Ditch fried for air-dried
Supplier of air-dried and puff dried fruit and vegetables, Harms Food was highlighting its consumer-facing brand of apple crisps, fat free and with no added sugar.
This is nothing new for the company – it has partnered with Polish manufacturer Cykoria for around 25 years to produce the apple crisps – but this experience means it could be well placed to tap into what market researchers at Mintel predict will be 2018's defining trend for food and drink manufacturers: texture.
Consumers will be particularly on the lookout for products that can create interesting textures from natural processing techniques such as baking, air-drying or freeze-drying, Mintel analysts say.
According to Harms Food, air-drying also makes for a healthier crisp than standard fried potatoes.
Flavoured only with cinnamon and no added sugar, each 40 g bag packs in two real apples and retains all the fibre as well as between 50 to 80% of the vitamins, the company’s commercial director told us.
A benefit for manufacturers meanwhile is that air-drying is much cheaper than freeze-drying, the company said.
Hamburg-headquartered Harms Food has not tried with other fruit but said it expected the process would work well with pears too.
It manufactures 2,500 metric tons of fruit, vegetables and spices, sourced from all over the world.