New quality productivity of lychee
–Guangzhou Daily
Opening words: Lychee, known as the “Lingnan Fruit”, has been loved by people since ancient times. The Lingnan region has a history of lychee cultivation for more than 2,000 years, and has accumulated a profound farming culture and planting technology. Today, with the blessing of new quality productivity, lychee and its characteristic industries are moving towards a broader world. Starting today, Guangzhou Daily will launch a series of reports on “New Quality Productivity in a Lychee”. Focusing on lychee planting, preservation, variety selection, processing, sales and other links, explore the flow and aggregation of high-quality production factors in modern orchards, and show the fresh new “lychee” contained in a small lychee.
Just 20 minutes after leaving the fields, trucks loaded with fresh lychees drove into the factory. The workshop workers became busy. After going through many processes, the red lychees entered a frozen dormancy state and were sent to cold storage… In Gaozhou, Maoming, Guangdong, the “Chinese Litchi Hometown”, a lychee frozen dormancy factory is working at full capacity, producing about 10 tons of frozen lychees a day.
“Last year we froze 180 tons of lychees, covering six varieties including Guiwei and Feizaixiao, and the off-season sales were very good. This year, we have completed the technical testing of the Baitangpeng variety and are purchasing large quantities for freezing.” Pan Qixing, general manager of Xianhui Company, introduced that the liquid nitrogen ultra-low temperature freezing and freshness-locking technology was developed by Professor Cao Yong’s team from the School of Food Science and Engineering of South China Agricultural University over a period of five years, and was jointly launched to the market by the company.
The reporter saw on the spot that after the fresh lychees were cleaned, disinfected, dried, and sealed and packaged, they entered the freezing processing cabinet, where the most critical step was completed – liquid nitrogen freezing processing.
Why do lychees need to be frozen?
Of course, it is for the sake of “freshness”. From a biological point of view, the cells of fruits and vegetables are mostly a mixture of water, sugar, etc. If the traditional freezing method is used, the mixture will crystallize and expand, thus puncturing the cell wall and affecting the taste and flavor of the fruit and vegetable. Therefore, the smaller the ice crystals, the better the flavor of the lychee will be preserved.
Are frozen lychees comparable to fresh ones?
The reporter tasted the frozen lychees produced by Xianhui Company last year. After being thawed at room temperature, the frozen lychees still retained their red shells, and the flesh was not as loose as expected, but still retained a hint of crispness. When bitten, it was juicy and fruity, but slightly inferior in that the taste levels were relatively not as rich.
