**5.6 Fruit digestion**

Fruit digestion means size reduction and it is a wet communication process involving the detachment of the steamed or heat-weakened mesocarp from fruit nuts. Digestion is to break up the pulp of the fruit and liberate oil from the cells. The extent of digestion of the fruit determines the degree of exposure of oil cells. Horizontal and vertical digesters are used for the process of digestion. Digesting the fruits at a high temperature helps to reduce the viscosity of the oil, destroys the outer fruit covering, and completes the disruption of the oil cells, which has already begun in the sterilization phase. The yield of oil greatly depends upon the method of digestion.
