Why Dehydration Extends Shelf Life Without Sacrificing Flavor

Dried fruit spoils or stays shelf-stable based on water activity (how much of the remaining moisture is actually available to microorganisms), not just the raw humidity percentage. That's why our dehydrated dice specifications carry both a humidity figure and, for our NMD2 format, an explicit water activity value of 0.78.

Our apple flakes ship in two moisture tiers: LM at under 5% humidity, and NM at 15%. The lower-moisture LM tier maximizes shelf life and is milled down to semolina and powder formats; the 15% NM tier retains more chew and texture, which matters for cereal and snack applications where mouthfeel is part of the product experience.

CD (conventionally dried) and NMD2 dice are cut and dried to defined size bands (for example 5–10mm and 10–20mm for cherry, raspberry and strawberry) because dice size determines rehydration behavior during baking, distribution in a dry mix, and how the piece reads visually in the finished product. Getting the size band wrong shows up as uneven rehydration or pieces that sink or float inconsistently in a batter.

Specify by water activity and dice band, not just 'dried fruit.' It's the difference between a shelf-stable ingredient that performs consistently in your process and one that becomes a quality-control problem six months into a production run. Full flake, powder and dice specifications are in our Dehydrated Fruit & Vegetable product range.