The so-called kiwi fruit dry, cherry tomato dry, peach candy, apricot candy, apple candy, sugar-coated hawthorn, honey dates, etc. on the market are all considered as fruit preserves, not dried fruits. If they were made directly into dried fruits, they wouldn't be that sweet. Including sweet potato dry, winter melon strips, and orange peel, they can also be made into fruit preserves after being soaked in sugar. Because many fruits change color after cooking, maintaining a beautiful color is a major challenge in making fruit preserves. In order to prevent the fruit preserves of apples, pears, and peaches from browning, sulfur dioxide has been used for fumigation since ancient times. In the past, the situation of excessive sulfur dioxide was extremely serious. I remember when I led students in food chemistry experiments from 92-95, one of the projects was to measure the sulfur dioxide in fruit preserves. Almost every sample was found to be over the limit, with one sample having a residue amount that was 1000 times the standard! Fortunately, due to the lower living standards in the past, people only ate them occasionally, so it didn't cause any serious consequences. Thankfully, due to increasingly strict national supervision, the phenomenon of serious over-limitation is now rarely seen.
Dried fruit candies are even more complicated than fruit preserves. They not only add sugar, but also acid, salt, and other flavor ingredients. In order to reduce costs and enhance flavor, various sweeteners are often added to dried fruit candies to reduce the amount of white sugar used, and enhancers such as ethyl maltol and some fruit essences are also used. Because of the reduced sugar content, and the fact that sweeteners have no preservative effect, preservatives are usually added. Aside from minerals and fiber, the nutritional value of dried fruit candies is significantly lower than that of fresh fruits.