Oven-Dried vs Freeze-Dried Fruit: Which One Fits Your Product?

When you buy dried fruit, you will mostly come across two methods: oven drying, which uses hot air, and freeze drying. Both remove the water from the fruit, but in very different ways. Which one suits you depends on where you will use the fruit, your budget and the texture you expect.

How do the two methods work?

Oven drying dries sliced fruit with hot air circulating at a controlled temperature. The water evaporates, the fruit shrinks a little and its sugars concentrate.

Freeze drying first freezes the fruit, then turns the ice straight into vapour under vacuum. The fruit hardly shrinks at all and ends up porous, very light and melt-in-the-mouth.

Side by side

• Texture: Oven-dried fruit is crisp or slightly chewy and keeps its slice shape. Freeze-dried fruit is airy and brittle, and it melts in the mouth.
• Appearance: Oven drying makes slices a little thinner and deepens the colour. Freeze-dried fruit keeps almost all of its volume and shape.
• Durability: Oven-dried slices break less during transport and mixing. Freeze-dried fruit is fragile and pulls moisture from the air quickly, so it needs very tight packaging.
• Cost: Freeze drying is a long, energy-intensive vacuum process, and its cost per kilo is usually much higher. Oven drying is more economical at large volumes.
• Uses: Oven-dried slices shine in garnishes, drinks, tea blends, chocolate coating and snacks. Freeze-dried fruit is mostly used in breakfast cereal mixes, light snacks and fruit powders.

Which should you choose?

If the fruit will be seen as a slice (a glass garnish, a cake topping, chocolate-dipped orange) or you need an economical, sturdy ingredient in large volumes, oven drying is the right choice. If a very light, melt-in-the-mouth texture and keeping the fruit's full volume are critical, freeze drying is worth considering.

Shemsana produces its fruit on oven drying and convection drying lines at its facility in Mersin. See the vivid colours that oven drying keeps in fruit like kiwi, strawberry and dragon fruit on our product pages. Not sure which product fits your needs? Ask us.