Dried fruit


Dried fruit is fruit from which the majority of the original water content has been removed prior to cooking or being eaten on its own. Drying may occur either naturally, by sun, through the use of industrial dehydrators, or by freeze drying. Dried fruit has a long tradition of use dating to the fourth millennium BC in Mesopotamia, and is valued for its sweet taste, nutritional content, and long shelf life.
In the 21st century, dried fruit consumption is widespread worldwide. Nearly half of dried fruits sold are raisins, followed by dates, prunes, figs, apricots, peaches, apples, and pears. These are referred to as "conventional" or "traditional" dried fruits: fruits that have been dried in the sun or in commercial dryers. Many fruits, such as cranberries, blueberries, cherries, strawberries, and mango are infused with a sweetener prior to drying. Some products sold as dried fruit, like papaya, kiwifruit and pineapple, are most often candied fruit.

History

Traditional dried fruits such as raisins, figs, dates, apricots, and apples have been a staple of Mediterranean diets for millennia. This is due partly to their early cultivation in the Middle Eastern region known as the Fertile Crescent, made up of parts of modern Iran, Iraq, southwest Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and northern Egypt. Drying or dehydration was the earliest form of food preservation: figs, dates or grapes which fell from the plant and were sun-dried may have been consumed by early hunter-gatherers as edible and more long-lasting and sweeter.
The earliest recorded mention of dried fruits can be found in Mesopotamian tablets dating to about 1500 BC. These clay slabs, written in Akkadian, the daily language of Babylonia, were inscribed in cuneiform; these were about diets based on grains, vegetables, and fruits such as dates, figs, apples, pomegranates and grapes. These early civilizations used dates, date juice evaporated into syrup and raisins as sweeteners, and included dried fruits in their breads.
The date palm was one of the first cultivated trees. It was domesticated in Mesopotamia more than 5,000 years ago and grew abundantly in the Fertile Crescent. Dates were the cheapest of staple foods due to high productivity, as an average date palm produced of fruit a year for more than 60 years.
Figs were also prized in early Mesopotamia, Palestine, Israel, and Egypt. In addition to appearing in wall paintings, many fig specimens were found in Egyptian tombs as funerary offerings.
Grape cultivation began in Armenia and the eastern regions of the Mediterranean in the 4th millennium BC. Raisins were produced by sun-drying grapes. Raisin production and viticulture spread across northern Africa, including Morocco and Tunisia.
Dried fruits spread through Greece to Italy where they became a major part of diets. Ancient Romans consumed raisins in large quantities and at all levels of society, including them as a key part of their common meals, along with olives and fresh fruits.
Having dried fruits was essential in ancient Rome as these instructions for housekeepers around 100 BC tell: "She must keep a supply of cooked food on hand for you and the servants. She must keep many hens and have plenty of eggs. She must have a large store of dried pears, sorbs, figs, raisins, sorbs in must, preserved pears, grapes, and quinces. She must also keep preserved grapes in grape pulp and in pots buried in the ground, as well as fresh Praenestine nuts kept in the same way, and Scantian quinces in jars, and other fruits that are usually preserved, as well as wild fruits. All these she must store away diligently every year."
Dried figs were added to bread and formed a major part of the winter food of common people. They were rubbed with spices such as cumin, anise, fennel seeds or toasted sesame, wrapped in fig leaves and stored in jars.
Plums, apricots and peaches have their origins in Asia. They were domesticated in China in the 3 BC and spread to the Fertile Crescent where they were commonly eaten.

Production

Dried fruit is produced in most regions of the world, and consumption occurs in all cultures and demographic segments., raisins accounted for about two-thirds of this volume. California produces the largest percentage of the US's and the world's dried fruit crop. It accounts for over 99% of the US crop of raisins and dried plums, 98% of dried figs, 96% of dried peaches, 92% of apricots and over 90% of dates. Most of California dried fruit production is centered in the San Joaquin Valley where the soil and climate, especially the hot, dry summers, provide ideal growing conditions. While these fruits were commonly dried in the sun in the past, now only raisins are almost entirely naturally sun-dried.

