted bacteria and viruses in the mixture, feeding an irradiated mixture of homogeneous food particles to a drying device for drying the mixture of food particles to a dry mixture of homogeneous food particles that are packageable and later rehydratable with addition of liquid.