Green fruit

Suitable for processing into chutneys, pickles, curries and dehydrated products.

Ripe fruit

Canned and frozen slices, puree, juices, nectar and various dried products.

Juicing

Some mango cultivars and mango seedlings are extremely fibrous but very flavourful. The fibre content precludes their use for the fresh market, so juicing is the logical alternative. The fruit has beverage value as long as this texture defect is not accompanied by the characteristic terpene-like flavour of many chance seedlings.

Puree

Mangoes for puree should be fully mature, even soft, but not over-ripe. As mangoes used for puree have to be peeled first, the ease of peeling is variety dependent. Fruit with thick, leathery peels are more difficult to peel mechanically. For these varieties, heat treatment and lye peeling are more appropriate.

Thick peels with the attendant latex and bitter compounds cannot be mechanically separated without imparting off-flavours to the puree – hence varieties with thin peels are preferred.

Pickles

One basic recipe for the preparation and storage of pickles in oil is as follows:

The ingredients are mixed together and filled into wide-mouthed bottles of 0.5kg capacity. Three days later the contents are thoroughly mixed and refilled into the bottles. Extra oil is added to form a 1-2 cm layer over the pickles.

Chutney

Cook shredded fruit with salt over medium heat for 5 to 7 minutes, mixed and then sugar, spices and vinegar are added. Cook over moderate heat until the product resembles a thick purée, add remaining ingredients and simmer another 5 min. Cool and preserve in sterilised jars.

Spices usually include cumin seeds, ground cloves, cinnamon, chili powder, ginger and nutmeg. Other ingredients such as dried fruits, onions, garlic and nuts may be added.

Puree

Mangoes can be processed into purée from whole or peeled fruit. Because of the time and cost of peeling, this step is best avoided but with some varieties it may be necessary in order to avoid off-flavours which may be present in the skin. The most common way of removing the skin is hand-peeling with knives but this is time-consuming and expensive. Steam and lye peeling have been accomplished for some varieties.

Several methods have been devised to remove the pulp from the fresh ripe mangoes without hand-peeling. A simplified method is as follows: whole mangoes are exposed to atmospheric steam for 2 to 2½ min in a loosely covered chamber, then transferred to a stainless steel tank.

The steam-softened skins allows the fruit to be pulped by a power stirrer fitted with a saw-toothed propeller blade mounted 12.7 to 15.2 cm below a regular propeller blade. The pulp is removed from the seeds by a continuous centrifuge designed for use in passion fruit extraction. The pulp material is then passed through a paddle pulper fitted with a 0.084 cm screen to remove fibre and small pieces of pulp.

Mango purée can be frozen, canned or stored in barrels for later processing. In all these cases, heating is necessary to preserve the quality of the mango purée. In one process, purée is pumped through a plate heat exchanger and heated to 90°C for 1 min and cooled to 35° C before being filled into 30 lb tins with polyethylene liners and frozen at -23.5ºC.

In another process, pulp is acidified to pH 3.5, pasteurised at 90°C, and hot-filled into 6 kg high-density bulk polyethylene containers that have been previously sterilised with boiling water. The containers are then sealed and cooled in water. This makes it possible to avoid the high cost of cans.

Wooden barrels may be used to store mango pulp in the manufacture of jams and squashes. The pulp is acidified with 0.5 to 1.0% citric acid, heated to boiling, cooled, and SO2 is added at a level of 1000 to 1500 ppm in the pulp. The pulp is then filled into barrels for future use.

Mango squash

Mango squash may be prepared according to method described below; the finished product may contain 25% juice, 45% TSS (total soluble solids) and 1.2 to 1.5% acidity and may be preserved with sulphur dioxide (350ppm) or sodium benzoate (1000 ppm) in glass bottles.

Mangoes are washed, stored, peeled with stainless steel knives. The pulp is prepared by using a pulper with fine sieve (0.025-in). Sugar is mixed with water and citric acid to obtain syrup. The pulp is added to the syrup and mixed well. The mixture is strained through cloth. The squash is heated at 85° C and bottles are filled and closed.

