Many Are the Values of the Apple

Claude H. Hills, J. J. Willaman.

Of our 120 million bushels of apples a year, 65 million go into retail channels; 10 into vinegar; 8 into sauce; 5 each into canned slices, evaporated slices, and export; 4 into cider for roadside stands; 4 into apple juice, and 2 each into frozen slices and apple butter. Ten million bushels are used in a few other ways or are left in the orchard. No other American fruit can approach that combination of volume and diversity.

In the United States, apples are grown primarily for sale as fresh fruit. Our leading commercial varieties are Red Delicious, Winesap, McIntosh, and Jonathan, noted for their attractive appearance, aroma, and good eating quality. Two others, Rome Beauty and York Imperial, are used extensively in cooked products.

The demand for fresh apples is fairly constant. In a normal year it amounts to about 55 percent of the crop. Only Fancy grades ( large, well colored, and free of defects) can be sold profitably as fresh fruit. The proportion of fruit that will grade Fancy depends on weather, effectiveness of spraying, cultural practices, and care in picking and handling. Even under the best conditions, 10 percent or more of the crop will be culls; sometimes the proportion may be as high as 50 percent.

Dr. A. E. Murneek, of the Missouri Agricultural Experiment Station, gives lack of size and color as the principal reason for grading apples as culls. Although less attractive, cull apples have approximately the same flavor, com- position, and nutritive value as Fancy market fruit.

Something must be done with the culls. Here is where the processing plants come into the picture. Today they play an integral part in the orderly marketing of the crop, at the same time providing a great variety of food items and at least two industrial products.

APPLE FLESH contains about 84 percent water and 16 percent solids. Three readily assimilated sugars constitute more than 80 percent of the carbohydrates. They are: Levulose, 60 percent; glucose, 25 percent; and sucrose, 15 percent. The levulose enhances the sweetness. The acid present is almost entirely malic acid. Green apples may contain a small quantity of starch, but mature fruit contains only a trace. Besides small amounts of protein, fat, and fiber, apples contain ascorbic acid and traces of vitamin A, thiamine, and other B vitamins. Apple flesh and, especially, peel are high in pectin. That is why dried apple wastes are an important source of pectin for the jelly and preserve industry.

WHEN APPLES GO TO THE FACTORY they may be converted into any one of 17.primary products. Two potential products, wax and malic acid, are not yet produced on a commercial scale.

Products from apple flesh are prepared from the Utility grade ripe fruit that is relatively free of defects and 2 1/4 inches or larger in diameter. Because the first step is peeling and coring, size is important in reducing waste and in raising the output per machine. For example, 100 pounds of 2 1/4-inch apples will yield only 53 pounds of slices, but the same weight of 3-inch apples will yield 78 pounds of finished product. The difference in output by machine or man-hour is even greater in favor of the larger fruit.

A sizable apple-slicing industry has developed near some large cities to supply bakeries with fresh slices for pies. The amount thus used probably exceeds 2 million bushels a year. Many large orchards, particularly in the East, have installed peeling and slicing equipment in connection with their packing and cold-storage facilities. The usual procedure is to pack the Fancy grades, place the Utility-grade culls in cold storage, and dispose of the smaller culls for juice or vinegar. With a proper choice of varieties and adequate storage, the grower can supply a bakery with fresh slices daily the year around.

Apple tissue contains a catecholtannin pigment and oxidative enzymes, which cause the slices to turn brown when they are exposed to the air. Dipping the slices in a salt brine of 1 or 2 percent delays browning for several hours. The addition of small amounts of sulfur dioxide or of sulfites to the brine extends the effective holding period to several days. Fresh apple slices so treated have been sold at retail in 1-pound packages in New England.

Many of the summer and early fall varieties, and even the firmer-textured winter varieties, tend to become mushy when baked into pies. The soft slices may be firmed by dipping in dilute solutions of calcium chloride, and it is Possible therefore to use many apples that used to be considered too soft for baking.

Canning apples has been a sizable industry for three decades or longer. The principal canning areas are New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington. About 5 million bushels a year are so used. Most plants can three or four varieties selected for flavor, color, and texture. Apple slices to be canned usually are blanched to soften them, to destroy oxidative enzymes, and to expel air from the tissues so as to reduce corrosion of the cans. Canned apples are easily sterilized because of their acidity. If the blanched slices go into the containers hot (175 to 180 F.), very little additional heating is required. Most canned apples end up in pies or sauce. Calcium salts also are used now to firm canned slices. Another development is the canning of baked apples, a process suggested by workers at the Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station. At least one company has put on the market a retail-size jar of apple pie filler ready for the crust.

