Fresh to freeze-dried converter
How much fresh fruit is in that handful? Convert grams of fresh to freeze-dried and back, for 18 fruits and vegetables.
Fresh to freeze-dried converter
10g of freeze-dried strawberries is about 108g of fresh strawberries.
Freeze-dried food weighs a fraction of what it did when it was fresh, because almost all the water has gone. This calculator tells you how much fresh fruit or veg your freeze-dried handful started out as, or how much freeze-dried you need to stand in for fresh in a recipe.
How the sums work
Every fresh food is mostly water. Freeze-drying removes nearly all of it and leaves about 3 per cent moisture behind. If you know the water content of the fresh food, the rest is arithmetic:
ratio = 97 ÷ (100 − water content of the fresh food)
Strawberries are about 91 per cent water, so the ratio is 97 ÷ 9, or roughly 11 to 1. A 10g handful of freeze-dried strawberries began as about 108g of fresh fruit.
Ratios at a glance
| Food | Typical water when fresh | Fresh to freeze-dried | 10g freeze-dried is about |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strawberries | 91% | 11 to 1 | 108g fresh |
| Raspberries | 86% | 7 to 1 | 69g fresh |
| Blueberries | 84% | 6 to 1 | 61g fresh |
| Blackberries | 88% | 8 to 1 | 81g fresh |
| Blackcurrants | 80% | 5 to 1 | 49g fresh |
| Cherries | 82% | 5.5 to 1 | 54g fresh |
| Apple | 86% | 7 to 1 | 69g fresh |
| Banana | 75% | 4 to 1 | 39g fresh |
| Mango | 83% | 5.5 to 1 | 57g fresh |
| Pineapple | 86% | 7 to 1 | 69g fresh |
| Peach | 89% | 9 to 1 | 88g fresh |
| Peas | 79% | 4.5 to 1 | 46g fresh |
| Sweetcorn | 76% | 4 to 1 | 40g fresh |
| Carrot | 88% | 8 to 1 | 81g fresh |
| Beetroot | 88% | 8 to 1 | 81g fresh |
| Spinach | 91% | 11 to 1 | 108g fresh |
| Broccoli | 89% | 9 to 1 | 88g fresh |
| Tomato | 94% | 16 to 1 | 162g fresh |
These are estimates based on typical water content. Varieties, ripeness and how dry a particular product is will all nudge the numbers, so treat them as a good guide, not a laboratory result.
Using it in the kitchen
Swapping freeze-dried for fresh. If a muffin recipe calls for 150g of fresh blueberries, divide by 6: about 25g of freeze-dried blueberries gives the same amount of fruit. The batter will be a little drier, so add a tablespoon or two of milk.
Swapping fresh for freeze-dried. It rarely works. Recipes that ask for freeze-dried fruit, such as buttercream, meringue and white chocolate bark, usually do so precisely because they cannot cope with the water in fresh fruit.
Packing for a hike. The ratio shows why walkers like freeze-dried food: 50g of freeze-dried strawberries stands in for more than half a kilo of fresh ones.
A note on 5 A Day
An adult portion of fresh fruit or vegetables is 80g. For dried fruit, the NHS counts 30g as one portion and suggests eating it with a meal, because dried fruit is sticky and sugary on teeth. The NHS does not give a separate figure for freeze-dried fruit. The calculator shows the fresh weight your freeze-dried fruit started as, which is useful for cooking, but it is not an official portion count.
Remember too that the fruit's natural sugars are just as concentrated as everything else. Ten grams of freeze-dried strawberries has about the same sugar as the 108g of fresh strawberries it came from.
Good questions, short answers
How much fresh fruit equals 10g of freeze-dried strawberries?
About 100 to 110g. Fresh strawberries are roughly 91 per cent water, so removing it leaves around a tenth of the weight.
Why is the ratio different for each fruit?
Because each food starts with a different amount of water. Strawberries and spinach are over 90 per cent water and shrink to about a tenth of their weight. Bananas and sweetcorn hold less water, so they only lose about three quarters.
How do I swap freeze-dried fruit for fresh in a recipe?
Work out the fresh weight the recipe needs, divide by the ratio for that fruit to get the freeze-dried weight, and remember to add back some liquid if the recipe relied on the fruit's juice.
Does a small handful of freeze-dried fruit really count towards 5 A Day?
The NHS counts 30g of dried fruit as one portion and recommends eating it with meals. It does not publish a separate figure for freeze-dried fruit, so treat the fresh-weight figure in the calculator as a guide, not an official count.