How It's Made: Cactus Pear Puree
Vocab level: C1
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It's a fruit known by many names: cactus pear, cactus fruit, and prickly pear.
It grows on several species of cacti which are native to parts of North, Central, and South America.
Some growers, in addition to selling the fruit, produce a puree which they sell as a flavoring.
Prickly pear martini, anyone?
Cactus pear fruit is high in fiber and rich in vitamins and minerals.
It's sweet and delicious eaten as is or as a natural flavoring in foods and beverages.
In the Salinas Valley in California,
the cactus pear harvest begins around late August and continues through early April.
The fruit is ripe when its skin begins turning red.
The harvesters wear thick leather gloves to protect their hands from the thorns
and safety glasses to shield their eyes from loose thorns that blow through the air.
Tractors haul the cactus pears to the processing plant.
The fruit first passes over brushes and into a vacuum that removes loose dirt.
Then through a shower of chlorinated water which kills off bacteria.
The fruit enters a cold air dryer for about five seconds.
Then passes through a hot air dryer for 20 seconds.
The fruit exits completely dry.
A quality-control team removes any with bruises or other cosmetic defects
and transfers those cactus pears to the puree line.
The fruit that passes inspection falls into what's called a singulator.
(A machine that lines them up in single-file.)
The singulator deposits each cactus pear into a cup on a computer-guided weigh-and-sort machine
which classifies each fruit by size
then applies the grower's price code sticker.
The fruit then travels on the conveyor belt that leads to the pad and tub designated for its weight classification.
A worker stationed at the tub packs the cactus pears into a lined shipping box.
Another worker removes any less-than-perfect fruit that managed to slip through the previous checks.
Those also go to the puree line.
On the puree line, the dumper drops the cactus pears onto a conveyor belt system
which transports them to the crusher.
The machine crushes the fruit, separating the skins and flesh,
mashing the flesh into puree,
and extracting the sweet magenta-colored juice.
From the crusher, the pressed skins drop onto the vibrating shaker
while the puree and juice flow through it into a tank below.
The shaker separates any puree still caught in the skins.
The skins drop into a bin and are hauled off to be used as compost
or sold as animal feed.
Once the tank is filled to capacity with about 400 pounds of puree,
a pump transfers it to a large hopper.
A worker releases puree from the hopper to the finisher.
The finisher's fine screens trap the seeds
while letting the puree pass through to a holding tank below.
The seeds are sold to businesses that press them into oil for cosmetic and hair products.
From the holding tank, the deseeded puree passes through a second finisher with even finer filters.
Then it flows into a tank for pasteurization
which kills off any remaining bacteria.
The puree is finally ready.
A worker fills a drum which is double-lined with plastic bags.
She draws four one-cup samples from each drum for quality control tracking.
Once a drum contains 400 pounds of puree,
the worker zip-ties each bag separately.
closes the drum with a lid, safety seals the lid with a lock,
then put the drum in the freezer.
The cactus pear puree is sold frozen to the food and beverage industry.
Which uses it to flavor many products
from ice cream, sorbet, and gelato to flavored water, wine, tequila, and brandy.
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