Bulk Dried Acai
Acai berries start breaking down within a day of harvest, so Source86 sources only from mills that depulp and dry at origin in the Brazilian Amazon floodplains, mainly Pará, Amapá, and Amazonas, with Peru and Bolivia covering the gaps in tighter harvest years. The fruit, Euterpe oleracea Mart., reaches us as freeze-dried pulp powder or spray-dried powder, both offered in certified organic and conventional lots.
The two formats aren’t interchangeable. Freeze-dried pulp keeps the berry’s native fat and fiber intact, so it holds up in bars, capsules, and frozen dessert bases where whole-fruit composition matters. Spray-dried powder dissolves faster and moves cleanly through beverage and stick-pack lines instead.
Kosher, halal, and non-GMO paperwork travels with the lot on request, depending on format.
Product Data
| Botanical Identity | Euterpe oleracea Mart., family Arecaceae, commonly traded as acai or açaí. |
|---|---|
| Plant Part | Fruit pulp and skin (mesocarp and epicarp). The seed represents most of the fruit mass and is separated and removed during depulping. |
| Available Forms | Freeze-dried acai pulp powder and spray-dried acai juice powder. |
| Processing Method | Freeze-dried material is lyophilized pasteurized pulp with no carrier. Juice powder is spray-dried from clarified pulp or juice on a maltodextrin carrier. |
| Appearance | Fine free-flowing powder. Freeze-dried material is slightly coarser and more agglomerated; juice powder is a uniform fine spray-dried powder. |
| Color | Deep purple to reddish-purple in freeze-dried material; lighter violet to grayish-purple in juice powder, reflecting carrier dilution. |
| Odor | Faint, earthy, characteristic of the fruit, with no fermented or rancid note. |
| Flavor | Low sweetness with mild tartness and an earthy profile close to unsweetened cocoa. Juice powder is milder and slightly sweeter from the carrier. |
| Marker Compound | Total anthocyanins expressed as cyanidin-3-glucoside, 1.0% minimum for freeze-dried pulp powder and 0.2% minimum for juice powder |
| Concentration Ratio | Juice powder is supplied at a nominal 4:1 to 5:1 pulp-solids-to-powder ratio before carrier addition |
| Moisture | 5.0% maximum for both formats |
| Water Activity | 0.30 maximum |
| Particle Size | Freeze-dried powder passes 95% minimum through 40 mesh; juice powder passes 100% through 80 mesh |
| Bulk Density | 0.35 to 0.45 g/mL for freeze-dried powder and 0.45 to 0.60 g/mL for juice powder |
| Carrier Content | None in freeze-dried pulp powder. Juice powder contains 20% to 35% maltodextrin, tapioca-derived and organic-compliant on certified lots |
| Total Fat | 40% to 50% for freeze-dried pulp powder and 3.0% maximum for juice powder |
| Dietary Fiber | 25% to 35% for freeze-dried pulp powder and 5.0% maximum for juice powder |
| Protein | 7.0% to 10.0% for freeze-dried pulp powder and 2.0% maximum for juice powder |
| Solubility and Dispersibility | Juice powder is fully cold-water soluble. Freeze-dried powder disperses rather than dissolves, leaving a fiber and fat fraction in suspension. |
| Treatment Status | Pulp is thermally pasteurized before drying, which is the controlling step for microbial load and for Trypanosoma cruzi risk associated with raw acai pulp. |
| Heavy Metals | Lead 1.0 ppm maximum, arsenic 1.0 ppm maximum, cadmium 1.0 ppm maximum, mercury 0.1 ppm maximum |
| Pesticide Residues | Conforms to applicable US and EU maximum residue limits. Certified lots are produced without synthetic pesticide inputs. |
| Microbiological Limits | Total plate count 10,000 cfu/g maximum, yeast and mold 1,000 cfu/g maximum, coliforms 10 cfu/g maximum, E. coli negative, Salmonella negative in 25 g |
| Origin | Brazil (Pará, Amapá, Amazonas), with Peru and Ecuador as secondary origins |
| Packaging | 10 kg or 20 kg foil-laminate bags with inner liner, packed in fiber drums or export cartons |
| Shelf Life | 24 months from production in unopened original packaging |
| Storage | Store below 25 C in a dry, dark environment. Freeze-dried material benefits from refrigerated storage on long holds because of its fat content. |
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Certifications & Compliance
The following certifications and records are available based on product, origin, format, and lot.
