How Are Candied Jujubes Processed? A Full Breakdown of the Production Flow

Candied jujubes are dried preserves made from fresh jujubes. The processing technique is as follows:

1. Raw material selection: Generally, varieties with large fruit, small pits, loose flesh, thin but tough skin, and relatively little juice should be chosen. The best fruit maturity is when the green color begins to fade and the fruit turns milky white.

2. Grading: Grade the jujube fruits by size, removing deformed fruits, fruits affected by pests or disease, overripe fruits, and damaged fruits.

3. Slitting: To facilitate sugar penetration and flattening into shape, the fruit surface is usually slit. The jujube fruits are fed into the channels of a jujube cutting machine (slitting machine) to be slit, with the cutting depth preferably reaching half the thickness of the flesh. If the slits are too deep, the fruit breaks easily; if too shallow, the sugar liquid penetrates poorly. If no slitting machine is available, the slits can also be made by hand; generally, each jujube requires 80-100 slits. When slitting, do not cut through either end.

4. Washing the jujubes: Rinse the slit fresh jujubes clean with clear water.

5. Boiling the jujubes: Use a stainless steel jacketed kettle or a copper kettle to boil the jujubes. The amount of white sugar used is 0.8 times the amount of jujubes; for example, if 25 kg is one batch of raw material, then 20 kg of white sugar is needed, and the white sugar must be added in several portions. First, dissolve 10 kg of white sugar in 10 kg of clear water, boil over high heat, and stir continuously. Skim off the floating sugar foam, continue adding the remaining white sugar, and heat until the sugar liquid concentration gradually increases. Boil until sugar crystals appear on the edge of the kettle, the boiling point of the sugar liquid is above 105 degrees Celsius, and the raw material is close to graining. At this point, the heat should be lowered, and stirring should continue. You can boil directly in the kettle until the white sugar grains, or scoop out the jujube fruits and cool them with blown air, rolling them on a vibrating machine so the sugar grains are even. Each batch of jujubes is boiled for 1-1.5 hours.

6. Drying: Dry the sugar-saturated candied jujubes at 65 degrees Celsius until the moisture content is about 20%, at which point they are almost half-dry and half-moist.

7. Shaping: Use a jujube pressing machine or manual pressing to flatten the candied jujubes and improve the product's appearance.

8. Drying: Dry again until the finished product's moisture content is 16%.

9. Grading: Pick out broken jujubes and grade the qualified candied jujubes by size.

10. Packaging: Pack in paper boxes or plastic food bags. Each box (or bag) weighs 0.5 kg to 1 kg, then pack into cartons, with 25 kg per carton.