Sweetened vs Unsweetened Dried Fruit: What's the Difference and Which to Buy

Two very different products, one shelf

Walk down any dried fruit aisle and you'll find sultanas next to sugar-glazed mango, or plain dried apricots beside crystallised pineapple rings. They can look similar in the bag, but "sweetened" and "unsweetened" dried fruit are made differently, taste differently, and suit different jobs in the kitchen. Here's what the terms actually mean and how to pick between them.

What "unsweetened" means

Unsweetened dried fruit is simply fruit with the water removed, usually by sun-drying or a dehydrator, with nothing added. Our Dried Apricots with Seeds (Jardalu) are a good example: sun-dried with the stone left in, no added sugar, no syrup bath. The sweetness you taste comes entirely from the fruit's own concentrated sugars as the water evaporates. The texture tends to be firmer and chewier, and the flavour is more tart or intense because nothing has been added to round it out.

What "sweetened" means

Sweetened dried fruit has had sugar (or a sugar syrup) added during processing, usually to soften naturally tart fruit and give it a more consistent, glossy finish. Our Dried Mango Slices are sweetened Vietnamese mango — the sugar addition is why the slices taste so intensely tropical and stay soft and pliable even after months in the bag. Crystallised or candied fruit, like dried pineapple rings, goes a step further: the fruit is soaked in sugar syrup before drying, which is what gives it that slightly sticky, sparkling coating.

A third option: freeze-dried

There's a third category worth knowing about, which doesn't fit neatly into either camp: freeze-dried fruit. Instead of slow air-drying or sun-drying, the fruit is frozen and then dried under vacuum, which removes almost all the moisture while keeping the fruit's structure intact rather than shrivelled. The result is a light, crisp, almost crunchy piece of fruit rather than a chewy one. Our Freeze Dried Mixed Fruits have no added sugar — the crunch comes from how the fruit is processed, not from any coating. It's worth trying if you want the flavour of dried fruit without the chewy, sticky texture, and it works well crumbled over porridge or cereal where you don't want moisture sitting in the bowl.

How to tell which is which

Don't guess from the name alone — "dried mango" can mean either, depending on the producer. The reliable way to check is the ingredients list: unsweetened fruit will list just the fruit itself (and sometimes an antioxidant like citric acid to preserve colour); sweetened or crystallised fruit will list sugar, glucose syrup, or similar further up the list. On our site, we say so directly in the product title or description, so you don't need to guess.

Which one to buy

For baking where you're already controlling the sugar in the recipe — cakes, flapjacks, bread — unsweetened fruit gives you that control back; you decide how sweet the finished bake is. It also works well stirred into savoury dishes like tagines, pilafs, or stuffing, where you want fruity depth without extra sweetness competing with the spices. Sweetened and crystallised fruit is better suited to snacking straight from the bag, mixing into trail mix, or scattering over desserts and yoghurt where you want a soft, sweet bite without much chewing resistance.

If you're stocking a bakery or café, it's worth keeping both on hand: unsweetened for recipes with a fixed sugar content, sweetened for retail snack bags or toppings where customers expect a softer, sweeter bite.

A quick way to compare

The easiest way to taste the difference yourself is to buy a small pack of each and try them side by side — the texture difference alone (firm and chewy versus soft and glossy) tells you most of what you need to know. You'll find both types, along with the rest of our range, in the Dried Fruits collection.