Title of Invention

A PROCESS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF SHELF-STABLE INTERMEDIATE MOISTURE APRICOTS

Abstract

A process for the production of shelf stable intermediate moisture apricots comprising of following steps: pre-treating 10 kg apricots by washing, sized/grading, cutting into halves, removing seeds and blaching at 90°C for 3min; preparing 20kg infusion solution by making a sugar syrup having a concentration of at least 70° brix along with 1000 ppm of potassium metabisulphite (as antibrowning agent), 100 ppm potassium sorbate (as antimycotic agent) and 0.6% to 0.8% calcium chloride solution; soaking the said pre-treated apricots in the said infusion solution overnight, draining the apricots, readjusting the concentration of soak solution to for example 75°C brix, again dipping the apricots in this solution for overnight; said apricots are drained from infusion solution and packed in pp film pouches in reset form.

Full Text

FIELD OF INVENTION The invention relates to a process for the production of production of shelf-stable intermediate moisture apricots PRIOR ART The quality of apricots depends on their stage of ripening. Apricots usually ripen on the trees and are harvested after ripening only. Quality of apricots is reduced if harvested in semiripened stage as they do not ripen further satisfactorily after plucking. But ripe apricots are very delicate and do not have an adequate shelf life of even 24 hrs at ambient temperature. As such, they can be nicely picked and stored in a ripe state from the trees, if cooled to a refrigerated temperature since cooling slows overripening and prevents excessive softening. The invention relates to methods that enable the development, production and packaging of intermediate moisture apricots. Partially dried apricots are a snack and fruit coktail favourite of thousands of people. They are excellent fruits, which are highly nutritious in fresh form. Unfortunately, fresh apricots are available in seasons for only limited periods of time. Canned apricots are available which are used as garnishing for ice creams. But the liquid in the can will typically amount to 50% of the canned weight and, due to heat processing, the quality of the fruit is somewhat degraded. In some cases, they lose most of their texture during storage in the cans. Due to very short shelf life and large availability in the equally short season, there is current need for improving the quality of apricots for use as snacks, fruit cocktails and the like and ensuring a year round source of apricots suitable for a variety of food applications. Apricots have been the subjects of several prior art processes, but to date they are still limited and are available only in a few forms. Thus, apricots are currently considered underutilized for their beneficial heatthy diet advantages. Whole apricots are generally dried to a moisture content of 17 to 23%. Retention of colour during dehydration and storage is achieved by the addition of SO2 or sulfites to the fruits. A substantial market exists for use of fruits in products such as yogurts, fruit creams/cocktails and ice creams etc. Up to now apricot fruits of satisfactory quality at reasonable costs are not available for such uses. Canned apricots tend to be too soft and 'mushy', they are bulky to store and inconvenient to use since cans have to be opened and contents have to be drained off carefully. Frozen fruits are likewise unsuitable for ice creams because they are too hard, lack flavour, have to be thawed with subsequent drip, are not sweet enough and are generally less than satisfactory. Lewis et al in US patent No.5256 438 (1993) have claimed ready to eat preserved edible fruits/fruit products (apricot has been mentioned) which consist of natural fruit or fruit pieces, which have been dehydrated to a soluble solids level of 40 to 60%, a moisture level of 35 to 55% and a water activity level of 0.75 to 0.90 and to processes of producing such products and foods containing such products. The products remain unfrozen at temperature with the range of 0 to -25°C. However, the above process suffers from many disadvantages. In the above process Lewis et al, have not studied the shelf stability of the product processed at ambient temperature whereby there is a chance of browning. Moreover the process claimed that the product is to be pasteurized after storage. Since browning is not a problem in this case, they did not used any anti browning agents. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,390,550, Khan, et al., disclose Infusing fruit (apricots not mentioned) with sugar solutes to reduce the water activity by creating sites for removing part of the water content and bathing the fruit in sugar bath to infuse sugar therein. The bath is a fructose-containing com syrup of about 70 to 80% sugar solids with 40 to 90% being fructose and/or dextrose, resulting in fruit having a water activity of 0.45 to 0.65. The fruit is added to cereals. However, the above process also suffers from disadvantages. In the above process, Khan et al, claimed that the treated fruits contain mostly fructose syrup. As fructose gives more sweetness, the product suffers from the excessive sweet taste. . Augustine, et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 4,775,545, describe the preparation of a sweetened fruit having a low water activity relative to its moisture content. A dry fruit (apricot not mentioned) is bathed in an aqueous sugar solution having about 70 to 95 weight percent sugar, at least about 75 weight percent of which is fructose. The bath preferably includes an alkaline calcium compound. In the above process Augustine et al, discussed about sweetened fruit in a solution essentially consisted of fructose, where the improvement claimed comprised of drying the fruits prior to soaking to reduce the moisture level at least above 67%. However, this process also suffers from many disadvantages. Since the fruits are dried before soaking, there is a possibility of toss of flavour as well as other organoleptic qualities. