- Description:
APRICOTS - Subject to inherent vice, which is aggravated by contact with heat. Dried apricots so damaged are generally found to be musty, hard, spotted and discolored and they gradually adopt a bluish-black hue.
The apricot (rose family, Rosaceae) comes originally from China and the region between the Caspian and the Black Seas and is the stone fruit of the apricot tree. It is 4 - 8 cm in size.
The flesh of fully ripened apricots is yellow to deep orange in color, juicy and extremely delicious. Fruits with a high water content have a low sugar content and little flavor.
Dried apricots are a type of dried fruit. Apricots (whole, stoned, or as halves) are dried to a water content of 22%, either naturally (air or sun drying) or in drying plants. Apricot "slabs", which are made from overripe fruit that has fallen from the tree, are a particularly sweet and distinctive product.
In order to extend storage life and prevent fermentative browning, which rapidly results in darkening of the fruit, the apricots are treated with sulfur vapor (sulfur dioxide, SO2).
Apricots are the most sensitive of all dried fruits.
- Index:
848
- Commodity Name:
FRUITS (Dried)