Learning how to store dried fruit long-term will ensure your family can benefit from the nutrition of dried fruits for months and years. Fortunately, long-term storage of dried fruits can be simple as the key is to keep them away from the major causes of spoilage, such as air, moisture, heat, and light.
When stored properly, dried fruit can last up to 12 months in a pantry, 2 years in the fridge, and indefinitely in the freezer. Since dried fruits have a low moisture concentration, they have a long shelf life. Read on to learn practical tips for maximizing the shelf life of dried fruits.
Dehydrated fruits undergo a drying process in which the majority of the moisture is removed from the fruit. Due to it being dehydrated, dried fruits have a much longer shelf life than regular fruits and do not require refrigeration. This makes dried fruits a healthy snack alternative, filled with nutrients, fibers, and antioxidants. Plus, the long shelf life helps secure a stable and consistent food supply in an emergency scenario.
Fruits that are often dehydrated are raisins (dried grapes), figs, prunes, apricots, bananas, mangos, cranberries, pineapples, blueberries, and apples. Mangos and pineapples are often sugar-coated.
Whether you dehydrated the fruit yourself or bought it from a supermarket, it is important to properly store the dried fruit to maximize its shelf life. This often requires a few extra steps to ensure the dried fruit is kept in a dark place as well as not exposed to air or excess moisture. Below are some helpful tips to ensure you can store dried fruit:
This habit is crucial yet often overlooked. Most of us don’t realize that even if our containers were sterilized, the food could still get bacteria from our hands. Bacteria can cause food to spoil, so it’s important to maintain proper hygiene while storing dried foods.
To prevent this, simply wash your hands thoroughly before handling the food and containers. If possible, it’s best to wear gloves, too.
Bacteria thrive best in moist, warm conditions, and this is the last thing you want if you intend to store food long-term. Therefore, after the dehydration process, let your dried fruit sit and cool down completely first before storing them away.
The best way to keep bacteria off is to wash the containers and sterilize them if possible. Then, ensure they’re completely dry before putting the dried fruits in.
This part is crucial because even a little moisture is enough for the tiniest microbes to multiply. Once they’ve started on their business, you know it’s irreversible, and there won’t be much that you can do.
When storing food for long-term storage, airtight containers are the ideal storage containers. Oxygen exposure is one of the main causes of spoilage; however, by using an airtight container, you can prevent the food from being exposed to air.
So, how do you know that a container is airtight? Here’s how you can run a leak test:
Even the tiniest amount of escaping water means that your canister isn’t airtight after all. If so, use it to keep other items, just maybe not food.
In addition to canning jars, mylar bags and food-grade 5-gallon buckets are popular airtight storage containers for larger quantities.
Related Article: Long Term Food Storage in Mason Jars
Related Article: How to store food in Mylar Bags: A Guide for Beginners
Related Article: How to store food in 5 Gallon Buckets
Once you have confirmed the containers are sterilized and leakproof, you are ready to pour the fruits into the container. You can fill the canning jar up to 80%-90%, which should leave enough space for oxygen absorbers. Once you add the oxygen absorbers, apply the lid and seal it tightly.
Oxygen absorbers are helpful prepper tools that absorb any remaining oxygen in the container after it has been sealed, helping extend the shelf life of the dried fruits.
Related Article: Oxygen Absorbers vs. Silica Gel Packets
The storage location of your dried food will have a major effect on its shelf life. Read on to learn how different locations effect the shelf life.
This reminder can be found in virtually every food packaging and for a good reason. It’s because bacteria and mold love warm, moist places. Additionally, light, no matter how faint, emits heat energy that’s enough for mold to thrive. This is why it affects our food, even if we don’t physically feel its warmth.
So, if you intend to store dried fruits at room temperature, it’s important to keep them in a cool, dark place.
At room temperature, the shelf life of dried fruits is typically 12 months. When using oxygen absorbers, the shelf life can be extended to 10 years.
Refrigerators and freezers are excellent storage locations because the colder temperature and lack of light are ideal conditions for long-term storage of dried foods. For this, make sure you’re using moisture-proof containers or bags.
In a fridge, the shelf life of dried fruits can be up to 2 years. When stored in a freezer, dried fruits can be stored indefinitely.
Using vacuum-sealed bags that are more than 3 mm in thickness is an effective way to protect dried fruits from the air, moisture, heat, and light. Although a useful storage method, it is not effective against rodents. If you choose to vacuum-seal your food, make sure to store it out of reach from pests or within a glass or plastic container.
The shelf life of dried fruit in a vacuum-sealed bag is 18-24 months. They are an effective way to store dried fruits, but oxygen will leak into the bag over time.
Be mindful of the below so that you can protect your dried food items.
Store-bought dried fruits commonly contain sulfur dioxide. This compound, which is used as a preservative, corrodes metal. For this reason, it’s best to avoid metal canisters for dried fruit storage.
You can indeed rest easy once you’re sure that your bags and canisters are airtight. However, this doesn’t guarantee that trapped vapor inside won’t condensate and develop into water droplets.
