From the Forager Fruits website:

Welcome to Forager Fruits - home to the best freeze dried fruit snacks in the world!

At Forager, we know how difficult it can be to find healthy, nutritious snacks that still satisfy all of our cravings. Thankfully, we discovered the magic of freeze drying and our call was answered. After learning about the wonderful process of making freeze dried snacks the next step was to source the best local produce to allow us to make the best freeze dried fruit for all ages!

Forager Foods creates freeze dried fruit in North Western Tasmania, in the midst of a cool climate that is perfect for growing delicious fruit. We buy all of our fruit direct from the farmers who grew them. Then we process, dry and package the finished freeze dried snacks in our own factory! This means our food miles are literally ‘a few’.

How are Freeze Dried Snacks made?

The process of making freeze dried fruit is quite simple but it requires extremely specific equipment. First, we process the fruit. This involves washing it and slicing it into perfect portions. Then, it is frozen on trays and once it plummets below -20°C, it gets placed into one of our 4 freeze driers. In these mammoth machines the air pressure is reduced to almost that of outer space! It is because of this specialised air pressure that the boiling temperature of water is reduced to the point where it literally boils out of the fruit whilst the fruit remains frozen. This lack of heat preserves the nutrients inside the fruit and stops the product from shrinking. After a 24-hour period, the fruit is removed as a freeze dried snack that contains no moisture!

Finally, after the fruit has been turned into freeze dried snacks it is time for it to be packed into our long life bags. This allows a shelf life of 2 years!