Freeze Dried Food Sector in China

What is Freeze Dried Food? 

Freeze-Drying Technique

Freeze-drying, also called lyophilization, is a dehydration technique that was first used by the food industry to process astronaut and military food. It helps to extend the shelf-life of food while preserving its original color and flavor. The freeze-drying process includes instant freezing at an extremely low temperature (under -40℃) and vacuum dehydration. ^[1]

FD Food Category

Almost all foods containing water can be freeze-dried. But for some food with high sugar or high gelatin content and food with excessive low eutectic temperature, freeze-drying can be relatively difficult.^[2] Common freeze-dried foods include:   

FD Food Products in China

Popular FD Food Products

• Three Squirrels (“三只松鼠”) FD Durian Crisp

FD fruit and vegetable crisps have become an extremely popular snack food in recent years. Freeze-drying is especially practical for perishable and expensive fruit such as durian. The three leading e-commerce snack food brands in China, Be & Cherry (“百草味”), Bestore (“良品铺子”), and Three Squirrels each have an FD durian crisp product. Among them, Three Squirrels performs best in market sales. ^[3] 

             A Comparison of FD Durian Products in China E-commerce Market

Data Source: Tmall 

• K9 Natural Freeze-Dried Pet Food

In China's rapidly growing pet food market, freeze-dried pet food and snacks are starting to attract more attention due to the ability of the freeze drying process to retain key nutrients. Compared with other pet food brands, K9 Natural from New Zealand is famous for its freeze-dried pet food and is a frequently discussed brand in WeChat online pet communities.

Innovative FD Food

• Foodcode (“新食机”) FD Yogurt Blocks

In March 2020, Foodcode, a brand of Yili (“伊利”), launched the Inspiration Oreo Flavor Yogurt Block, which adopts the freeze-drying technique. It has 40 million CFU of lactic acid bacteria. Its Tmall sales on the first day of launch exceeded one million Yuan.^[4] 

• Haoxiangni Instant FD Solid Fruit Juice

In 2019, Haoxiangni (“好想你”), which is famous for its jujube products, launched a reconstitutable freeze-dried Fresh VC juice called “Shake it (摇一摇 )." ^[5] 

Regulation and Standard

Current National Standards for Reference

As an emerging field in China, freeze-drying is still quite a high-cost technique with a relatively small market. Thus, there's no specific mandatory national standard for freeze-drying techniques in the food sector at present.

However, there is a recommended national standards for a specific product royal jelly powder,  GB/T 21532-2008 Lyophilized Royal Jelly Powder. This standard defines lyophilized royal jelly powder as dehydrated royal jelly powder processed through vacuum freeze-drying, but it doesn't stipulate the freeze-drying process. Raw materials of lyophilized royal jelly powder should follow standard GB/T 9697. Some of the physical and chemical indexes are shown below^[6]:

For other FD food with no specific national standards, standards of relevant food categories can be referred to. For example, for the popular FD fruit and vegetable crisp, GB/T 23787-2009 Non-fried Vegetable and Fruit Crisp Chips is applicable. Some of the physical and chemical indexes of GB/T 23787-2009 are as follows^[7]:

Possible Association Standards in Near Future

The Food Production Technology Association of Guangdong consulted on four freeze-dried food-related draft association standards in May^[8][9]. These association standards are not mandatory but may provide reference information for freeze-dried food producers and importers.

The four drafts are:

Production Technology Standards for Freeze-dried Fruits and Vegetables

Production Technology Standards for Freeze-dried Meat and Aquatic Products

Production Technology Standards for Freeze-dried Egg and Milk Products

Production Technology Standards for Freeze-dried Edible Fungus

*For more information regarding FD food regulation and standards, please contact food@chemlinked. com

Market Performance

Overall Trend

FD food markets in the USA and Japan are relatively mature. The US market and the Japanese market volume is 6 million tons and 2 million tons of FD food each year, respectively. While current FD food production in China is only 3,000 - 4,000 tons, some analysts predict that China's FD market volume will reach 8 million to 10 million tons in the future.^[10] 

According to Intelligence Research statistics, China FD food market size in 2018 reached 1.582 billion Yuan (approximately 223 million dollars), among which vegetable FD products account for 243 million Yuan (approximately 34 million dollars), instant freeze-dried food and beverages account for 156 million Yuan (approximately 21.9 million dollars), meat & aquatic products and others account for 658 million Yuan (approximately 92.3 million dollars). ^[11] 

Source: chyxx  ^[11]

According to statistics in 2020-2026 China Freeze Dried Food Industry Marketing Strategy and Future Development Potential published by Intelligence Research, China FD food output in 2011 was 3,520 tons, this number grew to 10,100 tons in 2018, with a compound growth rate of 16.25%. ^[11]

Source: chyxx  ^[11]

Future Development

1. A combination of Health Concept and FD Technology

Freeze-drying realizes a 95% dehydration rate while maintaining 95% of the nutritional value of food. Freeze-dried food products can be preserved at room temperature for a year or longer without adding any preservatives.^[1] Thus it is usually considered to be an ideal natural, wholesome food.

 2. Opportunities in Natural Pet Food

Except for K9, a rising domestic pet food brand Myfoodie (“麦富迪”) has also started to develop and sell FD pet food and snacks. Business director of GFK, a market research institute, once said that freeze-dried pet food is only a small part of the pet food industry, yet it has grown rapidly. This minority category may expand to 10% of the whole pet food market in the future, according to some analysts. ^[12]