Chopped fruit and vegetables which are aseptically packed in a convenient ready to use form have become very popular for commercial use. The reason for this lies in the their high added value compared to canned products and their ease of use for transformation companies that use them for commercial production of convenience foods.

In 1995 HRS supplied the first fruit dices aseptic plant in Spain to one of the most important manufacturers in the market. After that successful hit, we have also supplied almost all the fruit dices aseptic plants in Spain (for peaches, apricots, strawberries, apples, pears, etc.). Hence, we can firmly say that we have a proven experience on providing fruit dices processing turn-key plants featuring latest technology advantages for the high-volume processing field for commodity markets.

Mastering the aseptic fruit dices process technology has allowed us to develop other applications and even higher added value to fruit dices products, such as fruit dices bases and confectionary products.

The success of our technology for fruit dices aseptic plants is based on our corrugated double tube heat exchangers, piston pump, evaporator technology and our aseptic filler. Combining them makes it possible to process the fruit pulp and purée minimizing the undesirable thermal effects (organoleptic and/or nutritive losses) and get a reliable, hygienic and well controlled filling process.

Our fruit dices turn-key plants commonly feature the following steps:

Preparation & Blanching: The fresh fruit is washed and selected before going to the cutting and mashing. Then, the fruit goes to the heat exchanger to be pre-heated, which produces an enzymatic deactivation (60/80ºC), in the so-called blanching process. The juice from the fruit will act as a carrier liquid (no liquid is added).

Pasteurisation: The fruit slices or dices are sent to the specially designed deareation tank. Here, a combination of vacuum and temperature eliminates the air that could cause fruit oxidation. An aroma condenser recovers the aromas. A piston pump, also specially designed, pumps slowly the product to the sterilization zone.

Thermal treatment: The treatment zone consists of four modules: heating (90/105ºC) with hot water, holding, cooling (25/35ºC) with tower water and sterilization cooling that cools the product that returns to the deareator or sterilized water from the sterilization cycle. The corrugated tube heat exchangers guarantee the correct sterilization of the fruit dices or slices.

Our corrugated multitube heat exchanger range (HRS MI Series) and triple tube (HRS AS Series) are the most suitable heat exchangers ranges for this application. Furthermore, our piston pump (HRS BP Series) is the most suitable pump for handling fluids with particulates and/or fibers towards the HRS Aseptic Filler.

Filling: Finally, the system has an aseptic filler with an optional double header, specially designed for fruit particulates.

Advantages of the HRS Heat Exchangers systems:

The Piston Pump has been specifically designed to so that it does not damage the fruit.
There is no liquid added to the fruit. The product that you obtain in the bag is what is known as "solid pack".
The crucial deaeration process is carefully controlled.
The thermal treatment is very rapid, homogeneous and affective thanks to the corrugated tube heat exchangers.
The products remain very natural and maintain their organic and nutritional properties.