The dragon fruit is a tropical/subtropical fruit native to Mexico and Central/South America, and then spread to South-Asia and Southeast Asia countries and areas like Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia and Taiwan. Most of the dragon fruits are used for fresh fruits consumption market, but in recent years, the fruits are also used for commercial processing.

The dragon fruit has a bright red/pink color with variable flesh color (white, crimson, or pale-yellow), depending on the cultivar. The flesh is interspersed with small black seeds regardless of the flesh color, and the fresh fruits can be proceeded into dragon fruit juice/pulp, dragon fruit wine, dragon fruit jam, dried dragon fruit slice, and some other value-added products.

The dragon fruit processing involves fresh dragon fruits washing and sorting, crushing and peeling, dragon fruit pulping and refining, dragon fruit juice enzymatic and separation, juice sterilizing and filling system.

The dragon fruits processing machines include fresh dragon fruits bin tipper, dragon fruit air bubble washing machines, roller sorting machines, brushing washing machines, dragon fruit crushing and peeling, and pulping machines, dragon fruits juice decanter centrifuge separators, dragon fruits juice enzyme hydrolysis tanks, dragon fruit juice sterilizing, homogenizing and filling machines, CIP system, RO system, boiler, cooling towers, and air compressors. The material of these machines are made of SUS304/ SUS316L food grade requirements.

The capacity of the dragon fruits processing plant is from 500kg/h-10000kg/h, and the end products can be filled into aseptic bags, bottles, pouches, cartons, cans or other consumable containers.

Dragon fruit juice: The dragon fruit juice can proceed into the concentrate or single strength type, and the concentrated juice can be packed into 220L aseptic bags, and drums; single strength dragon fruit juice can be filled into bottles, cans, pouches and cartons.

Dragon fruit puree: The dragon fruit puree can be filled into soft bags or drums as the middle products and ingredients for juice, ice cream and smoothie processing.

Dried dragon fruit slice/chips: The fresh dragon fruits after washing, peeling, cutting and drying process are made into dried dragon fruit chips/slices, and the end products can be filled into pouches or jars.

Dragon fruit wine: The dragon fruit wine is fermented from dragon fruit juice and the end products can be filled into bottles and cans.

Dragon fruit jam: the dragon fruit jam is made and prepared by dragon fruit pulp, pectin, sugar, and acid. After all these ingredients are mixed evenly and concentrated to 60 Brix by the vacuum boiler, then the dragon fruit jam can be packed into the glass jars, and soft bags.

Fresh dragon fruits will be fed into the air bubble washing machine to wash out the foreign matters, pesticide residue, then lifted to the roller sorting machine to sort out the low quality fruits, then second brush washing machines will be used to clean again of the fruits. After that, the clean dragon fruits will be transferred to the cutting and peeling system to get the pulp, then use the double stage pulping machine to remove the seeds and remain peels in fruit pulp. Then the fruit pulp will be pumped to the enzyme hydrolysis tank and decanter separator to separate the solids in the fruit pulp to get the dragon fruit juice. After that, the dragon fruit juice will be sterilized, homogenized and degassed, at last, the juice will be filled into the containers.

Dragon fruits are harvested in crates and transported to the dragon fruit processing plant, and the fresh fruits will be fed into air bubble washing machines. The bubble washing machines will have two stages, the first stage bubble washer mainly getting rid of the pesticide residue by cleaning solution, then the fresh fruits will be lifted to brush washing machines and use pure water to clean again of the surface of the fresh fruits. The low-quality fruits will be sorted out manually on the roller sorting conveyor or belt conveyor.

The fresh dragon fruits can be peeled by the fruit stone washing machine, the stone washing machine sieve screen can be set at 2mm, and at this condition, the fruit peel can be separated with good effect. But the seeds are still in dragon fruit pulp, so after that, the pulp will be pumped to the double-stage pulping machine (0.7-1.2mm sieve screen) to separate the seeds in fruit pulp and get more smooth fruit pulp by the fruit pulping machine. After the double-stage pulping machines, the pulp yield rate is about 75%-78%. During the dragon fruit crushing and peeling process, the VC color-protecting agent can be dosed into fruit mash to avoid fruit pulp oxidation.

To get the pure dragon fruit juice, the fruit flesh need to be separated. The separation process can use juice refiner, decanter centrifuge separator or stack separator. Depending of the fruit pulp content in fruit juice, choose the suitable machines to separate the solids in juice, and the solid separating percentage can be adjusted by the separating machines.

The dragon fruit juice is separated, to extend the shelf life, need to do heat treatment by the pasteurizer/sterilizer based on different filling temperatures and filling containers.

The pomegranate pulp/juice will be preheated to 50-70℃, then pumped into one double-stage high-pressure homogenizer with a pressure range between 15-30MPa, then after homogenization, the material will go for sterilization/pasteurization.

–For the dragon fruit juice/pulp filled into the aseptic bags or cartons, the fruit juice or pulp will be sterilized at 115℃ for 30-60S with UHT treatment, and the juice/pulp will be filled into the cartons and bags at room temperature at the sterile environment with tubular UHT sterilizer.

–The plate or tubular pasteurizer will pasteurize dragon fruit juice/pulp hot-filled into cans, bottles, and soft bags, and the juice/pulp will be pasteurized at 95℃ for 15 seconds, after filling, the containers will be sent to tunnel pasteurizer or water bath pasteurizer to do the secondary pasteurization.