Airtight, cool and dark goes a long way — plus a few things worth knowing about sulphured vs unsulphured fruit, and why a darker piece of dried apricot or persimmon isn't a flaw.
Dried fruit already keeps far longer than fresh fruit — that's the whole point of drying — but how you store it after opening the bag makes a real difference to how long it actually stays good, and how it tastes along the way.
Moisture and light are what shorten the life of dried fruit fastest. An airtight container — glass, a resealable bag with the air pressed out, or a proper food storage tub — kept in a cool, dark cupboard away from the stove or a sunny windowsill is the simplest thing that makes the biggest difference. Humidity is the real enemy: dried fruit left open in a damp kitchen will pick up moisture, soften unpredictably, and eventually risk mould.
Soft-dried fruit — our Shpanka cherry, yellow cherry and red cherry among them — is taken to a higher residual moisture than fully dried fruit, which is exactly what gives it that fresh, supple bite. That same higher moisture content means it benefits from the fridge, especially in a warm climate or once the bag has been opened. Fully dried, low-moisture fruit doesn't need refrigeration, but it never hurts.
A few of our products — unsulphured apricot, persimmon and our whole (black) prune — are dried without sulphur dioxide, which means they don't have that preservative's protective effect against spoilage. They're not fragile, but they do better kept in a sealed glass container, and refrigeration extends their life meaningfully, especially once opened. If you see a fine white bloom on dried persimmon, that's natural fruit sugar surfacing during drying, not a coating or a sign of spoilage.
If you're not going to get through a batch for a while, the freezer works well for almost any dried fruit — it doesn't need thawing before eating, and freezing barely changes the texture given how little moisture is left to form ice crystals. It's a good option for bulk or wholesale volumes you're not moving through quickly.
It depends on the product and how it's stored, and we'd rather not put a single number on it that doesn't hold for every variety and every storage condition. What we can say: properly stored in a sealed container away from heat and light, most dried fruit holds its quality for many months. For an exact best-before date on a specific batch, ask us directly when you request pricing — we can send it along with the lab certificate for that lot. See our full FAQ for more on shelf life and sulphur dioxide.
Ask us directly — we reply within one working day, and can send lab certificates and specification sheets alongside pricing.
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