If you do find signs of moisture inside the container, check if the food inside’s still good to eat. If it is, consume immediately. Otherwise, throw it away if it smells off or if you see signs of mold.
When buying in bulk, make sure that you can consume the whole thing in a month or two. This will lessen your storage problems and the chance of the dried fruits going bad.
When you buy excessively, there’s a good chance that you won’t have enough containers or shelf space for it. So, you’ll end up buying new canisters just to accommodate the surplus, which is most likely an unnecessary expense.
Additionally, once you open the container, the food is immediately exposed to air, shortening the shelf life unless you reseal it with more oxygen absorber.
If you’re not going to store dried fruits in the freezer, then airtight glass jars might be the best option for food preservation. We prefer glass mason jars because they’re durable and easy to clean.
Moreover, moisture can be easily seen if it ever forms inside.
It’s never a good idea to store food items on or near the floor. This makes it easily accessible for pests, pets, and small children to meddle with.
This also invites rodents and bugs even when you’re using tight, insect-proof containers. Remember that rats and mice can nibble their way through plastic containers.
We recommend packing dried fruits in sizes that you can consume or use in one go. For example, bag them in ½ cup portions. That’s just enough for a platter of fruity granola.
Generally, storing food like dried fruits in one huge canister is a bad idea. The frequent opening and re-opening of the container risks exposure to air and moisture.
The shelf life of dried fruits typically ranges from 6 months to 12 months in a pantry. In a fridge, it can last 12 months to 2 years. Storing dried fruits with oxygen absorbers can extend the shelf life even further. And when storing dried fruits in the freezer, they can last indefinitely. Below is a table of some fruits and their shelf life after they’ve been dehydrated.
| Fruits | Pantry | Fridge | Freezer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Craisins | 6-12 months | 1-2 years | Indefinite |
| Raisins | 6-12 months | 1-2 years | Indefinite |
| Dried Cherries | 6-12 months | 1-2 years | Indefinite |
| Dried Plums | 6-12 months | 1-2 years | Indefinite |
| Dates | 3-12 months | 1-2 years | Indefinite |
| Figs | 3-12 months | 1-2 years | Indefinite |
| Dried Banana Chips | 1-2 months | Not Recommended | Not Recommended |
| Dried Pineapple Rings | 6-12 months | 1-2 years | Indefinite |
| Dried Mango | 6-12 months | 1-2 years | Indefinite |
In general, you’d want to store your dried fruits in the coolest, darkest, and driest place possible.
Other factors that affect dried fruits’ shelf life include:
The tell-tale sign is the presence of mold. Food molds are usually fluffy, dusty, or fuzzy in texture and may come in black, gray, white, or green.
But not all molds are visible. So, you can rely on your sense of smell to detect their presence. It’s not so hard to tell, though, because spoiled food smells bad.
Additionally, spoiled dried fruits’ texture becomes chewy instead of crisp. However, we highly discourage tasting it to know if the food’s gone rancid.
Your best recourse is to throw the food away if you suspect molds in it, even without visible signs.
Here are some of the reasons why it’s important to observe the efficient handling and storing of dried fruits.
Here’s a trivia for dried fruit lovers: they contain just the same amount of vitamins and nutrients as they were fresh. On that note, check out some of the benefits of eating dried fruit below:
Air exposure may take away some of the dried fruit nutrients, so it’s best to keep those canisters sealed at all times.
On top of being highly nutritious, dried fruits can be eaten on their own as a snack. So, when they’re stored properly and packed in to-go sizes, they become much easier to pick up and carry around.
Travelers and people who maintain an active lifestyle find this particularly convenient. Plus, it’s pre-prepared, so it saves you time.
Dried fruits are versatile and convenient food. This is why it would be such a waste if mold and bacteria get to them first before us.
By removing the conditions for mold and bacteria growth, we prevent the fruit from rotting. Therefore, proper storing helps us enjoy our dried fruits to the last piece.
Do you know what this means? Less food waste, which is good for the environment and cuts down food costs for us.
Learning how to store dehydrated fruits long-term is an important skill to have because you can ensure a nutritious and natural food source for your family in an emergency scenario. Fruits are an important part of our diets, and by storing dried fruit, you can store it for up to 12 months in a pantry, 2 years in the fridge, and potentially indefinitely in the freezer.
If you enjoyed this article, our article is on Long-Term Food Storage in Hot Climates.
Ceramic cookware has become a safe, and popular alternative to stainless steel and Telfon cookware. But to have them last a long time, it is important to learn how to clean stained ceramic pans.
If you are looking to buy cookware, you probably came down to ceramic cookware vs stainless steel cookware. Learn to see which is better for you.
At this point, you should be aware of the harmful chemicals found in traditional non-stick pans. Fortunately, ceramic pans are non-stick and do not contain harmful chemicals. Learn their pros and cons.
Who We Are
Our team brings over a decade of experience in prepping and holistic living. We share our knowledge with you, here on Soulful Prepper. Read more about us, here.
SoulfulPrepper.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for the sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon. This site also participate in other affiliate programs including but not limited to ShareASale, CJ, and ClickBank, and is compensated for referring traffic and business to these companies.
