• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Tree Top Home
  • Consumer Products
  • Foodservice
  • Ingredients
  • Contract Manufacturing
Tree Top Food Ingredients
Fruit Ingredients
  • About
  • Contact
  • Blogs
  • Fruit Products
      • Fruit Purées
        • Single Strength
          • Apple Blend Purée
          • Apricot Purée
          • Blackberry Purée
          • Blueberry Purée
          • Organic Apple Purée
          • Organic Peach Purée (Cling and Freestone)
          • Organic Pear Purée
          • Peach Purée (Cling and Freestone)
          • Pear Purée
          • Plum Purée
          • Raspberry Purée
          • Strawberry Purée
          • Apple Sauce
      • Fruit Purées
        • Concentrated
          • Apple Purée Concentrate
          • Apricot Purée Concentrate
          • Blackberry Purée Concentrate
          • Blueberry Purée Concentrate
          • Organic Apple Purée Concentrate
          • Organic Apricot Purée Concentrate
          • Peach Blend Purée Concentrate (Cling and Freestone)
          • Pear Purée Concentrate
          • Plum Purée Concentrate
          • Red Raspberry Purée Concentrate
          • Red Tart Cherry Purée Concentrate
          • Strawberry Purée Concentrate
      • Fruit Juice Concentrates
        • Apple Juice Concentrate
        • Blackberry Juice Concentrate
        • Blueberry Juice Concentrate
        • Pear Juice Concentrate
        • Raspberry Juice Concentrate
        • Strawberry Juice Concentrate
      • Dried Fruit
        • Dried Apples – Low Moisture
        • Dried Apples – Intermediate Moisture
        • Dried Apples – Regular Moisture
        • Dried Fruit Powders
        • Dried Pumpkin Flake Powder
      • Fruit Preparations
      • Pet Food Ingredients
      • Specialty Markets
        • Hard Ciders and Alcohol
        • Reduced Sugars
      • Northwest Naturals
  • Resources
      • Specification Sheets
        • Dried Fruit
        • Fruit Purees
        • Apple Sauce
        • Fruit Juice Concentrates
        • Frozen Fruit
        • Fruit Preparations
      • Regulatory Documents
        • Quality Compliance Summary
        • Kosher Certificates
        • Organic Certificates
        • Storage & Shelf Life
        • Other Documents
        • New Customer Packet
      • Product Brochures
        • About Tree Top/Overview
        • Fruit Ingredient Full Product Catalogs
        • Dried Fruit
        • Strawberry Products-Frozen
        • Dairy
        • Hard Ciders
        • Pet Food
        • Northwest Naturals
        • Contract Manufacturing
        • Fruit Serving Calculations
        • Fruit Acid Cards
        • Seasonal Fruit Harvest Chart
      • Videos
      • Webinars
      • White Papers
      • Calculators
      • Market Trends News
      • Contract Manufacturing
  • Applications
      • Biscuits – Scones
      • Breads
      • Cakes
      • Cookies
      • Drinks
      • Entrees
      • Frozen Novelties
      • Gluten Free
      • Low Sugar – No Sugar
      • Muffins
      • Other Desserts
      • Pet Food
      • Pies
      • Plant Based
      • Salads
      • Sauces
      • Sides
      • Smoothies
      • Snack Bars
      • Snacks
      • Soups
      • Vegetable
  • Crop Info
        • Crop Report Blog

        • General Crop Info

        • Meet our Growers & Field Reps

        • Crop Information
        • Apples
        • Blackberries
        • Cherries
        • Grapes
        • Peaches
        • Pears
        • Raspberries
        • Strawberries
  • Samples
  • Fruit Products
    • Fruit Purées
    • Fruit Juice Concentrates
    • Dried Fruit
    • Fruit Preparations
    • Pet Food Ingredients
    • Specialty Markets
      • Hard Ciders & Alcohol
      • Reduced Sugars
    • Northwest Naturals
  • Resources
    • Specification Sheets
    • Regulatory Documents
    • Product Brochures
    • Videos
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Calculators
    • Market Trends News
    • Contract Manufacturing
  • Crop Info
    • Crop Report Blog
    • General Crop Info
    • Meet Our Growers & Field Reps
  • Blogs
    • Crop Report Blog
    • R&D Blog
    • Market Insights Blog
    • Pet Scoop Blog
    • Quality Food & Safety Insights
  • Sample Request
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Applications
  • Tree Top Sites
    • Tree Top Home
    • Consumer Products
    • Foodservice
    • Ingredients
    • Contract Manufacturing

Tree Top Fruit Ingredients

More Fruit, More Forms

Hide Search

Why Use Dried Apples?

