Freeze-Dried Mangosteen

Open a bag of freeze-dried mangosteen and each piece is the whole fruit inside the rind: an ivory, flower-shaped aril with every segment still joined. Bite one and it shatters, then melts: sweet first, then bright and tart, with a floral finish, and the crisp, nutty crunch of the natural seed in the middle. Freeze-dried mangosteen is the white aril of Garcinia mangostana, hand-peeled from the purple rind and freeze-dried to ≤5.0% moisture and water activity ≤0.30, sold as whole arils, diced pieces or powder. Nothing is added: no sugar, no carrier, no preservative, no SO₂.

Few suppliers can offer it in volume. Mangosteen is hand-peeled, lives about a week after harvest, and gives its best fruit in a window of roughly ten weeks a year. That scarcity is the commercial opportunity: a snack, chocolate or cereal brand with mangosteen on the front of pack has something most shelves do not. US menu tracking reported in 2025 projects mangosteen to appear on roughly three times as many menus by 2029. And for US buyers there is a simple fact: fresh Vietnamese mangosteen is not among the fresh fruits cleared for import into the US, so freeze-dried is the way to put Lai Thieu and Mekong Delta mangosteen on an American shelf. The history is in is mangosteen banned in the US. FruitBuys coordinates the orchards, the peeling network and one locked partner facility per contract, so your SKU has supply behind it every season.

Product specification

Clean taste starts at the peeling table. Mangosteen’s purple rind is rich in tannins, and a single fleck left on a segment turns a mouthful bitter. Rind sorting is written into the process standard FruitBuys sets for the partner facility, and visual sorting is part of the release check on every lot before packing. What reaches you is the flavour your consumer expects from the fresh fruit, with nothing astringent behind it. Natural marks of ripe fruit stay visible too: a pink blush at the crown, fine fibres along a seam. They are the plain sign of fruit that has not been bleached or sulphured. Moisture, water activity and how to write them into a contract are covered in what limits freeze-dried mangosteen should meet.

Whole arils or diced

Whole arils sell on sight. Each piece is the complete flesh of one fruit, every segment still joined, exactly as it sat inside the rind. Through a window pouch or in a gift box, a whole, ivory aril tells the shopper exactly what the fruit is, and a pack that looks full holds its retail price. Arils are mostly air, which is what makes them melt, so they are packed only 7 kg per carton and held to ≤10% breakage by weight. For a re-packer, that means little dust at the bottom of the carton and low giveaway on every pouch filled. Some arils separate into single segments on the way; an intact single segment is whole product, not breakage. Each aril keeps its natural seed, which is what holds the cluster together through drying, and after freeze-drying the seed gives a crisp, nutty crunch inside the melt. Where the pack must look perfect, the tray-packed option places arils by hand and holds breakage to ≤5%, from 500 kg.

Diced mangosteen is the working ingredient. It doses evenly into cereal, granola and chocolate, packs 10 kg per carton, and carries the same flavour into every spoonful. Diced is seed-in like every format, so the crisp seed pieces simply join the crunch of the cereal or chocolate. On retail packs, print “Contains natural seeds” and the consumer knows exactly what they are eating. Format choice by application is set out in which freeze-dried mangosteen format fits your product.

What a kilo of freeze-dried mangosteen is made of

It takes about 17–24 kg of whole fruit, or 5–6 kg of hand-peeled aril (seed in), to make 1 kg of freeze-dried mangosteen. Most of the fruit’s weight is rind, and every aril is lifted out of it by hand, within a fresh-fruit life of about a week. That skilled peeling network is what keeps mangosteen scarce in freeze-dried form, and it is what you are buying when the arils arrive clean, whole and ivory.

The same ratio is a quick way to read the market. A quote far below 5–6 kg of peeled aril plus drying and packing is usually built on late-season fruit, rushed peeling or sugar infusion. Ask any supplier, including us, for the production month and the total sugars. The arithmetic is worked through in how many kilos of mangosteen make 1 kg of freeze-dried.

Nutrition (per 100 g)

Typical values for 100% freeze-dried mangosteen; natural variation by origin, season and ripeness applies. Lot nutrition panel available for label artwork. %DV on a 2,000 kcal diet.