- Certified Organic: USDA NOP and EU organic certification, applicable to freeze-dried pulp powder and juice powder. Wild-collection areas are certified where material comes from managed floodplain stands.
- Organic Traceability and Transaction Records: Organic certificates, transaction certificates, and lot-level chain of custody from cooperative or collection point through to packed goods.
- Kosher and Halal: Certification issued at the processing facility level.
- Non-GMO: Non-GMO declarations covering both the fruit and the maltodextrin carrier used in juice powder.
- Gluten-Free and Allergen Statement: Acai is not a major allergen. Statements cover facility cross-contact and confirm carrier source.
- Certificate of Analysis: Lot-specific results for moisture, water activity, particle size, bulk density, and microbiological limits.
- Product Specification Sheet: Full specification with nutritional composition, fat and fiber ranges, and format-specific parameters.
- Anthocyanin Identity and Assay Testing: Quantification of total anthocyanins by HPLC or spectrophotometric method, supporting standardization and authenticity checks.
- Adulteration and Authenticity Screening: Verification against undeclared carrier, colorant, or fruit-solid substitution, which is a known issue in the purple-fruit powder trade.
- Heavy Metals and Pesticide Residue Reports: Panel testing against US and EU limits.
- Pasteurization Validation Records: Documentation of the thermal step applied to pulp before drying.
- Country of Origin Documentation and SDS: Origin declarations supporting FSVP files and customs entry, plus safety data sheets.
Production & Sourcing
Acai is sourced from the Amazon estuary because the palm grows in seasonally flooded várzea forest that cannot be replicated commercially elsewhere at scale. Pará accounts for most global supply and holds the depulping, pasteurization, and drying infrastructure close to harvest, which matters for a fruit that begins degrading within 24 hours of picking. Peru and Bolivia provide a secondary lane when Brazilian harvest or freight conditions tighten. Main harvest runs July through December with peak volume from August to November, and off-season material from January through June carries lower yield and firmer pricing.
- Harvesting: Ripe fruit clusters are cut by climbers from wild and managed palm stands, then moved by river and road to nearby processing points within hours of picking.
- Cleaning and Softening: Fruit is washed, sanitized, and soaked in warm potable water to soften the thin pulp layer bonded to the seed.
- Depulping: Mechanical pulpers separate pulp and skin from the seed. Seeds are removed for composting or biomass use, and the recovered pulp carries the fruit’s full native fat and fiber.
- Pasteurization: Pulp is thermally treated to control microbial load and eliminate parasite risk before any drying step. This is the critical control point on the process and is validated per lot.
- Drying Split: Pasteurized pulp is either frozen and lyophilized to produce carrier-free pulp powder, or clarified and spray-dried with maltodextrin to produce a soluble juice powder. Certified lots are dried on dedicated runs or after documented cleanout.
- Milling and Screening: Dried material is milled and screened to the target mesh, with metal detection and sieving before packing.
- Packing and Documentation: Powder is packed into foil-laminate bags under controlled humidity, lot-coded, and released against certificate of analysis, organic transaction records, and origin documentation.
Certified and conventional material is identified at the collection point, held in separate storage, and segregated through depulping, drying, and packing to preserve chain of custody.
Applications
- Beverage Powders and Drink Mixes: Fits smoothie bases, functional drink powders, stick packs, and sachet formats where acai is a named fruit component.
- Frozen Desserts and Acai Bowl Bases: Used in sorbet, frozen blend, and bowl base systems built around the fruit as the primary identity.