For additional heat treatment bottles may need to be maintained at a product temperature of 80°C for 30 minutes if the product is to be processed without preservatives. The bottles are then left to cool in water and stored at room temperature.

Two negative points must be avoided: presence of air bubbles (which is a source of quick deterioration) and separation of squash solids (giving an undesirable appearance). The means to avoid these two phenomena are described in the fruit juices section.

A type of "squash type" beverage may also be manufactured with pulp, water and sugar and the pH adjusted to 3.7 by the addition of citric acid.

Using different sieve sizes affects the quality and reduces air bubbles to a certain extent but homogenisation and de-aeration of purée or squash seem to be important in order to avoid separation and air bubbles.

The squash quality is evaluated on the basis of the following characteristics: pH, titrable acidity, soluble solids, ascorbic acid (by 2,6 dichlorophenol indophenol method) and specific gravity.

Dried/dehydrated mango

Mangos are sun-dried, tunnel-dried, vacuum-dried or through osmotic drying. As a pre-treatment, mango slices are first dipped for 18 hours in a solution containing 40 º Brix sugar, 3000 ppm SO2, 0.2% ascorbic acid and 1% citric acid. The product is dried with an electric cabinet through a flow dryer operated at 60 ºC.

Drum drying of mango puree is also an efficient and economical process for producing dried mango powder and flakes.

Canned Slices

Nearly mature, firm, ripe mangoes can be canned as slices with plain cane syrup of 35 °Brix with 0.3% added citric acid. Quality of canned mango slices is affected by storage. Quality of mango in syrup is best obtained when canned in lacquered cans .

Pulp

Sweetened puree of 42-43 °Brix soluble solids can be canned or/and frozen. Sucrose and high fructose corn syrups in various combinations can be used as sweeteners. Processed purees, diluted with 3 parts water, produce mango nectars of 13% soluble solids.

Mango pulp can be used to improve the nutritive value of ice cream. The fruit pulp is added to the mix in the aging phase; this means that the pulp does not undergo heat-treatment and must therefore be absolutely sterile. The acidity of the mix should be kept slightly lower than normal, so as to bring out the flavour of the fruit, and the overrun should be below 40% (otherwise the reducing sugars may cause bleeding of the syrup and the fruit flavour may be diluted). Acceptable ice cream formulations could contain 20% mango pulp, with 25 or 35% whole milk, 13 or 14% sucrose, 9 or 10% HFCS (52DE) and 0.3% thickener/stabilizer. Fruit yoghurt can be prepared by blending plain yoghurt with 10-15% fruit juices/pulps.

Nectar

Mango nectar, which contains 20% fruit pulp, is used to provide colour, flavour and body to beverages. Certain mango cultivars are known to produce the best nectars. Varieties which have a good orange colour and medium viscosity are best for nectar manufacture. Nectar can be from single or blends of fruits.

Jam and Marmalade

Mango jam can be prepared from mango pulp, sugar , pectin and acid. Mixed jam can also be prepared . Mixed fruit jam is obtained by mixing tamarind extract and sugar with mango pulp, pineapple juice, banana pulp and grape juice and concentrating the blend obtained to 68 °Brix.

Jams are normally packed in bottles. However, plastics pouches prepared from a laminate of laminate of paper/Al foil/low density PE, and Al collapsible tube are suitable for mango jam for up to 6 months storage at room temperature (25-28 °C).

Mango Sauce

Hot and sweet sauce can be produced from mango. Hot sauce is prepared by mixing and heating together the fruit pulp together with chili puree, acid, sugar, garlic, salt and thickener to the desired consistency, followed by hot filling into bottles. It is served as an accompaniment to dishes, as a dipping sauce or as an ingredient in preparing culinary dishes. Sweet sauce is prepared by mixing and heating the fruit pulp together with acid, sugar, salt, oil and thickener to the desired consistency, followed by hot filling into bottles. It is served as toppings for desserts, ice creams and cakes.