FruitBuys supplies nutrition data in both label conventions from the R&D stage: 400 kcal on a US label and 360 kcal on an EU label, which counts fibre at 2 kcal/g. Your packaging team signs off the artwork once, for the right market. 13.3 g of natural dietary fiber per 100 g supports a “good source of fiber” label at the FDA 40 g serving and “high fibre” in the EU, and the 70 g of sugar is entirely the fruit’s own. As a single-ingredient fruit with no saturated fat, no sodium and no added sugar, it also positions well for the updated FDA “healthy” claim and scores low on all three nutrients in the proposed US front-of-pack format; final eligibility is confirmed on your finished label. Most of mangosteen’s xanthones sit in the purple rind and the white flesh carries only small amounts, so the strongest story is taste and clean label. For your printed label, FruitBuys samples your commercial lot and arranges the panel at an independent ISO/IEC 17025 accredited laboratory. More in freeze-dried mangosteen nutrition per 100 g.

Formats and applications

In yogurt or a moist filling, a light coating or adding the pieces at serving keeps them crisp. A 4-week trial in your real base gives your R&D team the confidence to lock the formula.

Mangosteen powder is milled directly from freeze-dried arils with no maltodextrin, for beverage and dairy applications. See the mangosteen powder page and what to specify for bulk freeze-dried mangosteen powder.

Packaging

Every bag is soft-vacuumed, not nitrogen-flushed. The light vacuum holds the arils still as one block through the sea voyage, so they arrive in the shape they left in, and the flat bag fits the carton without paying to ship air. Bulk bags are sized to the batch your line runs in one shift: open a bag, use the whole bag, and nothing sits half-open in a humid store. Kept sealed in the bulk bag at ≤18 °C, usable stock stretches to 18–24 months, which matters for a fruit bought once a year.

Commercial terms and container planning

Format sets your freight per kilo. The same 20ft container carries 3.85 tonnes of whole arils, 5.5 tonnes of diced or 11 tonnes of powder. Put whole arils where the shape earns its shelf price, and diced where the fruit disappears into a recipe.

Lock your season before April, ship all year. The best arils of the May to mid-July window, when Brix, colour and segment size peak, are IQF-frozen at −25 °C and freeze-dried to order through the year. That means fresh production dates on every shipment and a full shelf life when the goods land. What sets your whole-aril volume is the amount frozen in that window, so volume confirmed before April secures whole arils for the next twelve months. Late-season fruit goes into diced and powder, so a brand that comes late still gets supply.

Quality and documents

• Every full-container lot: third-party COA for moisture, water activity, total plate count, yeasts & moulds, E. coli and Salmonella.
• Periodic surveillance: lead, arsenic and aflatoxin (total and B1) tested at an independent ISO/IEC 17025 accredited laboratory. Reports available on request.
• Claims: 14 days from devanning for packaging, appearance, breakage and water activity; 30 days for laboratory results. If results diverge, the retained sample goes to an independent accredited laboratory agreed by both sides.
• Market-specific panels: coordinated with an ISO/IEC 17025 accredited laboratory in Vietnam before stuffing for full-container contracts.
• Trial and LCL orders: trial orders ship with a free release QC log and our baseline reports; third-party testing on trial lots is arranged on request.
• Pre-shipment sample: 100–200 g from the packed commercial lot in two sealed foil pouches with desiccant, one for your sensory check and one lot-code sealed for your lab.
• Retained sample: kept from every container lot for its full shelf life.
• Facility control: one qualified processing facility is locked per contract. Any change needs prior written notice and re-approval of the pre-shipment sample. You have audit access.
• Facility certifications: HACCP, ISO 22000, BRC (qualified processing facility) and US FDA Facility Registration. Halal certification available on request.
• Shipment documents: commercial invoice, packing list, bill of lading, COA, Certificate of Origin Form EUR.1 for EU and UK preferential duty, and a phytosanitary certificate with every shipment as part of our standard export dossier.