Frozen apples are relatively new, but they are going strong. Prevention of discoloration, particularly the internal browning on thawing, is the chief technical difficulty in preparing frozen apple slices. Several procedures have been developed. Steam blanching is rather effective, but it softens the tissues and leaches out part of the soluble sugars. Another method is to dip the slices in a solution containing 0.2 to 0.3 percent of sulfur dioxide or an equivalent concentration of various sulfite salts. Other methods remove air from the slices by applying a vacuum and subsequently filling the air spaces with a salt or sugar solution. More recent is the use of ascorbic acid to prevent discoloration.

Applesauce is a smooth and nearly colorless, slightly sweetened product from apple pulp. To comply with Department of Agriculture grade specifications, sauce must be prepared from peeled and cored fruit. It can be made more cheaply from whole fruit, but the product is darker and contains more defects (peel and calyx particles). Texture is important. A granular, rather than a pasty, texture is desired. Commercial sauce is commonly packed in No. 2 cans for the retail market or No. 10 cans for institutions. Some frozen applesauce is put up in 1 -pound cartons.

Dehydrated apples appear on the market as slices, rings, or cubes. The demand for dried slices has fallen off in recent years, partly because of the increased production of frozen slices. The tan-colored, sun-dried slices commonly prepared on the farm are just about out of date commercially. In the factory, apples are always exposed to the fumes of burning sulfur before drying, in order to bleach the surface of the fruit and to prevent further browning. The sulfured pieces are usually dried in kilns or on trays under controlled conditions of temperature, humidity, and air flow. Dried apples are graded on texture and appearance, rather than flavor. Varieties that are firm and yield a white product are preferred. Most of the dehydration plants are in California and Washington. The preferred varieties for drying are Newtown Pippin, Spitzenberg, and Graven-stein.

Apple nuggets are crisp, popcorn-like granules of low moisture content. Dehydrated apples (24 percent moisture) are cut into 1/4-inch cubes and dried to less than 2 percent moisture in two stages, the second of which requires a vacuum drier. The product is highly concentrated. It contains nearly 70 percent of sugars and must be packed in moistureproof cartons. One pound of nuggets, with added water and sugar, will make 9 pounds of applesauce. This found a place in Army cookery. The boys probably complained about this applesauce, but then proceeded to enjoy it.

Chops are another common form of commercially dried apples. For them, small culls can be used, because peeling and coring are not required. The whole apple is sliced horizontally into discs about an eighth of an inch thick and dried without sulfuring. Chops are used in apple butter.

Apple powder, prepared by spray drying a slurry of peeled fruit, is another dehydrated product, but its demand is limited to medicinal use. It has been approved by the American Medical Association for the treatment of certain types of diarrhea.

Cider and Halloween have belonged together for generations. Because cider is the freshly pressed juice, not pasteurized, it does not keep very long and can be produced only while fresh or storage apples are available. It is such a refreshing drink, however,that as soon as flash pasteurization of juices was developed, about 1937, cider was put up in cans or bottles for year-around consumption. The product is usually called apple juice, although no official distinction is made between the words. The peak of consumption comes in October, but we now drink apple juice the whole year. Although cider and apple juice together amount to some 25 million gallons a year, that is only about one-sixth of a gallon a person the Swiss drink 2 gallons. We predict a steady increase in the use of apple juice. It is an excellent way to use up surplus apples. When it is made from a good blend of ripe fruit, it is a delight to the palate.

The ascorbic acid in raw apples is almost completely lost during processing. Addition of the vitamin to juice became widespread in this country during the Second World War. For several years it was compulsory in Canada, because it was a way to provide vitamin C in the absence of an adequate supply of citrus fruits. Ascorbic acid, an antioxidant, also helps maintain flavor during storage.

A new type of product, called liquid apple, is apple juice plus finely pulverized pulp in stable suspension.

Frozen apple juice in retail-size containers has been popular in California. A frozen juice concentrate similar to frozen orange concentrate is now being developed.

Several agricultural experiment stations have undertaken the study of blends of apple and other fruit juices apple and cranberry blends in Massachusetts; apple and various small fruits at the station in Geneva, N. Y.; and grape-apple blends at the Ohio station. Apple-lime blends were favorably received in commercial trials in Canada. The next few years will determine whether these specialty items have sufficient merit to create a large demand.

APPLE ESSENCE is the volatile fraction of the fruit. These volatiles are a complex mixture of acids, esters, alcohols, and aldehydes.

J. W. White, Jr., of the Eastern Regional Research Laboratory, who studied the composition of the mixture, identified 26 different compounds. The total amount of the substances in fresh apple juice is about 50 parts to the million. They evaporate so easily that they are completely lost in the preparation of sirup, concentrate, and evaporated slices, and are lost to some extent in pasteurized juice, canned apples, and sauce.