If you’ve ever bitten into a fresh mango or another piece of imported fruit, there’s a good chance a circulator was involved. Over the past hundred years, importance has been placed on ensuring proper quarantine of pests with regards to fresh fruit.
First, key pests are determined, like the Japanese beetle, Mediterranean fruit fly, oriental fruit fly, and melon fly. Then comes the quarantine treatment. As of now, there are two main ways to treat fruit – cold treatments and heat treatments. Cold treatments involve freezing the fruit in order to kill the pests prior to exportation.
With heat treatments, there are a few options. One option is irradiation, where the fruit is exposed to small doses of radiation in order to kill any pests and also increase shelf life.
The second heat treatment is hot water immersion. This is where an immersion circulator is introduced. The fruit is placed into a reservoir, fitted with circulators meant to control the temperature of the water. If the water is too warm, the appearance of the fruit could be compromised. If the temperature is too cool, the pests will not be killed. Therefore, it is crucial that the water maintains a precise temperature to ensure optimal results.
While quarantine treatments for fruits are evolving to discover the best method to kill pests and maintain optimal taste, texture, and appearance, one thing is for sure: Hot water immersion with a circulator is one way to go.
