Concentration of Fruit Juices

Fruit juices are produced from a wide variety of fruits and berries around the World. Due to the individual characteristics of the fruits and berries as well as marketing aspects the juice may appear in various states, e.g. clarified, cloudy, with or without fibres and in a wide variety of  commercial concentrations and blendings. Some fruit juices are fairly robust while others are extremely delicate.

Some fruit juices are produced from fruit without the use of enzymes. These juices are generally cloudy and may contain more pulp and fibre material. To produce clarified juices with high yield, fruit mash is generally treated with enzymes.

The choice of technology used in the concentration and aroma recovery steps of fruit juice production plays a critical role in the retention of flavour, colour and functional properties of the final juice concentrate. The use of FT Technologies equipment can assist in making a higher quality fruit juice concentrate by reducing aroma and flavour loss and in also minimising the loss of important functional properties.
 
Concentration of fruit juices
The Centritherm® evaporator is an excellent choice of evaporation technology for the concentration of any type of fruit or berry juice. It is already used in the majority of fruit juice producing countries in the World and is considered the “Gold Standard” for concentration of passionfruit juice in Asia and in Central and South America. For example, the Centritherm evaporator is capable of concentrating clarified juice of some fruit well beyond common commercial levels (>80°Brix).

Delicate juices should be processed with extreme care so the unique physical properties are preserved. The Centritherm evaporator can be operated at low product temperatures (typically 50°C) and with the juice only contacting the heat surface for approximately one second there is minimal to no damage to flavour, colour and nutritional content of the product.

The Centritherm evaporator offers a very high degree of flexibility, so small volumes can be produced with minimal product loss, especially important when dealing with small quantities of the boutique and expensive Super Fruit varieties such as Acai, Acerola, Noni etc. Changing from one product to another is very simple and requires only changes to the operating parameters that help preserve the fruits key properties.

Unlike other evaporators which recycle the juice to achieve target concentrations, the juice generally passes through the Centritherm evaporator in a single pass. This helps to preserve the high quality of the product being processed and maximise the retention of functional properties such as vitamins, anthocyanins and antioxidants. This is especially of benefit in maintaining the functional ingredients of the Super Fruits.

Benefits of the Centritherm evaporator for the concentration of juices include:

• Minimum thermal impact to preserve character, colour, flavour and functionality
• Higher viscosities possible than conventional evaporators
• No damage to the natural colour 
• Low hold-up volume means it is ideal for concentrating small batches and offers extremely high flexibility
• High concentration ratios possible, often in a single pass (The concentration varies with type of fruit but all commercial levels can be achieved)
• Easily cleaned with built-in CIP

Click here to find out more about the Centritherm evaporator.

Superior Fruit and Vegetable Concentrates

Many concentrated fruit and vegetable products do not contain the fresh notes or characters of their raw material. By combining the Spinning Cone Column with the Centritherm evaporator it becomes possible to manufacture concentrates of the highest quality.

The SCC first captures the full profile of the fresh fruit or vegetable by processing the raw material as early in the process as possible. This results in a superior flavour which is stored under optimum conditions whilst the juice or puree is concentrated.

The Centritherm evaporator then concentrates the juice or puree in a single pass operation with very low thermal impact. This results in negligible colour change on concentrations. The flavour is then returned to the concentrate either before packaging or during reconstitution.

The SCC can also be used to improve shelf life and quality of single strength juices by reducing the oil concentration in freshly extracted juice with high oil content. This is of particular importance for citrus fruit such as orange, lemon, grapefruit and lime.

The Spinning Cone Column has several advantages over traditional, evaporator-linked aroma recovery systems.

Click here to find out more about the Spinning Cone Column technology.