What Happens When You Cook This Food
Cooking dissolves pectin, the primary fiber in apricots, and softens the fruit. But it does not
change the color or lower the vitamin A content because carotenes are impervious to the
heat of normal cooking.
How Other Kinds of Processing Affect This Food
Juice. Since 2000, following several deaths attributed to unpasteurized apple juice contami-
nated with E. coli O157:H7, the FDA has required that all juices sold in the United States be
pasteurized to inactivate harmful organisms such as bacteria and mold.
Drying. Five pounds of fresh apricots produce only a pound of dried ones. Drying removes
water, not nutrients; ounce for ounce, dried apricots have 12 times the iron, seven times the
fiber, and five times the vitamin A of the fresh fruit. Three and a half ounces of dried apricots
provide 12,700 IU vitamin A, two and a half times the full daily requirement for a healthy
adult man, and 6.3 mg of iron, one-third the daily requirement for an adult woman. In some
studies with laboratory animals, dried apricots have been as effective as liver, kidneys, and
eggs in treating iron-deficiency anemia.
To keep them from turning brown as they dry, apricots may be treated with sulfur
dioxide. This chemical may cause serious allergic reactions, including anaphylactic shock, in
people who are sensitive to sulfites.
Medical Uses and/or Benefits
Adverse Effects Associated with This Food
Sulfite allergies. See How other kinds of processing affect this food.
Food/Drug Interactions
Apricots