Preparation and use

Fruits can be dried whole, in halves, or as slices. Alternatively, they can be chopped after drying, made into pastes, or concentrated juices. The residual moisture content can vary from small to substantial, depending on the type of fruit. Fruits can also be spread out, dried and cut into stripes in its puree form without the addition of sugar or fats with at least 50% moisture content as fruit leather, or as a powder by spray or drum drying. They can be freeze dried. Fresh fruit is frozen and placed in a drying chamber under a vacuum. Heat is applied, and water evaporates from the fruit while it is still frozen. The fruit becomes very light and crispy and retains much of its original flavor. Dried fruit is widely used by the confectionery, baking, and sweets industries. Food manufacturing plants use dried fruits in various sauces, soups, marinades, garnishes, puddings, and food for infants and children.
As ingredients in prepared food, dried fruit juices, purées, and pastes impart sensory and functional characteristics to recipes:
  • The high fiber content provides water-absorbing and water-binding capabilities.
  • Organic acids such as sorbitol act as humectants, provide dough and batter stability, and control water activity.
  • Fruit sugars add sweetness, humectancy, and surface browning, and control water activity.
  • Fruit acids, such as malic acid and tartaric acid, contribute to flavor enhancement.
The high drying and processing temperatures, the intrinsic low pH of the fruit, and the low water activity in dried fruit make them a stable food.
File:Raisins 01.jpg|thumb|left|Both golden and conventional raisins are made from the same grape. Golden raisins are treated with sulfur dioxide.
Sulfur dioxide is used as an antioxidant in some dried fruits to protect their color and flavor. For example, in golden raisins, dried peaches, apples, and apricots, sulfur dioxide is used to keep them from losing their light color by blocking browning reactions that darken fruit and alter their flavor. Over the years, sulfur dioxide and sulfites have been used by many populations for a variety of purposes. Sulfur dioxide was first employed as a food additive in 1664, and was later approved for such use in the United States as far back as the 1800s.
Sulfur dioxide, while harmless to healthy individuals, can induce asthma when inhaled or ingested by sensitive people. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration estimates that one out of every hundred people is sulfite-sensitive, and about 5% of asthmatics are also at risk of suffering an adverse reaction. Given that about 10% of the population suffers from asthma, this figure translates to 0.5% of the whole population with potential for sulfite-sensitivity. These individuals make up the subgroup of greatest concern and are largely aware of the need to avoid sulfite-containing foods. Consequently, the FDA requires food manufacturers and processors to disclose the presence of sulfiting agents in concentrations of at least 10 parts per million.
In Taipei, Taiwan, a 2010 city health survey found one-third of tested dried fruit products failed health standard tests, most having excessive amounts of sodium cyclamate, some at levels 20 times higher than the legal limit.
Turkey exported 1.5 billion dollars' worth of dried fruit in 2021 and became the world's largest exporter of dried fruit.

Health

Glycemic index

Traditional dried fruit has a low to moderate glycemic index, a measure of how a food affects blood sugar levels. GI measures an individual's response to eating a carbohydrate-containing food compared to the individual's response to the same amount of carbohydrates from either white bread or glucose. Carbohydrate-containing foods are classified as high, moderate, or low GI. Foods with high fiber content generally have a low GI. However, other factors also contribute to a food's glycemic response, such as the type of carbohydrate or sugar present, the physical characteristics of the food matrix, and the presence of organic acids. All studies assessing the GI of dried fruit show that they are low- to moderate-GI foods and that the insulin response is proportional to their GI. Factors thought to contribute to this glycemic response include the viscous texture of dried fruits when chewed, their whole food matrix, the presence of phenolic compounds and organic acids and the type of sugar present.

Research

Consumption of dried fruit is under preliminary research for the potential to improve nutrition and affect chronic diseases.

Types

Dehydration methods

People have practiced food preservation since ancient times. Many folktales describe ways of preserving foods in one way or another according to local and cultural traditions. Dehydration methods help to prevent food from spoilage and to maintain it for a longer period of time while keeping it suitable for consumption. Reducing the amount of water in fruits helps prevent growth of bacteria, yeast or fungi. There are several processes that can be used in the production of dried fruit, each of which affects its appearance, rehydration properties, and nutrients differently. These drying processes include sun drying, tray drying, freeze drying, and vacuum microwave drying. Each process has advantages and disadvantages.
File:Apricots Drying In Cappadocia.JPG|thumb|Apricots drying in the sun in a mountain-slope orchard of Turkey