J Ethn Foods 4 (2017) 204e209 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Ethnic Foods journal homepage: http://journalofethnicfoods.net Original article Iranian dates and ethnic date-based products * Vahid M. Karizaki Chemical Engineering Department, Quchan University of Advanced Technology, Quchan, Iran article info abstract Article history: Background: The origins of date production and use in Iran go back to about 4000 BC. Today, more than Received 28 March 2017 400 types of date and various kinds of date-based foods are consumed by the Iranian people. This study Accepted 7 August 2017 aimed at documenting the information about date and date-based products in Iranian cuisine. Available online 12 August 2017 Methods: The required data were determined by interviews with the farmers, domestic people, con- sumers, producers, and sellers of dates. In addition, online databases and scientific articles were Keywords: screened. date-based products Results: The most common and popular types of date in Iran such as mazafati, zahedi, piyarom, and dates ethnic food kabkab were introduced. Also, the popular kinds of date-based products such as date-pilaf, egg-date, and Iran date-pastry were documented. Additionally, the cultural and social aspects of these foods were considered. Conclusion: The results showed that the dates and date-based foods are known to be of great importance in the national Iranian cuisine. © 2017 Korea Food Research Institute. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). 1. Introduction and historical perspectives of the Nyonya food in Malaysia [21] have been reported. Recently, numerous studies have been made on the issue of Date is one of the most common ingredients of the Iranian na- ethnic foods [1e8].Bydefinition, the term ethnic foods refers to the tional cuisine. Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is considered a cuisine of a country, which is socially and culturally accepted by major fruit crop in the hot desert regions (semi-arid and arid lands) people that live outside of that country. To illustrate, Iranian cuisine of the world [22,23]. It is rich in certain nutrients and marketed is considered as ethnic food outside Iran [9]. Some investigators widely as a high-value foodstuff [22]. The main component of date have tried to introduce the ethnic foods of their countries. For is carbohydrate (70e80%); most of which is in the form of glucose instance, Korean fermented soybean products [10], Thai fermented and fructose [24]. These sugars can be rapidly absorbed by the soybean [11], Portuguese traditional sausages [12], Ethiopian human body. It is estimated that 100 g of this fruit crop can provide barley-based food [13], Turkish ethnic vegetables [14], Uzbek > 300 kcal of energy. Date also contains proteins, pectin, lipids, traditional foods [15,16], Iranian rice-based foods [9], and some salts, and minerals [25,26]. Indian nonfermented ethnic foods [8] have been documented in Egypt is the largest producer of dates in the world followed by recent years. Iran, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Pakistan. The worldwide pro- Also, various studies have addressed the historical, biological, duction of dates has been increased from 6.7 million tonnes in 2004 nutritional, cultural, social, or economical aspects of ethnic foods in to > 7.5 million tonnes in 2014. According to the Food and Agri- different countries. For example, the biological and historical as- culture Organization of the United Nations, Iran produced pects of bibimbap in Korea [17], social aspects of traditional breads > 1.15 million tonnes of dates, which ranked first among the Asian in Iran [18], eating behavior and cultural aspects of foods in China countries, in 2014 [27]. [19], historical and cultural aspects of native foods in America [20], The food consumption pattern of the Iranian people shows that they consume an average 7 kg of dates per year. However, the annual per capita consumption of dates in southern provinces of Iran is 25 kg, meanwhile the approximate value of 100 g is recorded * Corresponding author. Chemical Engineering Department, Quchan University of for the European Union in 2012. There are various reasons why the Advanced Technology, Quchan, Khorasan Razavi, Iran. E-mail addresses: [email protected], mohammadpour_vahid@yahoo. per capita consumption of dates is high in Iran. One of the main com. reasons lies in the fact that this fruit crop is cheap and easily http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jef.2017.08.002 2352-6181/© 2017 Korea Food Research Institute. