Canned, frozen and dried pineapple

To increase shelf-life, pineapple (Ananas comosus) is canned, frozen or dried into various pineapple-based products. Pineapple for canning is cut into slices, chunks or pieces, tidbits and crushed and added with syrup before the cans are exhausted followed by retorting and cooling. The juice is available as fresh and concentrated frozen at approximately -20°C. Chunks are also filled in syrup into cans or bulk containers and frozen. Osmotic damage is likely to occur during slow freezing whilst structural damage occurs during fast cooling both conditions lead to significant changes in product quality. A pre-treatment before freezing, such as osmotic dehydration is beneficial to reduce the freezing time. Dehydrated pineapple has the longest shelf-life when compared to either canning or freezing. Drying techniques used include conventional hot air, microwave, heat pump, spray or freeze drier. Pre-treatments prior to dehydration by osmodehydration, pulsed electric field and ultrasound are helpful to remove some water from the pineapple before drying.