ORGANIC AND CONVENTIONAL DRIED TOMATOES

Tomatoes grown and harvested between June-September. Harvested tomatoes are transferred to the drying areas within 24 hours. Following the drying process tomatoes are transported to the facility for production. Typically there are two main categories of dried tomatoes as sun dried and semi dried. Sun-dried tomatoes are ripe tomatoes that lose most of their water content after spending a majority of their drying time in the sun. Typically, tomatoes spend 4–10 days in the sun in order for the sun-drying process to be complete. Cherry tomatoes will lose 88% of their initial (fresh) weight, while larger tomatoes can lose up to 93% during the process. As a result, it takes anywhere from 8 to 14 kilograms of fresh tomatoes to make a single kilogram of sun-dried tomatoes. Both salted and sulfured sun-dried tomatoes are made from fresh tomatoes harvested at the peak of their ripeness. After the procedure, the tomato fruits will keep their nutritional value.