Frozen Fruit

Frozen fruit comes whole, sliced, diced, and pureed. Straight-pack frozen fruit is sold with the fruit placed directly into a pail or box, then frozen solid. Because freezing takes place slowly, straight-pack fruit often loses its piece integrity. Where this is not important, straight-pack fruit quality can be quite acceptable. A disadvantage of straight-pack fruit is that the whole pail or box must be thawed before use.

Individually quick frozen (IQF) fruit consists of whole fruit or fruit pieces that are quickly frozen and then packed into pails, boxes, or bags. As long as IQF fruit is not thawed and refrozen, the fruit pieces remain separate. It is a good choice when fruit is added to muffins, as with blueberry or cranberry muffins. IQF fruit is more expensive than straight-pack fruit, but it has one large advantage: With IQF fruit, as much or as little fruit as needed can be used without thawing a whole container.