Eskay Consultants, LLC has obtained the finest dried cranberries in the market place today. Our exclusive grower/supplier has three generations of experience in the cranberry industry and has secured a patented process for infusing fruit that has made their cranberries superior. These sweetened, dried cranberries are for food distributors and industrial food processing applications.
This process leaves ninety-five (95%) percent of the pectin in the fruit and over fifty (50%) percent of the natural acid and brix; that is why this sweetened, dried fruit still looks like a cranberry slice! The cranberries are grown with the intentions of making dried cranberries and not a by-product of juice. There are no preservatives just cranberries and pure cane sugar (un-inverted). The patented process gently infuses a sliced and de-seeded Grade 1 Cranberry.
What this means???‚¬?¦
?‚?· The cranberries are processed from the previous harvest. There is only one variety of cranberries. Since the supplier grows the cranberries themselves, they know exactly what is applied. The supplier will always maintain a control on the quality of the cranberry that is used for this product.
Competitive processors are reliant on other handlers to purchase their cranberries. This is called industrial fruit. It is at best 2 yrs. old, and it is whatever variety they get. There is no consistency or control of fruit quality.
?‚?· The cranberry is double rinsed before entering the totes for storage. An interesting quality of the product is the water activity. With the natural pectin left in the fruit, it binds more of it, which allows the product to stay moist when packed with other items.
?‚?· The cranberry is brought in from the freezer where it is visually inspected for any defective berries. It is then sized and put through a metal detector before slicing and de-seeding. Then it is infused. After two days it is then harvested and sent to the dryer. The infusers are computerized and require no human contact, eliminating the chance of contamination by human involvement. When the product comes off the dryer, it is again run through the metal detector and then placed into the package, ready for shipment.
?‚?· The ability to obtain targeted moisture level is simplified by a three stage drying process. The advantage this gives is three transfer areas where the fruit can be tested and adjusted to hit the target moisture.
Most dryers have three or four burners, but only one continuous belt, so the product is never turned. The only way they can hit the moisture they need is to increase heat, which destroys the quality of the fruit. The result is brown colored fruit.
Our supplier has many options, decrease the speed of one of the three separate belts, or slow down one belt and speed up another. But the fact remains they do not have to play with the temperature to keep the quality.
Some processing plants don???‚¬?„?t even use a dryer per say, they do batch drying. There are two types of batch drying:
1) The fruit is thrown on a floor and every hour a person goes in with a shovel and tosses the fruit around.
2) Others may use a big room with racks upon racks of fruit. Someone goes in every two hours and flips the fruit on each tray and then rotates the racks.
In both of these methods humans are continuously in contact with the product. CONTAMINATION
Eskay Consultants, LLC???‚¬?„?s goal is to supply the highest quality product on the market today. |
