The products of this heading are prepared first by treating the vegetables, fruit, nuts, fruit‑peel or other parts of plants with boiling water (which softens the material and facilitates penetration of the sugar), and then by repeated heating to boiling point and storage in syrups of progressively increasing sugar concentration until they are sufficiently impregnated with sugar to ensure their preservation.
The principal products preserved by sugar are whole fruit or nuts (cherries, apricots, pears, plums, chestnuts (marrons glaces), walnuts, etc.), sections or pieces of fruit (oranges, lemons, pineapples, etc.), fruit‑peel (citron, lemon, orange, melon, etc.), other parts of plants (angelica, ginger, yams, sweet potatoes, etc.) and flowers (violets, mimosa, etc.). Drainedproducts are prepared by using a syrup (e.g., a mixture of invert sugar or glucose with a proportion of sucrose) which does not crystallise on exposure to the air. After impregnation the excess syrup is drained off leaving the product sticky to the touch. Glace products are obtained by dipping the drained product in a sucrose syrup which dries as a thin, shiny coating. Crystallised products are prepared by allowing the sucrose syrup to penetrate into the product so that, on drying, it forms crystals on the surface or throughout the product. Those goods preserved by sugar and put up in syrup, whatever the packing, are excluded from this heading (heading 20.02, 20.03 or 20.05, in the case of vegetables, or heading 20.08, in the case of fruit, nuts, fruit-peel and other edible parts of plants, e.g., marrons glaces or ginger). Dried fruits (e.g., dates and prunes) remain classified in Chapter 8 even if small quantities of sugar have been added, or if the exterior is covered with a deposit of dried natural sugar which may give the fruit an appearance somewhat similar to that of crystallised fruit of this heading.
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