How to Portion Dried Fruit

A dried-fruit portion is 30 g, a fresh portion is 80 g, and the day should add up to 400 g of fruit and vegetables.

Portion guidance gives dried fruit its own number for a reason: because drying removes 80-85% of the water, sugar and calories concentrate roughly fourfold, so the standard dried serving is 30 g against 80 g for fresh fruit.

The weigh-once method is the reliable way to learn it. Put a small bowl on a kitchen scale, zero it, add fruit to 30 g, and look at the volume; that volume in that bowl is now your measure, repeatable without the scale.

The daily target is 400 g of fruit and vegetables, usually met as five portions. One of the five can be dried: four fresh or vegetable portions of 80 g plus one 30 g dried portion weigh 350 g, so close the remaining gap with an extra fresh portion or a larger serving of vegetables.

Freeze-dried fruit breaks portion intuition. Because 100 g of fresh strawberries dries to roughly 10 g of chips, a 30 g bowl of chips represents about 300 g of fresh fruit — weigh freeze-dried snacks with the same discipline as any dried fruit.

For the sugar and fibre numbers behind each choice, see Dried Fruit Sugar Comparison; for keeping weighed portions fresh for months, see How to Store Dried Fruit.

• Place a small bowl on the scale and press tare.
• Add dried fruit until the display reads 30 g.
• Memorise the volume — that is your portion for this fruit.
• Count it as one of the day's five portions.
• Fill the other four portions with 80 g each of fresh fruit or vegetables.

Further reading

• Dried Fruit Sugar Comparison
• How to Store Dried Fruit