Frozen fruit products

Frozen fruit products are food items made from fruits that have been frozen and packaged for retail sale. The category spans several distinct product formats, each with its own handling and line requirements: whole frozen fruit such as berries, grapes, cherries and pineapple frozen and sold as individual fruits; frozen fruit blends, which are mixtures of different fruits blended and frozen; frozen fruit purees, made by blending fruit until it is smooth and then freezing it; frozen fruit desserts, made from frozen fruit together with other ingredients such as sugar, cream or milk; and frozen fruit snacks, made by freezing individual pieces of fruit such as grapes or berries and then packaging them for sale.

Commercial production follows a defined sequence. Fruit is sourced fresh from farms and orchards around the world, then sorted to remove any damaged or unripe fruit. Sorted fruit is processed — washed, peeled, and cut into the desired shape and size — before freezing. Freezing is carried out using a variety of methods, including blast freezing, individual quick freezing (IQF) and plate freezing. The finished product is packaged into bags, cartons or other containers.

For a plant owner, the product format and the freezing method chosen together drive the layout of the line. Whole fruit and snack formats depend on gentle handling through sorting and cutting so individual pieces stay intact, while purees and desserts add blending and ingredient dosing steps ahead of the freezer. PMG Engineering designs and supervises frozen fruit processing facilities from concept to commissioning, matching the sourcing, sorting, processing, freezing and packaging stages to the product mix the plant intends to sell.