Mango Sheets, Leather, Rolls, Slabs

Mango sheets can be made from juice extracted from mature mangoes, filtered, and heated at 85 °C for 5 min. with citric acid (3 g/l.), pectin (5 g/l.), K2S2O5 (1000 ppm). The mixture is then poured into trays (4 mm deep) and sun-dried for 26 h; the dried sheets are then packaged in cellophane bags and stored. Mango roll is a dehydrated sweet sour tasty product, which is leathery in texture, processed from fruit puree or juice, sugar and other additives to a dry thin sheet of 1-2mm thick. It can be used in baked goods, confectionery products or eaten as snacks. The amount of sugar and pectin used influence the texture of the product, while the total soluble solids of the mixture before drying should be less than 30 percent in order to prevent crystallization upon storage.

The preparation method for mango slabs, consists of washing of fruits, peeling, destoning, separation of pulp, addition of sugar in the ratio 1:2 or 1:4, force filtering of pulp through a bamboo sieve, sun drying, and packaging, in the form of slabs weighing 100, 250, 500 and 1000 g, in cellophane before despatching to sales centres. Fruits can either acid dipped or sulphured for colour retention and to prevent oxidation.

Mango slab can also be obtained from a blend of 1 kg pulp, 0.1 kg sugar, 0.1 g citric acid and 1 g potassium metabisulphite, which is spread on trays (4 kg/tray, i.e. 1.14 kg/ft-2) and dried at 60 °C in a cross-flow hot air drier for 19-21 h to a moisture content of 19-22%. Enriched slabs can be prepared by incorporating 1% skim-milk powder and groundnut protein isolate, while blended slabs are made by incorporating 10% mango (var. Badami) or banana (var. Pachabale) pulp.

Mango Bars

Fruit bars are delicious snacks. Mango fruit bars prepared by cross-flow air drying arer soft, attractive orange yellow, with characteristic flavour, and keep well at ambient temperature for about 1 yr when wrapped in cellophane and stored in airtight tins. A wafer-like product from a blend of mango pulp, wheat flour and sugar prepared by foam-drying with glyceryl monostearate is crisp, light yellow, with a milky flavour and keeps well at ambient temperature for about 3 months when wrapped in 300 gauge polyethylene pouches stored in airtight tins.

Confectionery Jellies

Confectionery jellies can be prepared from mangoes. Measurement of total soluble solids and pH before designing the formula is useful in controlling the quality of the end product. Granulated sugar and glucose syrup constitute about 75% of the product's total weight and their ratio is standardized to produce clear and sparkling jellies. Citric acid is used to reduce the pH of the jellies.

Mango fondant chocolate
The mango is processed into candy, mixed with fondant and put into chocolate shells.

Mango jam chocolate

The mango is made into a puree and heated with sugar to make a jam. It is then put into a chocolate shell.

An effective way to ensure product quality and safety is the practice of `control at source' by the food manufacturers. They must take full responsibility to adopt a healthy and positive commitment to provide consumers with products of sound quality. This can be achieved through the use of sanitary premises and equipment, the hygiene of production and handling; the monitoring of effective time and temperature control wherever applicable, and taking proper precautions during storage and transport to the point of sale. This is combined with careful control of raw materials used. Fruits of high quality and high degree of uniformity are essential for the production of high quality processed products, as such varieties suitable for processing are selected. A certain degree of heterogeneity with respect to quality and nutrient content is expected. Manufacturers must take steps to reduce the heterogeneity as possible. The process of the product itself is very important. The manufacturers need to understand the process in the plant, the process for the specific product. The process can influence very much the quality and safety of that product. A finished product specification needs to be developed through the manufacturers own plant. The manufacturer has to define the product, define the process, how it is processed, list the physical parameters that are important for that product, the chemical attributes that are important for that product, the microbiological criteria that are expected to meet, how it is to be packaged, weights and sizes as well as how it is to be shipped, or stored and what are the storage conditions required during shipping.

A continuous assessment by management and improvement of practices implemented in the factory will ensure an effective quality control system adopted by a manufacturer.