# Store-bought dehydrated pineapple - How do they make it?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/store-bought-dehydrated-pineapple-how-do-they-make-it/754727>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 13, 2016, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/store-bought-dehydrated-pineapple-how-do-they-make-it/754727 "2016-05-13T23:13:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Clarence01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@Clarence01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clarence01)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/store-bought-dehydrated-pineapple-how-do-they-make-it/754727/1 "2016-05-13T23:13:33Z")

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If I dehydrate my own pineapple it doesn’t turn out like the store bought kind, which is more gelatinous and cube-like. Do they finely cut the fruit and then re-shape it and then dehydrate it in the factories?

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**Author:** ![Nefario](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/59ef9b/32.png) [@Nefario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nefario)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/store-bought-dehydrated-pineapple-how-do-they-make-it/754727/2 "2016-05-14T00:59:28Z")

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OK I’ll start. At once point I hung out with some ag engineers and I know they use vacuum chambers for commercial scale dehydration. Don’t know how that affects the texture of pineapple except it’s much faster.

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**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/store-bought-dehydrated-pineapple-how-do-they-make-it/754727/3 "2016-05-14T01:14:19Z")

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> [@Nefario](#):
>
> OK I’ll start. At once point I hung out with some ag engineers and I know they use vacuum chambers for commercial scale dehydration. Don’t know how that affects the texture of pineapple except it’s much faster.

The boiling point of water in hard vacuum is like 86F making it very easy to drive off water in a vacuum chamber with even a bit of pressure.

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/store-bought-dehydrated-pineapple-how-do-they-make-it/754727/4 "2016-05-14T10:00:30Z")

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Store-bought dried fruits (especially pineapple and papaya for some reason) have sugar added before drying - so they dry to a more chewy, syrupy consistency than unsweetened fruit would.

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**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/store-bought-dehydrated-pineapple-how-do-they-make-it/754727/5 "2016-05-14T10:54:05Z")

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In addition to sugar, many commercial dried pineapple products add citric acid and sulphur dioxide as preservatives, which may also change the consistency and appearance of the fruit.