Fruit ingredients are a natural preservative to help extend shelf life. They help control moisture by binding free water and lowering moisture. They also can thicken products and are easy to use in processing.
Factors that determine the shelf life of a food product include moisture control or water activity, pH, and use of antimicrobials and antioxidants. As top drivers of food selection, according to IFIC and Nielsen surveys, fruit can help control the limiting factors for shelf life: staling, oxidation, microbial spoilage, color or flavor degradation, loss of key nutrients and moisture changes. Hurdle technology, where multiple barriers to spoilage are used, has been successful in increasing shelf life of foods.
Kevin Holland, Ph.D., TreeTop Inc., in his presentation titled “More Fruits, More Forms, More Possibilities/Natural Preservative,” explained: “Shelf life can be extended by various hurdles, including pH, water activity, processing or storage temperature, and preservatives. Initial numbers of microbes are important to consider when testing hurdles. Microbes require a specific pH range in which to survive, grow or thrive. Outside of this range inhibits growth. Below pH 4.6 inhibits many microbes, but not all. Fruit is typically below pH 4.6, so its addition to a formulation adds a hurdle for microbes.”