Freeze Dried Ingredients

Chaucer Foods is one of the world's leading suppliers of freeze dried ingredients with manufacturing facilities in Europe and China. It has an extensive range of freeze dried products to suit many applications particularly in fruits, vegetables, herbs and cheese.

Chaucer foods is also at the forefront in applying freeze drying technology to develop new and innovative ingredients that combine the key benefits of naturalness, superior flavour and rapid re-hydration. Chaucer Food's leading edge developments are finding applications in many areas of the Food Industry as well as in nutraceutical and pharmaceutical uses.
What is freeze drying?

Freeze drying is a form of dehydration that removes water from food. During the process, a deep frozen product is held under a very high vacuum at a temperature well below its freezing point. Ice in the product is removed as steam without passing through the liquid state (a process known as sublimation). This 'gentle' form of dehydration minimises destruction of cells and fibres, which means that freeze dried products retain many of their original characteristics when re-hydrated.

What are the advantages of the freeze dried process?

The freeze dried process enables the manufacture of dehydrated ingredients at low temperature that supply many of the characteristics of fresh products, once re-hydrated in instant applications.

The benefits of freeze dried products are:

Rapid re-hydration (even for relatively large piece sizes).
Good flavour retention. (Minimal loss of volatiles because of the low temperature dehydration process).
Good retention of shape and colour.
Low nutrient loss.
No added ingredients.
Long shelf life. (Typically 12 to 18 months).
Light weight. (Reducing transport and storage costs).
Ready and easy to use. (Avoiding pre-processing such as washing).
What types of products can be freeze dried?

A wide variety of products can benefit from the application of freeze dried technology where the water level is reduced, or effectively removed. The main product types are:

Mushrooms.
Many types of vegetables.
Fruits and berries.
Poultry meat and fish.
Condiments and herbs.
Cheese and dairy products.
Complete foods and prepared meals.
Nutraceutical and pharmaceutical products.
What applications are freeze dried ingredients used in?

Freeze dried ingredients are used in a variety of sweet and savoury foods where strong visual appeal (visibility of large pieces) and instant re-hydration are important requirements.

Also, freeze dried ingredients are suited to more natural applications because nothing is added to the food during freeze drying. Authenticity of flavour, colour and appearance along with low nutrient loss are also important characteristics in these types of applications.

Freeze dried vegetables, mushrooms, meats and some cheeses are typically used in instant soups, pot snacks and dried instant meals. Freeze dried fruits are extensively used in modern breakfast cereals and cereal bars. They are finding increasing use in many other areas of the Food Industry including chocolate confectionary, desserts, bakery products, biscuits and speciality teas.

Many freeze dried herbs are packed into retail packs, such as glass jars, or food service formats, for use in the kitchen.

What products does Chaucer Foods produce?

Chaucer Foods produces a wide range of freeze dried ingredients. These are available in a number of different formats.

Whole products - Whole vegetables, fruits, herbs etc. that are freeze dried without cutting.
Pieces - Whole vegetables, fruits, herbs etc. that are freeze dried and cut to specific particle sizes depending on the type of application.
Slices - Whole vegetables, fruits, herbs etc. that have been cut into slices and freeze dried.
Powder - Whole vegetables, fruits, herbs etc that have been freeze dried and ground to a powder, typically less than 1mm in size.

For more information on Chaucer Food's range of freeze dried ingredients, click on the following categories.

Freeze dried fruits.
Freeze dried mushrooms, vegetables & herbs.
Freeze dried cheeses.
Freeze dried innovations and developments.