Even though the provinces of Kerman, Khorasan, Damghan, Central and parts of Fars, with something close to 300 thousand hectares of cultivated land, have assigned the first place of pistachio cultivated land in the world to Iran, but unfortunately, currently America is known as the first producer of this fruit in the world. One of the main reasons for this can be found in the processing of this fruit.
The existence of superior technologies, such as automatic sorting machines, genetic modification of the product, and in general the existence of advanced processing methods have caused that despite the superior quality of this fruit in Iran, the first rank of production is in the possession of America. But what does processing mean?
It is normal that part of the product during production is of low quality and even unusable in some cases. Processing in a simple sense means to minimize the production of low quality or unusable products.
The processing has different stages, starting from peeling and initial washing and leading to the final classification. First, we will explain the processing steps of this fruit very briefly, and then we will go to various processing methods.
Pistachios processing methods
Pistachio processing in Iran and the world is done in the following four ways:
Traditional pistachios processing:
in this method, except for the first processing step which is explained below, all other steps are done by hand and the user. This method is the most expensive and slowest possible method. Today, in few places, the processing steps of this fruit are done traditionally.
Semi-mechanized processing:
This method is not the same as the first method, but it is still a costly and low-profit method. Peeling and cleaning are done by mechanical devices with relatively moderate accuracy and this product is prepared for drying under the sun.
Mechanized processing of pistachios:
this method is an economical and fast method. In this method, all the above steps and even drying are done by mechanized devices.
Intelligent mechanized pistachio processing:
this method is considered the fastest way to process this fruit in the world. So that even pistachio classification is done by very smart devices with high accuracy. The result of using this method is to obtain one-handed and smiling fruits in stylish and acceptable packaging. Today, most of the countries supplying this fruit use this method.
Traditional pistachio processing steps
Peeling:
The first step of processing is peeling by machine. At this stage, the upper and soft skin of the fruit is separated.
Washing:
Immediately after peeling, the washing process starts. This process makes the remaining effects of the previous skin disappear completely and the pistachio color becomes bright.
Garbage of pistachios:
In this step, possibly unrelated materials or unusable types are separated.
Throwing pistachios in a pool of water:
at this stage, it is easy to recognize if there are any irrelevant objects or pieces of the upper skin left among this product. Because the soft skin is light, it floats on the water and is easily separated.
Pistachios Gugiri:
Gugiri are the pieces of soft and dry skin. At this stage, the pieces of skin are separated by a roller device, and the quality and clean pistachios enter the recording device of this fruit.
Moistening of pistachios:
to obtain high-quality pistachios, the moisture level must reach 4 to 6%, so that the growth of all kinds of bacteria and fungi is not possible. For this purpose, a special dehumidifier is used in the recording terminals of this fruit.
Primary separation of pistachios:
separation is one of the final stages of processing. In the initial separation, the small and suspicious pistachios are separated from the rest so that the pistachios are of the same quality.
Final separation of pistachios:
This method is done in two traditional (manual) and smart ways. In the traditional way, this product is placed in front of the users’ eyes and the small, ugly, irregular, closed mouth and unsmiling items are separated from the rest. In the smart method, all these tasks are done by a smart device.
Of course, in the last step, if needed, they dry all the pistachios grouped and classified again until their moisture content drops below 6%. This method, like the previous method, is done either naturally in the open air under the sun, or with a special drying device, their humidity is brought to a standard and desirable level.
