Drying of apricots
The main traded apricot product is dried apricot. Dried
apricots are a good source of vitamin A, iron and sugar, and
where they are in abundance, their processing can provide
valuable income-generating opportunities. The methods of
drying apricots vary from simple sun drying through solar
drying to large-scale artificial dryers. The traditional sun
drying of apricots involves destoning the fruit and placing
it on flat rocks for approximately six to nine days. This
produces a dried fruit with an uneven dark brown colour and
a tough, texture.
Sulphur dioxide is normally added to the fruit as a
preservative and to give the dried product a brighter orange
colour. Sulphur fumigation is a hygienic, low-cost
preservation technique, that maintains colour of the food.
There is a small but growing market for apricots that have
not had sulphur dioxide added, in 'health food shops' in
Europe and the United States of America.
To produce a high quality dried apricot product:
Harvesting
Traditionally, apricots are harvested by shaking branches
and letting fruit fall to the ground. The fruit is then
either eaten fresh, sun-dried or heaped in fields prior to
pit removal. This practice, common in many countries, of
shaking the trees and letting the fruit fall to the ground,
results in damaged, bruised and dirty fruit. A high quality
dried apricot cannot be produced from a poor quality apricot
so this method of harvesting should be discouraged. In order
to reduce damage, fruit can collected in outspread sheets
held above ground level.
The apricots should be picked by hand and placed carefully
in a harvesting basket. The harvesting basket and the hands
of the harvester should be clean.
For the best quality dried product the apricots should be
picked when they are 'eating ripe' (firm and sweet) rather
than 'juicy ripe' (soft and sweet).
Preparation
Damaged and bruised fruits have to be rejected as they
produce low quality dried apricots. Under-ripe apricots have
to be rejected as these produce a bland colourless product
and do not absorb sufficient sulphur dioxide during
sulphuring. Over-ripe apricots should be rejected as they
absorb too much sulphur dioxide.
The apricots should be washed in clean water. If dried
apricot halves are being produced, the apricots should be
split into two and the kernels removed. The pits (or stones)
are removed by running water through baskets full of the
fruit and separating the flesh from the stone with either
hands or feet. The pits are then cracked to obtain the
kernel. The two halves should be separated. This produces a
more attractive product than when the two halves are left
connected. Their kernels can be either consumed or converted
into cooking oil. Bitter pitted fruit can be fed to animals.
