As of Alpine Linux 3.3 there exists a new --no-cache option for apk. It allows users to install packages with an index that is updated and used on-the-fly and not cached locally:

FROM openjdk:8-jre-alpine
RUN apk --no-cache add curl

This avoids the need to use --update and remove /var/cache/apk/* when done installing packages.

Reference - https://github.com/gliderlabs/docker-alpine/blob/master/docs/usage.md