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). V.M. Karizaki / Iranian dates and ethnic date-based products 205 available, due to its high production values. The second important 3.2. Date types point is the people's attention to traditional medicine that recom- mends consuming dates in daily diet. The next reason is the firm Recently, Iran has been a leading global producer of dates. More and deep relation between the Iranian people and Islamic culture. than 400 date varieties are known in the country. Some varieties The majority of Iranians are Muslim (~98%, roughly 80 million have wonderful properties or characteristics. For instance, mor- people). Dates are mentioned in a number of places throughout the darsang is the only date in the world that has a cold nature. This Quran. high-grade date is cultivated in Kerman and Hormozgan Provinces. Due to high production rate of dates and the tendency of One of the most precocious cultivars in the country is shakkar.Itisa consumer to use them, different kinds of date-based foods are sweet date that is mainly grown in the north of Khuzestan. Shakkar produced. Date paste, date syrup, nectar date, juice date, date in Persian means sugar. Negar is an example of a special date that is seed flour, and fermented date concentrate are the important produced in Kerman province. This variety of date is long and foodstuffs that can be obtained from dates [28e30].Inaddition, slender. several ethnic date-based products with special medicinal and Based on a report of the Iran Ministry of Agriculture, > 98% of healthy characteristics are consumed by Iranian people. Date- dates are cultivated in the southern belt of the country. Dates are pilaf, egg-date, and date-pastry are the most popular of these grown in 13 of the 31 provinces. Kerman, Sistan-Baluchestan, products. Khuzestan, Bushehr, Fars, and Hormozgan are the biggest date- In spite of remarkable strides to introduce Iranian dates, few producing provinces in Iran (Fig. 1). scientific reports have been published on this subject. The objective As mentioned earlier, khorma is the Persian word for date. This of this research was to introduce and document the most common word applies to dates that are completely ripe. Furthermore, two and popular varieties of dates, and different kinds of ethnic date- other categories can be defined for those dates that are not ripe. The based products consumed in Iran. Also, the cultural and social as- first group is unripe dates called kharak, and the second group in- pects of these nutritious foods are investigated, as well as a review cludes ripening dates (a little before ripeness) named rotab. of the historical background. Table 1 introduces 13 kinds of dates produced and consumed in Iran. It shows the name, variety, shape, color, harvest time, and the major producers of each date. In addition, the main property or 2. Materials and methods characteristic of date varieties are mentioned in this table. The most popular and important dates in Iranian cuisine are discussed below. A questionnaire-based survey was applied among farmers, do- mestic people, consumers, producers, and sellers of dates. The in- terviews with the people were conducted by personal visit, as well 3.3. Kabkab as remotely by telephone. Additionally, online databases and the scientific publications Kabkab dates can be consumed pitted or unpitted for industrial were investigated for gathering the required data. Furthermore, the purposes, and direct consumption. Mechanical removal of seeds historical documents and Persian literary texts and religious books from date flesh is easy, due to elasticity of the date fibers. Demand were reviewed for data. The pictures of dates presented in this work and supply of kabkab dates are of importance in the domestic trade were taken after buying dates from the local market of Mashhad. market of Iran. Although the kabkab date is widely cultivated in Mashhad is the second largest city in Iran, and the various varieties different areas, one of the most famous varieties is produced in of date can be found in this metropolis. The pictures of the date- Behbahan City in Khuzestan Province. The popularity of kabkab of based products were taken after preparation. Behbahan is related to the high quality and sweetness of this date. Fig. 2A shows the desirable date of kabkab. 3. Results and discussion 3.1. Historical background The exact origin of the date is unknown, but it is estimated that the date palm was cultivated in Iran about 4,000 BC. The significant evidence from archaeology shows that there were signs of date trees in stamps of the Elamites period. Several traces related to date palms have been found in Assyrians inscriptions. Due to the importance of palm trees in the Babylonian Dynasty, several law articles were approved to deal with the date. For instance, Article 59 of the law explains that the penalty for cutting or uprooting a date tree is 225 g silver. The Persian word for date is khorma. In addition, the other words such as nakhl and rotab have been used in Persian literature.