Import and labelling

• Ingredient line for private label: “100% mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana)”, with “Contains natural seeds” on the pack. A single-ingredient line is the cleanest label a fruit snack can carry. Pouch sizes, print routes and launch timing are set out in private-label freeze-dried mangosteen from Vietnam.
• HS code: whole arils and diced ship under 0804.50, the heading for mangoes and mangosteens, fresh or dried; powder under 1106.30.
• European Union: mangosteen under CN 0804 50 00 carries 0% duty from every origin, and it is not on the EU list of foods under increased official controls, so containers move through routine checks. Form EUR.1 travels with every EU and UK container as standard. Pesticide results on the dried product are read through a processing factor; the lot COA states the finished moisture your QA team needs for that one-line conversion.
• United States: whole arils and diced enter under HTSUS 0804.50.80 as a processed food, with FDA Prior Notice before arrival. Fresh mangosteen faces quarantine irradiation and inspection to enter the US; freeze-dried mangosteen needs no quarantine irradiation and ships by sea in a dry container.
• Export dossier: FruitBuys includes a phytosanitary certificate with every shipment as part of its standard export dossier, alongside the COA and certificate of origin, so your broker clears the container on one complete file.
• UAE: Arabic labelling and product registration are handled with your importer before the first shipment.

Approving the sample

The pre-shipment sample is your reference for the whole container. Three checks confirm it matches what you will receive:

1. Pack. Bag sealed and flat, desiccant in place, net weight matching the packing list.
2. Product. Arils whole and ivory to light cream (a natural pink blush at the crown is conforming), breakage within 10% (single intact segments count as whole), each with its natural seed, crisp on the bite, water activity at or below 0.30. The second sealed pouch goes to your own lab if your QA wants it.
3. Your recipe. A short trial in your real base, checked at week 1 and week 4.

Approve the sample in writing and it becomes the standard the container is loaded against. The full contract wording is in how to make sure the bulk shipment matches the approved sample. Comparing several suppliers? Line up their answers with what to check before buying freeze-dried mangosteen in bulk.

FAQ

Is sugar added to freeze-dried mangosteen?

No. It is 100% mangosteen aril; the 70 g of sugar per 100 g is the fruit’s own, concentrated by drying.

How much breakage is in whole arils?

Up to 10% by weight at loading, counted as fragments under half of a single segment. Intact single segments that separate from an aril count as whole product. The tray-packed option holds it to 5%.

Are there seeds in freeze-dried mangosteen?

Yes. Every format keeps the natural seed, which holds the aril together. After freeze-drying the seed is crisp with a nutty crunch and is eaten with the fruit. Print “Contains natural seeds” on retail packs; for a seed-free product, use the powder.

Is the pink colour on some arils a defect?

No. A natural pink blush at the crown and along the segment seams is normal for ripe mangosteen and is conforming product.

When should I order?

Confirm volume before April. Peak-season arils are IQF-frozen and freeze-dried to order through the year, so whole arils, diced and powder ship in every month.

Does freeze-dried mangosteen need irradiation to enter the US?

No. Quarantine irradiation is a condition for fresh mangosteen. Freeze-dried mangosteen is a processed food and ships by sea in a dry container.

How much fits in a container?

Typical loading is about 550 cartons in a 20ft and 1,100 in a 40ft HC, floor-loaded: 3.85 t of whole arils or 5.5 t of diced per 20ft.

Can I make a xanthone claim?

Not on a product made from the white flesh. Most of mangosteen’s xanthones sit in the rind; sell on taste, clean label and fibre.

What is the minimum order for private label?

500 kg for OEM, ODM and private-label packing.

Do you provide a COA and phytosanitary certificate?

Yes. Every full-container lot ships with a third-party COA, and every shipment carries a phytosanitary certificate.

How long does it keep?

18–24 months in the original sealed bulk foil bag with desiccant, stored cool at ≤18 °C, RH ≤50%; 12 months for the sealed bulk bag at ≤25 °C, RH ≤60%, and once repacked into retail pouches.

Request a sample and quote

Send these details and we return a specification, sample and terms in one reply:

1. Market: destination country and port, labelling market
2. Product: whole arils, tray-packed arils, diced or powder; ready-to-eat retail or ingredient
3. Volume: first order (trial, LCL, 20ft, 40ft HC) and annual volume
4. Timing: preferred delivery months and target date for the first shipment
5. Packaging: bulk bag size or retail pouch size; private-label artwork status
6. Terms: preferred Incoterm and payment term
7. QA: any tests your market or customer requires

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