Kevin Holland · May 24, 2019

Tree Top transforms fruit into numerous dried ingredients for the food industry. Drying is one of the oldest preservation technologies and continues to be a successful practice. Originally, drying was performed in order to keep foodstuffs for a longer period of time and to smooth out the period between feasts and famines. Not only does drying allow us to enjoy fruit year round, but it has also been helpful to manage moisture levels, influence the appearance of fruit in applications, and made it economical to ship fruits worldwide.

Tree Top dries apples to several different moisture levels. Evaporated apples have been dried to 12-26% moisture. Low moisture apples are air dried to less than 4% moisture. When an item falls between evaporated and low moisture, it is called intermediate moisture. These differences in moisture content have an enormous effect on texture. Evaporated products are soft and chewy whereas low moisture is crunchy. Often when speaking to a food scientist about our products water activity is brought up. The water activity of low moisture pieces is less than 0.2. For evaporated pieces, the water activity ranges from 0.5-0.75. A water activity of less than 0.65 is usually considered shelf stable. Evaporated apples that are above 0.65 have sulfites applied, which work as an antimicrobial and allow the apples to be shelf stable at a higher water activity. Because apples contain sugars, they are hygroscopic. This combination of lower moisture fruit with sugars makes them a great option to help rein in water in a formulation.

Dried fruit comes in an array of sizes and shapes, which allow a developer to choose the perfect piece for their product. Air dried apples can be made into dices, slices, wedges, granules, chips, or can be rolled into flakes to allow for quick re-hydration. Air dried pieces range from as small as an 8 mesh granule up to a wedge. As pieces get smaller there is a higher piece count per pound that may be advantageous in some applications. There is also the option to leave the peel on or take it off depending on the desired outcome. Additionally, fruit purees may be drum dried to produce a powder ranging from 20 mesh up to 4 mesh. Drum dried powders are a great way to add fruit to a whole range of applications. Both drum dried powders and granules are a fantastic way to add fruit pieces in a topical application.

Apples are approximately 85% water when they are picked from the tree. Through the drying process water is greatly reduced. This increases the shelf life up to 48 months depending on the final moisture content and storage temperature. This reduction in moisture also makes it economical to ship more apples more places. As an example, 100 lbs. of fresh apple dices will dry down to a little over 15 lbs. of low moisture. That is a lot of water you don’t have to ship.

Drying continues to be an important process to transform fruit into more forms that extends into more possibilities.

Tree Top’s dried fruit products provide excellent piece identity, great texture, and are shelf stable in a variety of applications. Explore all our dried fruit products and let us create the perfect ingredient for your next application formulation.

Blog Categories

Sign Up For Our Latest News

Receive the latest news and research right in your inbox!

Blog Home

Categories

  • Apples
  • Apricots
  • Blackberries
  • Blueberries
  • Cherries
  • Concord Grapes
  • Crop Report Blog
  • Market Insights Blog
  • Nectarines
  • Peaches
  • Pears
  • Pet Scoop Blog
  • Plums
  • Quality Food and Safety Insights
  • Raspberries
  • Research and Development Blog
  • Strawberries
  • Uncategorized
  • Weather Conditions
  • Ingredients Products
  • Fruit Purées
  • Apple Sauce
  • Fruit Juice Concentrates
  • Dried Fruit
  • Specialty Markets
  • Fruit Preparations
  • Resources
  • Request Samples
  • Spec Sheets
  • Regulatory Documents
  • Crop Information
  • Harvest Chart
  • Applications
  • Sales Materials
  • Videos
  • Webinars
  • White Papers
  • Market Trends
  • About Us
  • Our Story
  • Facilities
  • Citizenship/Sustainability
  • Contract Manufacturing
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Blogs
  • Crop Update
  • Research and Development
  • Market Insights
  • Pet Scoop
  • Quality Food and Safety Insights
Northwest Naturals
Tree Top Ingredients Newsletter

Sign up to receive our monthly blog full of industry news and insights designed to keep you informed – delivered to your inbox.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.