Bulk Dried Dates
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Dried dates are supplied as whole fruit, pitted fruit, and diced pieces, all from Phoenix dactylifera, in conventional and certified organic programmes. Format is the first decision, because it sets both the cost per pound and how much in-plant handling the buyer takes on.
Whole and pitted fruit hold visible identity in snacking, confectionery, and stuffed-date formats. Diced grades arrive pre-sized for direct addition to batters, bars, and dry blends. Dates also serve as the raw material for date paste, powder, and syrup, which Source86 supplies as finished ingredients in their own right. Supply is drawn from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Tunisia. Specifications and documentation are available on request.
Product Data
| Scientific Name | Phoenix dactylifera. Fruit of the date palm. |
|---|---|
| Plant Part | Whole fruit, with the pit retained or removed by grade. |
| Origin | United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Tunisia. |
| Available Formats | Whole with pit, pitted whole, and diced pieces. |
| Varieties | Deglet Nour confirmed. Sayer, Zahidi and Medjool. |
| Flavor Profile | Rich, sweet, caramel to honey notes |
| Storage Conditions | Store in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight and moisture. |
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Certifications & Compliance
Certified Organic: Available on selected formats and origins, with transaction records linking finished lots to the grower.
Kosher and Halal: Both available, certified by producing facility rather than assumed across the full format range.
Non-GMO: Supplier declarations available, supported by dates not being commercially grown from genetically modified varieties.
Gluten-Free Status: Applies to whole and pitted fruit. Diced grades depend on whether a dusting agent is used.
Allergen Statement: Dates carry no declared allergen, with cross-contact status confirmed per packing facility rather than assumed.
Core Documentation: Certificate of Analysis, specification sheet, origin documentation and Safety Data Sheet, all issued per lot.
Testing Support: Pesticide residue, heavy metals, and microbiological panels against US, EU, or customer-specified limits.
Production & Sourcing
Dates are grown across the arid belt of North Africa and the Middle East, with harvest running late summer into autumn and timing varying by region and variety. Supply is drawn from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Tunisia. Origin selection turns on variety availability, whether organic certification is required, and the pit-removal and defect tolerances a facility can hold.
1. Harvest: Fruit is picked at the targeted ripeness stage, which sets the moisture and softness the finished grade is specified against.
2. Cleaning: Harvested fruit is washed to remove dust, debris, and field foreign material before grading.
3. Sorting and Grading: Fruit is graded on size, colour, and defect count, which determines both format suitability and price.
4. Pitting and Dicing: Pits are mechanically removed on pitted grades, and diced grades are then cut to a specified piece size.
5. Conditioning: Moisture is brought to the target level, which governs both softness and shelf stability.
6. Inspection and Packing: Product passes metal detection and visual inspection, then is packed with lot codes traceable to origin and harvest.
Applications
Breads, muffins, cakes, and cookies take diced or chopped fruit for sweetness, moisture, and visible fruit pieces.
Diced grades bind the bar and sweeten it at once, which is why they displace both syrup and added sugar.
Whole and pitted fruit works as a standalone snack piece and as the fruit element in blends.
Stuffed-date formats, date-based sweets, and fillings use whole and pitted fruit where the shape carries the product.
Whole fruit is the raw material for downstream date paste, powder, and syrup manufacture.
Energy balls, protein bars, and clean-label formulations use dates as a whole-fruit sweetener.
Physical & Functional Characteristics
- Appearance: Whole, pitted, or diced fruit with a wrinkled, glossy surface and a soft, yielding body.
- Color: Light amber through to dark brown, varying by variety and by ripeness at harvest.
- Aroma and Flavor: Sweet and fragrant with caramel undertones, carrying honey and cooked-fruit notes on the palate.
- Texture: Chewy and naturally sticky, with firmness varying by variety and by finished moisture.
- Composition: Predominantly natural sugars with dietary fibre, plus potassium, magnesium and calcium from the fruit itself.
- Sugar Character: Glucose and fructose in near-equal proportion rather than sucrose, which is why dates read as fruit-sweet.
- Surface Tack and Clumping: The sugar-rich surface causes pieces to adhere to each other under warmth and compression in bulk packs.
- Dietary Suitability: Vegan and vegetarian, with no declared allergen. Gluten-free on whole and pitted grades.
Functionality
- Whole-Fruit Sweetening: Delivers sweetness as fruit solids rather than as added sugar, which changes the ingredient declaration as well as the flavour.
- Binding in Low-Water Systems: The sticky sugar-and-fibre matrix holds pressed bars and clusters together without a separate syrup binder.
- Humectancy: Retains moisture in a baked crumb over shelf life, which slows staling in high-fruit formulations.
- Visible Fruit Identity: Diced pieces stay discrete through mixing and baking rather than dispersing into the surrounding matrix.
- Caramel Flavour Contribution: Carries a caramel and honey character that reads as cooked fruit rather than as added sweetener.
- Dose Control by Cut: Piece size sets distribution and mouthfeel, with coarse cuts staying visible and fine cuts blending into the matrix.
Benefits for Commercial Manufacturing
- Format Matched to the Line: Choosing whole, pitted, or diced against how material is conveyed and dosed removes in-plant cutting and pitting.
- Added-Sugar Reduction on the Declaration: Fruit solids replacing refined sugar changes the ingredient list, not only the nutritional panel.
- Single Raw Material Across a Product Family: The same fruit feeds whole-fruit inclusion, paste, powder, and syrup, which are all available as finished ingredients.
- Shelf-Stable Ambient Handling: Dried and conditioned fruit ships and stores at ambient, with no chilled chain to maintain.
- Clean-Label Positioning: Whole fruit with no added ingredient suits clean-label and refined-sugar-alternative development on whole and pitted grades.
- Line Safety on Pitted Grades: Pit removal and metal detection records support automated processing where a hard foreign body would stop the line.
- Documentation for Supplier Qualification: Certificates, specifications, allergen statements and origin documentation go straight into the supplier approval file.
