Fresh Fruit Filling
Fresh fruit filling is a bakery filling built around a high proportion of identifiable fruit, in which the fruit is suspended in a lightly gelled or thickened carrier rather than cooked down into a uniform paste. It is distinguished from jam by its lower sugar level and by the requirement that the fruit pieces stay visible and retain their shape.
Because the sugar level is lower, the carrier system has to do more work. Modified starch, pectin, or a starch and gum combination holds the fruit in suspension, prevents the liquid draining out of a cut product, and provides the bake stability that sugar alone would otherwise supply. Lower soluble solids also mean the filling is not self-preserving in the way a traditional jam is, so it depends on aseptic processing, hot filling, chilled distribution or a permitted preservative, and its water activity has to be matched to the surrounding pastry to avoid softening the base.
Colour and flavour retention are the reason the process is run gently. Vacuum cooking, short-time heat exchangers and cold blending of the delicate fruit fraction after the carrier has been cooked are all used to keep the fruit tasting fresh rather than jammy. The filling ships in pails, drums and aseptic bag-in-box, is pumpable when warmed, and is formulated to a specified flow so that it deposits cleanly without breaking up the fruit pieces.
We source bulk Fresh Fruit Filling from top China manufacturers for our partners. The manufacturer is in Guangdong. A smaller requirement can ship in a combined container with other ingredients.
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- Function
- Bakery ingredient
Specifications
| Item | Specification |
|---|---|
| Appearance | Fruit pieces evenly suspended in the carrier, no free liquid |
| Colour and flavour | Fresh and typical of the declared fruit, free from cooked notes |
| Fruit content | As declared, commonly 40% to 70% |
| Soluble solids at 20 degrees Celsius | 35 to 55 degrees Brix |
| pH | 3.2 to 4.0 |
| Water activity | 0.88 max |
| Bostwick consistency | Within the range stated for the grade |
| Bake stability | No boil-out under the stated oven profile |
| Syneresis after freeze and thaw | None visible for freeze-thaw stable grades |
| Lead | 0.2 mg/kg max |
| Total plate count | 1000 cfu/g max |
| Yeast and mould | 50 cfu/g max |
| E. coli | Absent in 1 g |
| Salmonella | Absent in 25 g |
Common Markets Grades
Grades are set by fruit content, by piece size and by process tolerance. Fruit content commonly runs from 40 percent up to 70 percent and above in the highest fruit grades, with the fruit diced, sliced, halved or whole depending on the finished product. Individually quick frozen fruit is used where piece integrity matters, aseptic pulp where a smoother carrier is wanted.
Technical grades follow the process the baker runs. Bake-stable fillings hold their shape and do not boil out under a stated oven profile, freeze-thaw stable grades resist the ice damage and syneresis that would otherwise leave a watery filling after frozen storage, and cold-process grades are deposited after baking and rely on chilled or aseptic distribution. Reduced sugar, no added sugar and clean-label versions omitting synthetic colour and preservative are made across the range, and the choice of thickener, whether starch, pectin or a gum blend, is specified because it determines both texture and label.
Applications
- Fruit tarts and flans, deposited into a blind-baked shell and set cold
- Danish pastries and laminated products, using bake-stable grades
- Cheesecake and dessert toppings, where visible fruit is the point of the product
- Filled buns, sponge rolls and layered cakes
- Pie fillings for baked and chilled pies
- Yoghurt and dairy dessert fruit preparations, packed aseptically for cold dosing
- Ice cream ripples and fruit layers
- Crepe, waffle and dessert service in foodservice formats
- Breakfast and snack bar fruit layers
China Manufacturers of Fresh Fruit Filling
Top Fresh Fruit Filling manufacturers in China.
Company names and logos are the property of the manufacturers themselves. They are listed here because our own directory records them as producing this ingredient. A listing is not an endorsement by them, and we do not represent them or speak on their behalf.
Regulatory Status
A fruit filling that does not meet the composition requirements for a reserved name is sold under a descriptive name rather than as jam or preserve. In the United States that means it falls outside the standards of identity at 21 CFR part 150 and is labelled with a descriptive name and a full ingredient statement; in the European Union it falls outside the vertical directive on jams, jellies and marmalades and is likewise labelled descriptively. A claim relating to fresh fruit must reflect what is actually in the product.
Additives used in the carrier, including modified starches, pectin, acidity regulators, colours and preservatives, must each be authorised for the relevant food category, in the European Union under Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008 with declaration by function and name or E number, and in the United States through the applicable additive or generally recognised as safe listing. Sulphites used to protect the colour of certain fruits must be declared above the labelling threshold. Because the low sugar formulation is not self-preserving, the basis for microbiological stability, whether aseptic processing, hot filling, chilled distribution or a preservative system, must be documented for the specific product.
Manufacturing Process
Fruit is received frozen, chilled or as aseptic pulp, then thawed under control or used directly, washed where necessary and sorted, with soft, damaged and off-colour pieces removed. The carrier is prepared separately: water, sugar and the starch or pectin system are blended and heated so that the thickener hydrates fully, usually under vacuum or through a scraped surface heat exchanger, since a starch that is not fully cooked out will thin during storage and a pectin that is over-sheared will not set.
The fruit is then combined with the hot carrier with gentle agitation, and the mixing regime is deliberately mild because vigorous mixing breaks the pieces that the product is sold on. Acid, colour, flavour and any preservative are added at this point rather than earlier, so that they are not degraded by the cook. The blended filling is either filled hot above 85 degrees Celsius into pails and drums and cooled through a tunnel, or heat treated in a holding tube and filled cold into presterilised aseptic bags, or chilled and packed for cold chain distribution. Filled containers are held to set before palletising.
