Fruit Processing

Written by Administrator | 02 February 2012

Fruit Processing, for example Mangoes. Mangoes are processed at two stages of maturity. Green fruit is used to make chutney, pickles, curries and dehydrated products. The green fruit should be freshly picked from the tree. Fruit that is bruised, damaged, or that has prematurely fallen to the ground should not be used. Ripe mangoes are processed as canned and frozen slices, purée, juices, nectar and various dried products.

 Green Mango processing

 Pickles

The optimum stage of maturity should be determined for each variety used to make pickles. There are two classifications of pickles - salt pickles and oil pickles. They are processed from whole and sliced fruit with and without stones. Salt is used in most pickles.

 Chutney

The product is prepared from peeled, sliced or grated unripe or semi-ripe fruit by cooking the shredded fruit with salt over medium heat for 5 to 7 minutes, mixed and then sugar, spices and vinegar are added.

 Drying

Drying/dehydration. Immature fruit is peeled and sliced for sun-drying. The dried mango slices can be powdered to make a product called Anritha system. The use of blanching, sculpturing and mechanical dehydration gives a product with better color, nutrition, storability and fewer microbiological problems.

 Ripe mango processing

 Purée

Mangoes are processed into purée for re-manufacturing into products such as nectar, juice, squash, jam, jelly and dehydrated products. The purée can be preserved by chemical means, or frozen, or canned and stored in barrels

Slices

Mango slices can be preserved by canning or freezing, and recent studies have shown the feasibility of pasteurized-refrigerated and dehydro-canned slices. The quality of the processed product in all of these procedures will be dependent upon selection of a suitable variety along with good processing procedures.

 Beverages

The commercial beverages are juice, nectar and squash. Mango nectar and juice contain mango purée, sugar, water and citric acid in various proportions depending on local taste, government standards of identity, pH control, and fruit composition of the variety used.

 Dried/dehydrated

Ripe mangoes are dried in the form of pieces, powders, and flakes. Drying procedures such as sun-drying, tunnel dehydration, vacuum-drying, osmotic dehydration may be used. Packaged and stored properly, dried mango products are stable and nutritious.

 Canning

This preservation technology is described in various technological flow-sheets in this bulletin.

The complete process for production of IQF Fruits and Vegetables can be divided in to the following steps:

1. Reception of raw products and manual sorting
2. Pneumatic Cleaning
3. Washing and de-stoning
4. Inspection
5. Trimming, Shelling, Sizing, Sniping, Pitting and Skinning
6. Blanching
7. Cooling
8. Sorting
9. Individual Quick Freezing
10. Grading
11. Packing
12. Storage