Juice Bottling Solution

The fruit pieces are pushed through a perforated metal plate that crushes and turns them into a pulp.
Some fruits can be pulped in a liquidizer and then filtered to remove the fruit pieces.
There is a range of equipment available that varies in size and in the type of power supply.
(some are manual while the larger ones require electricity).
For the small scale processor,At slightly higher production levels, it is necessary to use a power source to achieve a higher

To make a pure juice, the extracted juice or pulp is filtered through a muslin cloth or a stainless steel filter. Some of the larger filter presses have a filter included.
Although juice is naturally cloudy, some consumers prefer a pure product. It may be necessary to use enzymes to break down the pectin and to help clear the juice.

When the juice or pulp has been collected, it is necessary to prepare the batch according to the chosen recipe. This is very much a matter of choice and judgment and must be done carefully to suit local tastes. Juices are sold either pure or sweetened. Fruit squashes would normally contain about 25% fruit material mixed with a sugar syrup to give a final sugar concentration of about 40%. Squashes are diluted with water prior to use and, as the bottle is opened, partly used and then stored, it is necessary to add a preservative (for example 800ppm sodium benzoate).
Another popular product is fruit nectar, which is a sweet mixture of fruit pulp, sugar, and water which is consumed on a ‘one-shot’ basis. Essentially, these consist of a 30% mix of fruit pulp and sugar syrup to give a final sugar level of about 12-14%.
All fruits contain sugar, usually around 8-10%. The actual levels vary from fruit to fruit and with the stage of ripeness of the fruit. They also vary within the same fruit grown in different parts of the world. The addition of sugar to the fruit pulp to achieve the recommended levels for preservation must take into account the amount of sugar already present in the juice. It is important to achieve the minimum level that will prevent the growth of bacteria, however, once that level has been achieved, it is possible to add more if the consumers require a sweeter product. The amount of sugar added in practice is usually decided by what the purchasers actually want.

The purpose of pasteurization is to increase the shelf life of the juice by inactivating all the micro-organisms it contains that are responsible for unwanted chemical changes. The heat treatment enables the product to be made biologically stable. Since the heat can have negative effects on the juice’s organoleptic features, this treatment has to be conducted as quickly as possible.
Juice needs to be pasteurized at 80-95°C for 1-10 minutes prior to hot-filling into bottles. At the simplest level, this may be carried out in stainless steel, enameled or aluminum saucepan over a gas flame, but this can result in localized overheating at the base of the pan, with consequent flavor changes.
Care is needed when producing pineapple juice due to a heat resistant enzyme in the juice.
The enzyme damages skin after prolonged contact and workers should, therefore, wear gloves to protect their hands. The juice must be heated to a higher temperature for a longer
time to destroy the enzyme (eg. boiling for 20 minutes).
It is best to use stainless steel pans to heat fruit juice as the acidity of the juice can react with aluminum in aluminum pans during prolonged heating. However, large stainless steel pans are very expensive and may not be affordable by the small scale processors. To get around this problem, it is possible to use a large aluminum pan to boil the sugar syrup. The boiling syrup can then be added to a given amount of fruit juice in a small stainless steel pan. This increases the temperature of the juice to 60-70°C. The juice/syrup mixture is then quickly heated to pasteurizing temperature.

Filling machinery is used to automatically fill the empty bottles and packages with the juice. The filling machine is usually located in a filling room that is separate from the rest of the plant machinery to reduce the possibility of contamination.
The equipment is fully automated and manufacturers assign minimum personnel just to ensure that the system is working properly.
Filling machinery could also include automatic capping systems that affix bottle caps onto the juice bottles.