The saying, “an apple a day, keeps the doctor away”, apples are perceived as healthy food and are a fascinating ingredient for fruit-based snacks. The production of crisp dried apple chips with low fat and high fiber content are expected to be extremely fascinating by consumers. consumers can purchase the dried apple chips in the market that have been finished drying process by the professional drying equipment like hot air circulation drying oven and vacuum microwave drying machine and packed in good condition.
What are Apples and Dried Apple Chips?
The apple is a pome that is from the Latin word for apple, a fruit with a papery central cavity encompassing the seeds. Pomes are members of the family Rosaceae (rose) family that also includes pear, crabapple, and quince. The archeological date shows that humans were eating apples as early as 6500B.C. proof indicates that the fruit was first cultivated between the Caspian Sea and the black sea. Apples are a significant source of pectin fiber (3g per medium apple), and they give carbohydrates and vitamins whereas contributing few calories and no fat, sodium, or cholesterol. Apples are made all kinds of snacks due to their benefits, and apple chips are one among the popular apple snacks. Dried apple chips are chips or crisps that are made by the drier. Dried apple chips may have a dense and crispy texture, or even puffed, yet still crispy. They’ll be seasoned with cinnamon and sweetened with confectioners’ sugar. Fatless dried apple chips are an interesting type of ready-to-eat dried snack food and will be accompanied by various dips and alternative foods. Dried apple chips is also utilized in sandwiches and as an ingredient in desserts and sweets, like cookies. They will also be used as a garnish on dishes.
Dried Apple Chips in Food Processing Factory
Generally, the automatic production line for manufacturing dried apple chips is set in a food factory, which includes washing, peeling, coring, slicing, drying, expanding and packing. The apples are washed within the washing tunnel at the first, and go on next step where the clean apples are peeled and cored by apple peeling and coring machine, then fished apples are sliced and prepared to dry by drying machine. We’ll introduce 2 effective drying equipment that is utilized widely in a food factory as following: hot air circulation drying oven and vacuum microwave drying machine.
Dried apple chips by hot air circulation drying ovens
The drying process is carried out in a conventional cabinet drier that adopts hot air circulation drying with high temperature resistant axial flow fan and automatic temperature management system. The drying is the method that the apple slices are heated in the trays with hot air circle, the wet moisture removed from apple slices is exhausted outside at the same time. And the apple slices are dried at 105°C for about 120 min usually. Apple slices in the oven are often dried uniformly due to the forced ventilation and adjustable air distributor. Then customers will enjoy the delicious finished apple chips from the market when the dried apple chips are packaged well.
Dried apple chips by vacuum microwave drying machine
Besides that, to enhance the quality of the dried products and the method efficiency, microwave vacuum drying can be used. Microwave drying is utilized to prepare apple chips with a puffy and crispy texture. Vacuum microwave dehydration offers an alternate way to improve the quality of dehydrated apples. Place the apple slices into the machine, and microwaves penetrate to the inside of the apple slices causing water to boil in the apple slices. This leads to a greatly increased vapor pressure differential between the center and the surface of the apple slices, permitting fast transfer of moisture out of the slices. The moisture is removed from the drying chamber by the water-ring pump that maintains the vacuum. Therefore, apple chips can be dried quickly without exposure to high temperatures, and color, flavor, and nutrient properties of apple chips is vastly preserved.