TEHRAN: Iranian researchers managed to produce canned pistachio consisting of herbal preservatives that help reduce effectively the problems of product packaging.
Iran holds the world’s second largest diversity of horticultural crops after the US, and while the country’s population is 2 per cent of the total world population, its horticultural production is 10 percent of the total world production. There is also the potential in the field of dried fruits and nuts, so that they can be mostly used in developed countries in Europe and the US, as a major part in the food and pharmaceutical industries, and accordingly increase its value-added tax. Canned pistachio production has removed the possibility of Aflatoxin contamination which is considered a main problem in preserving nuts. Since the new product is provided in Iran and the other countries, it can enjoy a rich market with proper VAT rate to induce a major change in agricultural products industry. Herbs used as preservatives and mints in forming the canned pistachio are of medicinal nature to treat and prevent many diseases. The project has been conducted by Seyed Mahdi Hosseini who himself has applied for a patent to his product, too.
