Strawberry Freeze Drying Practice

Freeze drying technology has been applied in fruit industry for decades, especially for seasonal fruits which are not easy to store. As per the technology advances, freeze drying cost is reduced, thus, more and more freeze dried fruits are appeared on market.

Freeze-dried fruits are healthy, they have more fiber and antioxidants than fresh ones. And are organic that stored no need refrigerated or  with chemicals. One of the most hot sale freeze dried fruits on market is strawberry, it can be packed for sale or for further processing (as other products’ ingredient).

One client wants to expand their product lines, integrate freeze dried to their product range. Thus, need verify the performance of Vikumer freeze dried fruit machines. Check the dried product quality before they invest freeze drying technology. So, we made a test with strawberries.

In the test, we freeze dry strawberries entirely, quarter, cubes and sliced to pieces. Here are the results.

Half-half strawberries before and after freeze dry

Sliced strawberries before and after freeze dry

Cubed strawberries before and after freeze dry

1. Freeze dry entire strawberries need short batch duration, Freeze dry strawberry slices and cubes need 5~6hrs longer.
2. Freeze drying cycle for strawberry is 25hrs around.
3. The freeze dry machine we use is Vikumer BFD-10, a lab scale freeze dryer, stainless steel shelves and trays.
   • If use aluminum alloy shelves and trays machine, the drying time can reduce 2~3hrs.
   • Our loading volume is 1.5X than standard/suggested, with standard loading, the drying time also can reduce.