Apricot Kernels Seen As Basis For New Industry

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30914, 22 November 1965, Page 7

Apricot Kernels Seen As Basis For New Industry

••The Press” Special Service WELLINGTON, Nov. 21.

New Zealand is missing a valuable business utilising apricot kernels, at present the wasted items of the country’s fruit-canning j n . dustry.

According to the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research their close relationship to almond nuts means they could be used to make products similar to | those prepared from almonds These include nut meal, a substitute for marzipan and' apricot kernel oil.

Recent research carried out by the department’s chemistry division on the properties of almond and fruit kernel oils has indicated that some of these products could be economically produced in New Zealand. Apricot kernels have been processed for many years in Europe and the United States, and form an item of international trade.

In New Zealand they are not recovered during fruit processing, mainly because the limited scale of the local

industry has not warranted this.

i However, production has Sw Steadily and in the . season approximately LJUb tons of apricots were canned or made into jam, a quantity sufficient to yield at least 13 tons of dry apri- | cot kernels. Main Area j The department considers [that the possibility of using : such nuts is enhanced by the fact that almost all of New Zealand’s commercial apriicot growing is confined to Central Otago. I The apricot processing has. consequently, been restrict.ed mainly to Dunedin and Roxburgh, and one central plant could handle all the stones available.

The department says that while the recovered kernels could be exported in their dried state, it would seem preferable to have them processed locally. The most profitable New Zealand use of them would be to produce nutmeal and the marzipan substitute. These are relatively

highly-priced products used extensively in the bakery and confectionery trade. By comparison, the production of apricot kernel oil, which is almost identical with almond oil, is not as promising, especially as New Zealand’s use of such oil is small. Simple Plant The department contends that simple machinery could be obtained for the extraction of the kernels from their stones. Following this they would have to be debittered before use. The bitter substance is a glucoside, amygdalin, also present in bitter almonds. The extraction of this poses no major problems and the process would see the removal of the nut’s essential oil, bitter oil of apricot, which could be recovered from the distillate. The main use of this is for flavouring.