Dried Fruit

mto

A couple of dried fruit questions ...

My OH suffers from acid reflux and finds it difficult to eat fresh fruit other than bananas. Does dried fruit have the same nutritional content as fresh fruit, and so can he count it towards his 5 a day?

Where it the best place/supermarket to stock up on dried fruit?

Thanks

potsofmoney_(I_wish)

Hi there,
had a quick look on the food standards site and it said that 1 heaped tablespoon of dried fruit (such as raisins and apricots) counts as 1 portion.

Price wise it does depend raisins are quite cheap when you buy the big bags, the others can be more expensive but I've found that it does depend which section of the supermarket you look it. it sounds odd but buying in the snack section can be more expensive than buying in the cooking ingredients section. Maybe check out some of the health food chains for buying in bulk, that may save a bit.

odds-n-sods

3 apricots or 2 fresh = 1 portion of fruit. Dried fruit is easy to make yourself as well; just slice it up and leave it in a very low oven all night, maybe 2 nights running. Apple, mango, pineapple, plums, cherries, berries, pears -- any fruit can be dried. (Dried strawberries are like eating candy, they become so sweet!)

dried_apple

Acidosis - Acidosis is a state of increased acidity of the blood (also known as toxicity of the blood), the source being our stomach acid. Raisins are good source of potassium and magnesium which neutralize the acids and help check acidosis.

zippychick

as this has dropped down the OS board, ive moved it to the Shopping and groceries board to see if you can get help with the cheapest place to buy it

This OS thread Cheapest way to five a day may also be useful

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere (please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com"]forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL].

Zip:A

Edwardia

I'm looking for dried fruit for Christmas puddings...

Holland and Barrett has some on Buy One Get One For a Penny atm. Tesco has organic Medjool dates for £2 which is the cheapest I've seen them. If you live/work near some ethnic shops have a look for dates as they may have some Ramadan special offers on dates.

Lugh_Chronain

These are the cheapest in the supermarkets that I know of.

Tesco's Whole Foods Stoned Dates (500g) £1.20, same price in ASDA's Chosen by You range as well.

Tesco's Everyday Value Dried Mixed Fruit (500g) costs 64p, and Tesco Everyday Value Sultanas (500g) 84p. ASDA's Smart Price and Sainsbury's Basics range appear to be the same price as well.

ASDA's Chosen by You Ready to Eat Stoned Prunes (500g) cost £1.

And Sainsbury's Basics Greek Currants (500g) £1.29.

And as odds-n-sods says it also depends which section of the supermarket you look. I find the ethnic aisle can sometimes be cheaper though I've not seen anything cheaper than what I've posted above recently.

McKneff

Morrisons 'savers' dried fruit is only around 65p too.

It really is no different from the more expensive stuff.

savingmonkey

I have bought Whitworths 200g dried apricots in the 99p shop recently - they also had other dried fruits but I can't remember which as I only got the apricots. Decent date on them too - Feb 2013.

Fire_Fox

Amazon for bulk purchases of more interesting dried fruit such as sour cherries or dried pears. They have them on their 'subscribe and save' scheme.

kittycatface

I find the basic/value/smartprice sultanas and raisins are fine, also aldi and lidl have them even cheaper.

Just to make you aware though that dried apricots that are bright orange have added sulfur in them to make them that colour. The organic ones are extortionate and actually look more the colour of dates! pic here: http://sumawholesale.com/index.php/catalog/product/view/id/7155/s/suma-apricots-organic-1-kg-dr050/
Given your husband's health condition it might be worth thinking about.

Other than that, if you need more variety in dried fruit asian supermarkets do things like golden raisins and sultanas

You could also try local health food co-op/wholesalers to buy in bulk: my local one is Lembas in sheffield.

Lots of vegans use dehydrators like this one http://www2.westfalia.net/shops/household/preserving_food/food_preservation/dehydrating_/193811-food_dehydrator.htm to dry own fruit, not tried it myself but if you bought fresh whoopsied fruit you would make the outlay for the dehydrator worth it within a short time. Uses less energy than keeping oven on low all night.