Strawberry Freeze-Drying Application Case

A Fujian-based fruit and vegetable products company specializes in producing high-end freeze-dried fruit products. To meet consumers' growing demand for healthy and delicious snacks, the company planned to launch freeze-dried strawberry products. Strawberries have high water content, delicate pulp, and are prone to oxidation. Traditional drying methods struggle to retain their color, flavor, and nutrition. Therefore, the enterprise urgently needed an efficient and stable vacuum freeze-drying equipment to achieve high-quality production. INNOTECH Food Machinery Co., Ltd. provided an excellent solution with its professional technology and equipment advantages.

Challenges in Freeze-Drying Process
As a berry fruit, strawberries have a water content of about 90%. During the freeze-drying process, they not only need to quickly remove a large amount of water but also face challenges such as pulp structure damage caused by ice crystal formation, easy moisture absorption after freeze-drying, and loss of natural pigments and aroma components. In addition, the company planned to expand production, putting forward higher requirements for equipment automation, energy consumption control, and production capacity.

INNOTECH Vacuum Freeze-Drying Equipment Solution

Equipment Selection
Minxian Fruit and Vegetable Products Co., Ltd. finally selected INNOTECH's IN-80 vacuum freeze-drying equipment, which has undergone multiple technical optimizations for the freeze-drying characteristics of strawberries:

· Intelligent Temperature Control Refrigeration System: Equipped with high-precision temperature sensors and an intelligent control system, it can quickly cool strawberries from room temperature to the pre-freezing temperature of -40°C, forming small and uniform ice crystals, reducing damage to pulp cells, and maintaining the original shape of strawberries to the greatest extent.
· Low-Energy Vacuum System: Adopting advanced vacuum pump units with optimized vacuum pipeline design, it can quickly establish and stably maintain a high vacuum environment of 15Pa, effectively accelerating the ice crystal sublimation process, shortening the freeze-drying cycle, and reducing energy consumption.
· Precise Layered Heating Technology: According to the needs of different stages of strawberry freeze-drying, the equipment can achieve precise layered heating. In the sublimation stage, uniform radiation heating ensures the stable sublimation of ice crystals inside strawberries; in the analytical drying stage, the temperature is precisely controlled to rise slowly, completely removing residual moisture while avoiding excessive drying and discoloration of strawberries.
· Large-Capacity Modular Design: The drying chamber adopts a modular design with a volume of 80 cubic meters, which can flexibly adjust the number of freeze-drying batches according to production needs. It can process a large amount of strawberry raw materials at a time to meet the enterprise's large-scale production requirements.

Freeze-Drying Process

· Raw Material Screening and Pretreatment: Select high-quality strawberries with moderate maturity, bright color, and no pests and diseases. After cleaning and stem removal, cut strawberries into uniform thin slices through a special slicing process to increase the freeze-drying surface area and improve freeze-drying efficiency.
· Pre-Freezing Process: Neatly place the pretreated strawberry slices on the material tray of the IN-80 vacuum freeze-drying equipment and push them into the drying chamber. After the equipment is started, the refrigeration system quickly cools the chamber temperature to -40°C and keeps it at a constant temperature for 3 hours, so that the water in the strawberries is completely frozen into solid ice crystals.
· Sublimation Drying Stage: After pre-freezing, the vacuum system is quickly started to reduce the pressure in the drying chamber to 15Pa. At the same time, the precise layered heating system starts to work, providing heat for strawberries at an appropriate heating rate, so that ice crystals directly sublimate into water vapor and are discharged out of the chamber. This process lasts about 12 hours, removing most of the water in the strawberries.
· Analytical Drying Stage: After sublimation drying, the equipment further slowly raises the temperature to 30°C. In a stable vacuum environment, the residual bound water in the strawberries is completely removed to ensure that the water content of the product is less than 3%. This stage lasts about 6 hours.
· Packaging and Storage: After freeze-drying, the freeze-dried strawberries are nitrogen-filled and packaged in a clean sterile environment, effectively isolating oxygen, preventing product oxidation and deterioration, and extending the shelf life.

Application Effects

· Excellent Quality: Tests show that the freeze-dried strawberries produced by the IN-80 vacuum freeze-drying equipment retain more than 98% of nutrients such as vitamin C and anthocyanins. They are bright in color, crisp in taste, sweet and sour, and perfectly restore the flavor and aroma of fresh strawberries.
· Significant Increase in Production Capacity: The large capacity and efficient operation of the IN-80 equipment have increased the daily output of the enterprise's freeze-dried strawberries from the original 500 kg to 1500 kg, significantly improving production efficiency and effectively meeting market order needs.
· Significant Cost Reduction: The low-energy design of the equipment and the optimized freeze-drying process reduce the energy consumption per unit product by 25%, while reducing raw material loss. The comprehensive production cost is reduced by about 20%, improving the economic benefits of the enterprise.
· Strong Stability: The equipment runs stably and reliably. The intelligent control system effectively reduces manual intervention and the risk of operational errors. During long-term continuous production, it always maintains stable product quality and production efficiency.

Customer Review

"The IN-80 vacuum freeze-drying equipment from INNOTECH perfectly solves the problems we encountered in strawberry freeze-drying production, demonstrating extremely high professional standards from equipment performance to process support. The high-quality freeze-dried strawberry products have been widely recognized by the market since their launch. The optimization of production capacity and cost also makes us more competitive in the market. We look forward to continuing to deepen cooperation with INNOTECH in the future to develop more high-quality freeze-dried products!"
— Production Director of a Fujian Fruit and Vegetable Products Co., Ltd.

With advanced technology and excellent performance, the IN-80 vacuum freeze-drying equipment of INNOTECH Food Machinery Co., Ltd. has helped enterprises successfully create high-quality freeze-dried strawberry products, fully demonstrating its professional strength and application value in the field of strawberry freeze-drying.