- Dietary Supplements: Suits capsules, tablets, gummies, and powdered blends where a standardized fruit powder is required in the formula.
- Bars, Snacks, and Confections: Applied in fruit bars, energy bars, clusters, and coated confections as a dry fruit component.
- Dairy and Yogurt Products: Used in flavored yogurt, kefir, frozen yogurt, and dairy alternative lines.
- Bakery and Fillings: Incorporated into muffins, cookies, fillings, and toppings where the fruit is declared on the label.
- Nutrition and Sports Formulas: Included in meal replacement, greens, and recovery blends alongside other fruit and botanical powders.
Physical & Functional Characteristics
Dry powder in both offerings, with the freeze-dried format showing slight agglomeration typical of lyophilized high-fat material.
Saturated purple in the pulp format, with natural lot variation driven by harvest window and ripeness.
Low-sugar and mildly tart with an earthy, cocoa-adjacent base rather than a bright berry character.
Subtle and vegetal with no strong fruit top note, which allows it to sit in blends without dominating.
Soft and slightly oily to the touch in the pulp format; dry and free-flowing in the juice format.
Low residual moisture and water activity below 0.30, which supports microbial stability while leaving the material hygroscopic on exposure.
The pulp format is unusual among fruit powders in being fat-dominant rather than sugar-dominant, with oleic acid as the principal fatty acid and low total sugars.
Freeze-dried pulp powder is a single-ingredient material with no additive or carrier.
Fines generation is moderate and the pulp format compacts under drum pressure, which calls for scaling by weight rather than volume.
Pigment fades under light and both formats oxidize, so sealed foil packaging and cool storage are functional requirements rather than precautions.
Vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, and free of the major allergens, with organic and non-GMO status available by lot.
Both formats flow adequately through standard powder equipment, with the juice powder handling more cleanly in gravimetric feeders because of its higher density and lower fat.
Functionality
- Fat Contribution: Freeze-dried pulp powder carries 40% to 50% fat, which contributes mouthfeel and calorie density and lets it partially replace added lipids in bars and frozen blends.
- Fiber Contribution: Native insoluble fiber in the pulp format builds body and viscosity in frozen and semi-frozen systems without added hydrocolloids.
- Anthocyanin Dose Control: A defined marker assay allows the powder to be dosed against a target anthocyanin level, which stabilizes label and efficacy claims across lots.
- Color Delivery and pH Sensitivity: Anthocyanin pigment reads purple in acidic systems and shifts toward gray or brown above pH 4.5, so it performs predictably only in acidified or frozen formats.
- Heat and Light Lability: Pigment and phenolic content degrade under extended heat and UV exposure, which favors cold-process, frozen, or encapsulated applications over baked and retorted ones.
- Oxidative Reactivity: The high unsaturated fat fraction in pulp powder is oxidation-prone, so it responds to nitrogen flushing, antioxidant systems, or encapsulation in extended-shelf-life formats.
Benefits for Commercial Manufacturing
- Two Formats From One Qualified Supply Chain: Whole-fruit and soluble options come from the same origin base and audit trail, so switching format does not require a new supplier approval cycle.
- Standardized Anthocyanin Basis: Buying against a marker assay gives incoming inspection a measurable acceptance criterion.
- Validated Pasteurization Ahead of Drying: Documented thermal treatment addresses the microbial and parasite risk history of raw acai pulp, which supports use in applications with no downstream kill step.
- Organic Chain of Custody: Certified wild-collection sourcing, segregated processing, and transaction records let certified lots carry through to a certified finished product.
- Multi-Origin Supply: Secondary Peruvian and Bolivian lanes provide continuity when Brazilian harvest, river logistics, or freight disrupt the primary path.
- Harvest-Aware Contracting: A defined main harvest window allows forward positioning ahead of the off-season.
- Fat and Fiber Carried in the Ingredient: The pulp format supplies lipid and fiber contribution that would otherwise need separate line items, which shortens the ingredient statement.
