The technological processing of the pomegranate fruit

In spite of the pomegranate many advantages and potential diverse utilization, until recently this potential have not materialized. This is due to the inherent inconvenience and messy operation involved in extracting the seeds (arils) of the fruit for eating fresh out of hand, or for the production of high quality juice free of tannin, and various pharmaceutical products from the kernels of the fruit. A novel and exclusive technology and a method (protected by patents worldwide) have been developed in Israel at the Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bet Dagan, which enables an automatic extraction of the arils as part of a comprehensive industrial process.

The comprehensive process consists of conveying the fruit, delivered to the extraction machine directly from the orchard in bulk containers, or from cold storage rooms. The fruit is washed and sorted out of physiology defected fruit and is subsequently moved through various stations to perform the operation of opening the fruit (without cutting it!), exposing the opened fruit to the extracting mechanism, separating the arils from extraneous materials and retrieving the clean and undamaged arils. Next, the arils are conveyed to a packaging machine, which packs a predetermined quantity in a special MAP package ready for shipment to the retail markets, or cold storage for coordinated marketing of the consumer's packages.

The machine is capable of extracting an average of 200 kg of clean arils per hour, with an extraction efficacy of 90-95% and incurred mechanical damage of 5-8%, which are sorted out (manually, or through additional (optional) automatic sorting machine utilizing image processing techniques). The current shelf life the packed arils on cold shelves (4-6 ° c) is two weeks. But work continues to extend the shelf life period.

Based on the machine performance, typical yield of a well maintained pomegranate orchard and length of season, it is estimated that one extraction machine is required for an orchard production from 30 Ha.