XML : Foreach loop adding last result onto next

I have been experimenting with SimplXML to parse out some specific information from a very large XML document to create a new simplified one. I am working with products and the products have variations (like size for instance) that I am trying to build into the array. Some testing is showing that the variation loop is adding the last results onto the next. For instance:

First loop shows this, which is correct for the first product which has 2 variations.

  ["variations"]=>  array(2) {    [0]=>    array(1) {      ["sku"]=>      object(SimpleXMLElement)#19 (1) {        [0]=>        string(8) "00090011"      }    }    [1]=>    array(1) {      ["sku"]=>      object(SimpleXMLElement)#19 (1) {        [0]=>        string(8) "00090012"      }    }  }    

Now the second product in the loop ends up containing the last loops results and adds it before it's own results.

      ["variations"]=>      array(4) {        [0]=>        array(1) {          ["sku"]=>          object(SimpleXMLElement)#19 (1) {            [0]=>            string(8) "00090011"          }        }        [1]=>        array(1) {          ["sku"]=>          object(SimpleXMLElement)#19 (1) {            [0]=>            string(8) "00090012"          }        }        [3]=>        array(1) {          ["sku"]=>          object(SimpleXMLElement)#19 (1) {            [0]=>            string(8) "00090013"          }        }        [4]=>        array(1) {          ["sku"]=>          object(SimpleXMLElement)#19 (1) {            [0]=>            string(8) "00090014"          }        }      }    

As you can imagine, this ends up resulting in memory errors and a giant new XML file being created at the end since it's prepends everything before it. Here is my PHP code doing the loop.

  foreach($data as $element)  {            if ($element->Dir_Name == "Fly Fishing"){              //assign element nodes to variables              $name = $element->PF_Name;              $id = $element->PF_ID;              $description = $element->PF_Description;              $brand = $element->Manufacturer_Brand;              $image = $element->ImageURL;              $category1 = $element->Dir_Name;              $category2 = $element->Group_Name;              $category3 = $element->Cat_Name;                //pull in variations              $item_data = $element->Item;              foreach($item_data->Sku as $variation){                  $optionName = $variation->Sku_Name;                  $price = $variation->Regular_Price;                  $sku =  $variation->Item_Code;                    $variation_array[] = array(                      "optionName" => $optionName,                      "price" => $price,                      "sku" => $sku                  );              }              $products_array[] = array(                  "name" => $name,                  "description" => $description,                  "brand" => $brand,                  "image" => $image,                  "category1" => $category1,                  "category2" => $category2,                  "category3" => $category3,                  "variations" => $variation_array              );          }    }    

I read something about using unset() to try and correct this but it didn't work out. Any help is much appreciated.