Dating back to the fourth millennium BC, humans have been drying fruits for consumption. Dried fruit has a variety of qualities, including preservation and high nutritional value. It also makes for a phenomenal snack that is sweet and easy to eat. As you can see, we have a fond appreciation for dried fruit. There are many ways to dry fresh fruits, and we would like to share one with you. In this post, we will talk about the factory process of drying apricots in bulk.
The first step is ensuring the fresh apricots are ripe and ready. Ripe fruit is essential to a successful drying process. The firmer the fruit is, the more nutritional value you will get. Not to mention, it will be sweeter from a higher concentration.
If you are drying your fruit, you may consider growing it yourself. The US soil grows many different dried fruits, such as strawberries, blueberries, cranberries, cherries, peaches, pears, plums, figs, and apricots. A good portion of these fruits, including apricots, come from California, which has extremely rich soil and an excellent climate for growing these products.
Once the fruit is picked, it is separated into small, medium, large, and extra-large sizes. Separation makes for a smoother process. The apricots then go through conveyer belts for quality control. As a result, this process leaves all the twigs, branches, leaves, or soil behind. This is to assure you are only getting the apricots and nothing else. Once quality control is complete, they separate each size into industrial, standard, and choice grades. At many factories, they have exceptional technology equipped with cameras called optical cameras. These cameras can sort the apricots with blemishes from the more perfect ones.
The next step is to analyze each apricot’s sulfur dioxide and moisture content. Brown apricots have no sulfur added. With Sulfur, apricots hold the orange color that we all recognize them for. Therefore, this is typically done by introducing buffered sodium chloride solution to the highest quality of apricots from the farm. Once quality levels are determined, the apricots are ready to be dried. They place them in the sunlight, which makes them softer and surprisingly adds moisture to the dried product. The time for drying Apricots is usually around 3-4 days. Once they are through the drying process, they place the dried fruit away in cold storage. Upon receiving an order, the fruits are washed and packaged for shipping. That’s when they come to your doorstep, and you get to snack.
Voila! You now know the factory process for drying apricots. Pretty cool, huh?
An informative video on a supplier drying apricots for consumers:
