Apple juice benefits

Apple juice is a low-cost drink with many benefits. It contains fructose, glucose, Vitamin A and C, and cellulose. Drinking apple juice can supplement various nutrition. It will generate gas in the Intestinal, and promote intestinal peristalsis and digestion. An isoflavone in apple can help restrain asthma. The potassium can alleviate arthritis and rheumatism. The soluble fiber in apple juice can prevent deposition of cholesterol on the vessel wall, so as to reduce the risk of heart disease and arteriosclerosis. Besides, apple juice is an intestinal cleaner. As a low calorie disease, it can reduce the risk of liver of kidney disease.

Apple juice production process

Apple juice can be classified into clear juice and cloudy juice. Their production process is similar, including fruit sorting, crushing, washing, juice extraction, clarification/homogenization, blending, sterilization, filling and cooling. Their difference lies in one process. Cloudy juice is made by homogenization, and transparent juice is made by clarification.

Equipment in an apple juice processing plant

• Fruit sorting machine
• Fruit cleaning machine
• Spiral juice extractor
• Fruit pulping machine
• Juice homogenizer
• Juice filter
• Bottle filling machine
• Sterilizing kettle
• Fruit elevator

Apple sorting

This process is carried out by a fruit sorting machine. It aims to remove those rotten, diseased and mechanically damaged apples and pick out those ripe, intact and superior apple as raw materials, so as to ensure the quality of apple juice.

Some apples have disease or mechanical damage in some parts, which can be modified with stainless steel knives. Besides, you should remove the stems and cores before juice extraction.

Apple cleaning

In mass production of apple juice, the apples are cleaned by a fruit bubble washing machine.

Apple crushing and juice extracting

Use stainless steel crusher to crush apples into fragments. Then feed these apple pieces into the spiral juice extractor at once. Make sure the spiral juicer is clean and sterilized.

Pasteurization

The apple juice should be filled into the jacket kettle or a tube sterilizer to eliminate the bacteria and enzymes. The sterilization temperature should be kept at 85℃, and cooled down to 65℃.

Homogenization for cloudy juice

Homogenization is the process to make cloudy juice. It is carried out at the pressure of 100-120kg/cm2. It is recommend to degas the apple juice with the vacuum of 600mmHg.

Clarification for clear juice

Clarification and filtration are the processes to make clear apple juice. The extracted juice was clarified with enzyme preparation method first, then filtrated with drink filtrator. The clarified apple juice should be clear and transparent, or it need to be filtrated once again.

The PH of apple juice is usually 3.2-4.0, and the most favorable PH for pectinase is 3.5-5.0. This means the pectinase works well in apple juice without adjusting the PH. But sometimes the PH of apple juice is beyond the requirement of pectinase, you need to adjust the PH with different apple juice. Never do this with alkali, or they would affect the quality of apple juice.

The clarification effect is influenced by the temperature. To raise the temperature without affecting the enzyme activity can improve the clarification effect and shorten the clarification time. At the temperature of 34-40 and the PH of 3.5, add 0.025% pectinase and 0.005% gelatin, the apple juice will get clarified after 30-60min. When the temperature and PH are the same, the clarification time is proportional to the enzyme concentration. 0.005% gelatin will shorten the clarification time by 50%.

Apple juice Blending

To make the natural apple juice more pleasant to taste. We usually add some additives to adjust the sugar degree to 12%, and acid degree to 0.4%.

Apple juice filing and sealing

In apple juice production line, we use quantitative filling machine to fill the apple juice into cans or bottles. Before filling process, the temperature of apple juice should be higher than 70 ℃.

For metal cans, they are sealed by can seamer. If sealed in bottles, it need capping machine. Make sure the temperature of juice is higher than 65-70 ℃.

bottle filling machine

Sterilization and cooling

The canned juice should be put into 85℃ hot water for sterilization. The sterilization time should be kept around 10 min. After that, the apple juice should be transferred into cold water and cooled to normal temperature.

sterilizing kettle

AGICO is a experienced apple juice processing plant manufacturer and supplier.We provide all equipment in the juice production line, from fruit sorting machine to juice packing machine. We can work out the best solution on the basis of your material and requirement. If you intend to engage in fruit juice production business or want to know more about it, welcome to contact us in the chart below.