If you are looking for concentrated fruit juice to consume, or you are a manufacturer of fruit juice, here is some information to know about its procedures and their effects on the body. One of the best ways to have high-quality juice is to have it made from fruit concentrate. There are some reasons for doing this. If you want to know how to make fruit juice concentrate, let’s get familiar with how fruit concentrate is made.
How to make fruit concentrate
Fruit concentrate is made from fresh fruit. It is produced by removing the most content of water from the fruit. By heating the fruit in a vacuum and evaporating the water, a thick substance remains that contains more ingredients of the fruit than the natural fruit. This thick liquid is called fruit concentrate. By doing this process, the ingredients of the fruit increase from 11% to 65%, which is the brix of the fruit that provides vital information for the fruit industry and accompanying processing factories.
In other words, about 90% of the fruit is water, and when most of the water is isolated from the juice, a thick jam-like syrup is obtained. After that, the concentrated fruit is maintained under aseptic, non-aseptic, and frozen conditions. Concentrated fruits are nutritional and tasty to be used in producing fruit juice.
Fruit juice is commonly made with fruit concentrate to better keep the nutrients and flavor. The process is done at the factories under some conditions to retain the fruit properties.
The manufacturing process of fruit juice concentrates
Concentrated fruit plays a key role in making different fruit juice. Here is how to make fruit juice concentrate in brief: Concentrate is mostly produced by evaporating the water from juiced or crumpled fruits. Then additives are added to improve flavor and prevent spoiling, or sometimes for sweetening. Additives are necessary because they can preserve them for a longer time. Concentrate juice has at least 35% solids from fruit flesh, including pulp, and volatile and non-volatile compounds. The main element for making fruit juice is high-quality fruit concentrate.
How to make fruit juice-step by step
The process of making fruit juice at home is simply washing the fresh fruits, peeling and cutting them, then removing their water from the juicer. Sometimes it is needed to strain the fruit juice before drinking. Some people prefer adding some sugar to the juice to boost the flavor. However, the manufacturing process of juice concentrate is different.
The manufacturing process of fruit juice concentrate
Here are some steps to produce fruit juice, nectar, or fruit syrup in the factories:
- Collecting the fresh fruit, and cleaning them up by washing them.
- Extraction and filtration of fruit juice by some mechanical processes.
- Sterilization at standard temperature to preserve microbial stability.
- Turning it into concentrate mostly by freeze concentration method.
- Packing the fruit juice and storing it at a 5-8 ℃ temperature.
- Adding water and some additives like sugar, essence, thickener, preservatives, etc. to the juice.
Juice concentrate to water ratio
The most important step in fruit juice processing is to know the exact juice concentrate to water ratio. The amount of necessary water added to the concentrate needs careful attention to keep the flavor and nutrients of the concentrate. Generally, for preparing juice to drink, use ⅔ water to ⅓ concentrate. This ratio will work for almost every kind of juice to make it less thick.
Why use fruit concentrate to make fruit juice?
By extracting the fruit water, the growth of bacteria will decrease. It means that concentrated fruit doesn’t spoil as easily as juice. So, it can be maintained longer. This process has some benefits such as keeping the fruit nutrients and vitamins and helping reduce expenses on packaging, storage, and transportation. Fruit juice, which is made from fruit concentrate, has a natural flavor and color, and some additives to boost the fruit’s aroma. The reason for changing juice into concentrate and changing it back into fruit juice is that concentrated fruit maintenance is easier than juice and costs less. Storing the concentrate is easy due to its smaller capacity compared to fruit juice.
Fruit juice concentrate affects the body
Concentrated juice includes beneficial nutrients such as vitamins and minerals. Fruit juice concentrate is rich in vitamin A, vitamin C, potassium, and folate. Its effects on the body are a lot, they also contain antioxidants that help the skin to be healthy and delay the results of skin aging. The other nutrients are compounds such as carotenoids, anthocyanin, and flavonoids. These are associated with many health advantages, including heart health and decreasing inflammation.
Juice concentrate provides nutrients that decrease inflammation and provide heart health and healthy skin. It doesn’t spoil easily and because of the additives, it will last longer.
Final note
In this article, we explained how fruit concentrate is made, then discussed fruit juice processing steps using fruit concentrate. Concentrated fruit juice is extracted straight from natural fruits, which retain high nutritional value. As the necessary step in fruit juice and concentrate production, the process of fruit juice concentrating has a huge influence on juice quality. By the way, choosing the appropriate juice concentrate technology is the key to successful juice productivity and quality.
Fruit concentrate is one of the high-quality products of Koroush foods. It provides various fruit concentrates to be used in the fruit juice-making industry. If you are a fruit juice manufacturer and looking for the best fruit concentrates, in Kourosh foods you can find different kinds of concentrated fruits ready to make high-quality fruit juice.
