ApBitz complements the Arctic apple season

FreshPlaza recently published a news article on the first commercial season of Arctic apple slices. While the Arctic apple slices were the primary focus this season, OSF also recently launched another snack size apple product called ApBitz, which are fry-cut dried Golden apples. In the spirit of reducing food waste, the company made use of apples that were not able to be used for the fresh sliced packs and innovated another use for them in the form of ApBitz.

"Our sweet and crunchy Arctic ApBitz™ snacks are fry-cut dried Arctic® Golden apples," says Neal Carter head of Okanagan Specialty Fruits. "They are currently being sold in a pack of 12 individual 0.75 oz. bags. Fruit comes off the tree in different sizes and not all the apples that were picked in this past harvest were suitable in size for fresh slices. Since one of our core initiatives is to reduce unnecessary food waste we didn’t want the unsuitably sized apples to go to waste so we developed Arctic ApBitz™ dried apple snacks which are preservative-free and just as healthy and delicious as our fresh slices. Plus, we’re excited to have the ability to highlight our unique non-browning trait in another way. In the coming years we hope to have Arctic ApBitz™ snacks available in other Arctic® apple varieties as well."

One of the unique aspects of ApBitz is that they are currently being sold on Amazon.com. Instead of going to retail with this product, Okanagan decided to make them more readily accessible to anyone in the United States. Part of the reason is that due to the limited availability of the Arctic apples, they were not as widely available until more volume can come in the next few years.

Carter said: "We’re often asked, “Where and when can I buy Arctic® apples?” Because the fruit supply from our young orchards in 2017’s harvest was limited – and will continue to be for some time - fresh sliced Arctic® apples were only available in a limited number of locations. We decided to make Arctic ApBitz™ dried apples available online via Amazon.com so that everyone in the U.S. would have convenient access to our sweet and crunchable Arctic ApBitz™ snacks. When our fruit volumes increase we will look at making Arctic ApBitz™ available through other retailers."

"Initial reaction to our new Arctic ApBitz™ dried apple snacks has been extremely positive," he added. "Consumers are excited about a new healthy snack option and are loving their unique crunch. Because our volume is quite limited for this first year we anticipate they won’t last long!"