Cranberries – antioxidants rich fruits

The name cranberry was given by early German and Dutch as its flower resembled the head and bill of the crane. Cranberries belong to the plant family Ericaceae, along with blueberry, azalea, various laurels, huckleberry, lingonberry, and numerous others.

Cranberry is rarely consumed fresh, due to its tart and astringent taste. It is chiefly consumed as processed juice (60%) and to a lesser extent as sauce and sweetened, dried fruit.

Fruit harvested for fresh-market sale is generally cleaned, air-dried, and stored for several weeks until it can be marketed for the appropriate holiday season.

Cranberries are fruits with the excellent benefit on human health. They a rich source of macro- and microelements, vitamins and other positive effective phytochemicals.

Raw cranberries have moderate levels of vitamin C, dietary fiber and the essential dietary mineral, manganese, (each nutrient having Daily Value per 100 g serving) as well as other essential micronutrients in minor amounts.

American cranberry has a complex and rich phytochemical composition, particularly flavan-3-ols, A-type procyanidins (PACs), anthocyanins, benzoic acid, and ursolic acid. Cranberry flavan-3-ols are present as monomers, oligomers, and polymers.

Cranberry fruits and leaves have been used to treat a variety of medical conditions, such as wounds, urinary disorders, diarrhea, diabetes, stomach ailments and liver problems in herbal medicine throughout history.
Cranberries – antioxidants rich fruits

Processing of raspberries

Berries designed for processing are picked at a full to dark red stage, when fruit adhesion is minimal and machines can easily dislodge berries by using a shaking system. Fresh berries are transported directly from the grower or packer to the processor. Berries are washed and sorted to remove the deformed and overripe berries unfit for canning.

The berries should be shaken gently onto a wide white inspection belt, where inspectors will remove any foreign bodies such as calices, insects, leaf, twig and stones.

The berries should be clean and fee of rot or significant mold and posses typical color and flavor.

Raspberries are size graded using slat riddles. The berries are canned in heavy syrup (50-55 °Brix) foe dessert purpose or in water for use in pies.

Cans are exhausted until a center temperature of 18 ° C is reached.

For processing of puree, after washing the berries are either frozen in drums or totes for further processing or conveyed to a chopper or disintegrator.

After chopping, the berry is sieved or screened in a pulper/finisher to remove extraneours material (leaves, cap) and a homogenous puree is produced.

For seedless raspberry puree is produced using a screen of .045 in and screens of .060 or .125 in would be used for a raspberry puree with seeds.
Processing of raspberries