Durian Thailand theedible portion of durian, pulp, is only 30% or one-third of the whole fruit.However, the husk and seeds can still be useful. The seeds can be fried like othersnacks. The husk can be dried and used as fuel or fertilizer for trees. Freshconsumption is by far the most important. Durians, harvested at 80-90%maturity, have a long shelf life of 5-10 days before consumption.
Monthong: Vanilla-egg standard of Thailand’s commercialdurian industry Thoughthere are hundreds of durian cultivars throughout Thailand and Southeast Asia,there are 3 main varieties that are abundantly available—Monthong (GoldenPillow), Chanee (Gibbon), and Kanyao (Long Stem). Monthong,which translates to golden pillow in Thai, is probably the most widespreaddurian in Thailand; It’s also the most famous exported variety. They are bigand fleshy, easy to peel off their seeds, and, when cut early, fairly uniformin texture. These are all important characteristics when your opening,deseeding, slicing and dicing more than 400 tons of pure durian flesh. Thechunks of durian that emerge from a Monthong are gigantic, honestly, some arethe size of personal baguettes.
Dueto popular durian consumption, farmers have doubled the land used to grow durian. An unavoidable result is a slump in durian prices. This encourages people to seek new outlets for durian by developing products from the excess offresh fruit. To absorb excess supplies during harvest, durian is sometimesprocessed into frozen durian, durian chips, durian cake, sweet dried durian,French-fried durian, ice cream and candies. Processed durian products aremostly supplied to the domestic market, while frozen durian is not common amonglocal consumers.
Frozen Durian Frozen durian is the exported product which requires high quality fruit. The populartypes of frozen durian are, of course, Monthong with the seeds removed andChanee whole or only the unpitted pulp. Monthong is usually pitted and the pulpfrozen because the pulp is rather thick and firm. The frozen markets are theUSA, Canada, Australia and Europe. Most consumers in these countries are Asian.
Production Process Themost efficient frozen method now is the Individual Quick Freezing (IQF). Thedurian flesh is frozen at ‒40 degrees Celsius for 30-40 minutes then stored at‒20 to ‒25 degrees Celsius. The product can be stored for a whole year withoutaffecting its quality.