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,000,972, Nafisi-Movaghar describes a process for drying fruits that includes applying vacuum while infusing with a sugar solution containing an acid and an antimicrobial agent. The objectives seem to be centered on the prevention of enzymatic and nonenzymatic browning without the use of sulfites and apricots are not among the fruits listed for treatment. In the above process Nafisi-Movaghar et al, used a combination of vacuum and particular infusion of soaking solution containing a sugar having more than 6 carbon atoms and other ingredients to avoid discolouration. However, this process also suffers from the disadvantage that this process uses antibrowning agent which consumer may not like. Moreover this process is costly due to vacuum infusion. OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION Primary object of the invention is to provide a process for the production of shelf-stable intermediate moisture apricots Another object of the invention is to provide a process for the production of shelf stable intermediate moisture apricots which can be used in various food applications. Still another object of the invention is to provide a process for the production of shelf stable intermediate moisture apricots which is prepared by infusion of sugars for reduction of moisture and water activity. Yet another object of the invention is to provide a process for the production of shelf stable intermediate moisture apricots which offer good texture, and flavor along with shelf stability. Still another object of the invention is to provide a process for the production of shelf stable intermediate moisture apricots which is capable of providing apricots, in a partially-dried, tender, appetizing and shelf-stable form, suitable for packaging and storage at ambient temperature. Yet another object of the invention is to provide a process for the production of shelf stable intermediate moisture apricots which can remain shelf stable at ambient temperature (28-33°C) and shelf stable for 1 year at refrigerated temperature. Yet another object of the invention is to provide a process for the production of shelf stable intermediate moisture apricots which is simpler, cheaper and easy to practice.DESCRIPTION OF THE PROCESS According to this invention there is provided a process for the production of shelf stable intermediate moisture apricots comprising of following steps: (j) pre-treating 10 kg apricots by washing, sized/grading, cutting into halves, removing seeds and blaching at 90°C for 3min; (ii) preparing 20 kg infusion solution by making a sugar syrup having a concentration of at least 70° brix along with 1000 ppm of potassium metabisulphite (as antibrowning agent), 100 ppm potassium sorbate (as antimycotic agent) and 0.6% to 0.8% calcium chloride solution; (iii) soaking the said pre-treated apricots in the said infusion solution overnight, draining the apricots, readjusting the concentration of soak solution to for example 75°C brix, again dipping the apricots in this solution for overnight; (iv) said apricots are drained from infusion solution and packed in pp film pouches in reset form; The invention will be better understood and its advantages more apparent from the following detailed description. In this description, the term apricot is meant to include native wild apricot as well as cultivated varieties such as KHANTE and Halman. The invention has particular application and advantages for wild Khante variety variety of apricots but is equally applicable to other varieties such as Halman and Rigje-Karpo. The process for the production of shelf stable intermediate moisture apricots comprises of following steps: Working Example 1 10 kgs of size graded khante/halman variety of apricots were blanched at 90°C for 3 min and cooled down to room temperature. The pre-treated apricots were placed in a tank of infusion solution of 20 kg of 70° brix in such a way that they were fully immersed in the solution. The infusion solution was prepared by mixing sugar - 14.00 kg, water - 5.78 kg, calcium chloride 0.10 kg, potassium metabisulphite - 0.04 kg and potassium sorbate - 0.08 kg. The apricots were kept in the infusion solution overnight. Next, the apricots were drained. The concentration of sugar solution was again made up to 75° Brix and the drained apricots were again soaked in the infusion solution as above overnight. Apricots are again drained and packed in PP film pouches in wet form. The final weight of the product was 3.5 kg. The product is shelf stable at ambient temperature for six months and at refrigerated temperature for one year. Working Example 2 10 kgs of size graded apricots were blanched at 90°C for 3 min and cooled down to room temperature. The pre-treated apricots were placed in a tank of infusion solution of 20 kg of 65° Brix in such a way that they were fully immersed in the solution. The infusion solution was prepared by mixing sugar - 13.00 kg, water - 6.78 kg, calcium chloride 0.10 kg, potassium metabisulphite - 0.04 kg and potassium sorbate -0.08 kg. The apricots were kept in the infusion solution overnight. Next, the apricots were drained. The concentration of sugar solution was again made up to 70° Brix and the drained apricots were again soaked in the infusion solution as above overnight. Apricots are again drained and packed in PP film pouches in wet form. The final weight of the product was 4.0 kg. The product is shelf stable at ambient temperature for six months and at refrigerated temperature for one year. The present embodiment of the invention, which has been set forth above, was for the purpose of illustration and is not intended to limit the scope of the invention. It is to be understood that various changes, adaptations and modifications can be made in the invention described above by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention, which has been defined by following claims WE CLAIM: 1. A process for the production of shelf stable intermediate moisture apricots comprising of following steps: (i) pre-treating 10 kg apricots by washing, sized/grading, cutting into halves, removing seeds and blaching at 90°C for 3min; (ii) preparing 20kg infusion solution by making a sugar syrup having a concentration of at least 70° brix along with 1000 ppm of potassium metabisulphite (as antibrowning agent), 100 ppm potassium sorbate (as antimycotic agent) and 0.6% to 0.8% calcium chloride solution; (iii) soaking the said pre-treated apricots in the said infusion solution overnight, draining the apricots, readjusting the concentration of soak solution to for example 75°C brix, again dipping the apricots in this solution for overnight; (iv) said apricots are drained from infusion solution and packed in pp film pouches in wet form; 2. A process for the production of shelf stable intermediate moisture apricots substantially as claimed and exemplified herein.

Documents:

2303-DEL-2004-Abstract-(13-12-2010).pdf

2303-DEL-2004-Abstract-(27-07-2009).pdf

2303-del-2004-abstract.pdf

2303-DEL-2004-Claims-(13-12-2010).pdf

2303-DEL-2004-Claims-(27-07-2009).pdf

2303-del-2004-claims.pdf

2303-DEL-2004-Correspondence-Others-(13-12-2010).pdf

2303-del-2004-correspondence-others.pdf

2303-del-2004-correspondence-po.pdf

2303-DEL-2004-Description (Complete)-(13-12-2010).pdf

2303-DEL-2004-Description (Complete)-(27-07-2009).pdf

2303-del-2004-description (complete).pdf

2303-del-2004-form-1.pdf

2303-del-2004-form-18.pdf

2303-DEL-2004-Form-2-(27-07-2009).pdf

2303-del-2004-form-2.pdf

2303-DEL-2004-GPA-(13-12-2010).pdf