Fruit Juice Clarification

Definition
Clarified fruit juice refers to a juice
which would normally be sold as pulpy
or cloudy, but has been processed to be
clear with no suspended particles.

This provides an advantage when

formulating a clear beverage with no
sedimentation.
Continued.
Unclarified fruit juices contain varying amounts of
suspended matter consisting of seed, skin, pectic
substances and proteins, broken fruit tissue etc.
Many seeds or even skins can show adverse effects
if consumed.

Thus clarifying fruit juices is a must.

High concentration of pectin leads to colloid

formation, which constitutes to one of the main
problems during the processing of clear fruit juices
Methods
There are several methods used for clarification:

Filtration
Screening
Settling
Freezing
High Temperature
Cold Storage
Use of Chemical agents
Use of Ceramic Membranes
Finishing
Filtration
Filtration is a physical, biological or
chemical operation that separates solid
matter and fluid from a mixture with a
filter medium through which only the
fluid can pass.
This is one of the most common
techniques employed for clarification of
fruit juices.
Continued
Ultrafiltration is one of the majorly used
techniques for clarification of juices.
The filtration area is kept around
0.9m2.
Continued.
Based on design, operation and application,
different types of filtration system can be
employed.
The most traditional system is Diatomaceous
Earth filtration system which is used to
aggregate and collect suspended solids.
The Diatomaceous Earth is collected on filter
paper inside the pressure filter as the juice
passes through the unit. The resulting juice is
sparkling clear.
Screening
Seeds and skins are removed by
screening through a muslin cloth or
sieve.
The fruit juices are strained or screened
by muslin cloth or stainless steel mesh
sieves manually to remove coarse
particles in a small scale industry.
But in large industries, power operated
screening system is used.
Settling
Settling is the process by which
particulate matters from a liquid gets
sedimented at the bottom of the liquid.
Particles experience a specific kind of
force viz. gravitational force, centrifugal
force etc. , and move toward the direction
of the force.
A very common unit used for removal of
juice-insoluble solids is the centrifuge .
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A centrifuge places the juice under high
gravimetric force induced by centrifugal
action. This is effective in producing a
juice that is opaque but free of visible
solids.
Centrifuges with a high force of gravity
are capable of producing clear juice
under optimized conditions.
Freezing
Grape juice contains cream of tartar or
potassium hydrogen tartarate along with
pulp and skin which is removed by
freezing and thawing the juice or by
refrigeration for a long storage.
Apple juice can also be clarified in this
method after freezing is precipitated on
thawing.
High Temperature
The juice is heated at 82° Celsius for
about a minute when the colloidal
material coagulates and settle down.
After cooling rapidly, the juice is mixed
with a filter aid and passed through a
filter press.
Pomegranate juice is prepared by this
method.
Cold Storage
This technique is widely used for
clarification of grape juice.
The juice is stored at -2°C to -3°C for
one month during which the suspended
matter settle down and clear juice can
then be taken out.
Use of Chemicals
Different chemicals used for clarificaton
include:

Gelatin
Casein
Enzymes
Albumen
Mixture of Tannin and Gelatin
Using Gelatin
Gelatin possess positive charge where
as the colloidal particles are negatively
charged. The electrostatic action
between these two causes the colloids
to precipitate.
Using Casein
Casein acts partly by neutralizing the
electrical charged particles and partly by
forming insoluble precipitates with the
constituents of the juice.
Using Enzymes
The plant carbohydrates, pectin, starch
and proteins make the colloidal
suspension in the freshly extracted fruit
juice. The pectinase enzyme is widely
used for better juice recovery as well as
clarification of fruit juices as it breaks
pectin into soluble form thereby freeing
the suspended particles which settle
down and leaves the juice clear.
Contd.
Similarly, proteolytic and starch
liquefying enzymes i.e. amylases are
used to remove protein and starch from
fruit juices. Pectinol is more effective in
the case of acidic juices. Fruit juices can
be clarified in about 1-2 hours at 40-
500C but requires 20 hrs at 200C.
Using Albumen
A 2% solution of albumen is made by
dissolving solid albumen in warm water.
A solution of egg white can be used as
well.
The albumen solution is heated with
juice at about 91° C to ensure complete
coagulation of albumen.
Using mixture of Tannin and Gelatin
The tannin-gelatin mixture is widely used
for clarifying juice.
Sufficient amount of Tannin is added to
gelatin in order to control its bleaching
effect.
A laboratory test is done to determine the
quality of gelatin.
To clarify 455 liters of Juice, 85grams of
Gelatin and 42grams of tannin is used.
Using Ceramic membranes
Ceramic membranes are preferred over
polymeric membranes for the
clarification of citrus and colored fruit
juices.
Ceramic membranes offer many
advantages.
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Advantages of using ceramic membranes
include:
High Flux
Easy cleaning
Temperature stability
High pressure resistance
Resistant to concentrated caustic acids and
solutions
Very high abrasion resistance
Finishing
Citrus juices need finishing for separating
cloudy but otherwise clean juice from pulp ,
rag and seeds.
The finisher separates the pulpy matter from
the juice by the action of a rotating auger
inside a cylinder screen.
Screen hole size range from approximately
0.020 to 0.030 inch in diameter, depending
on the condition and softness of the fruit.
Determination of Juice Clarity
Juice clarity can be determined in terms of
absorbance and transmittance at 660 nm
using UV visible spectrophotometer.
Increase in enzymatic concentration increase
the rate of clarification by exposing part of
the positively charged protein beneath and
thus reducing electrostatic repulsion between
cloud particles which caused these particles
to aggregate into larger particles and
eventually settled out.
Continued
In general, the time required to obtain a
clear juice is inversely proportional to
the concentration of enzyme used at
constant temperature
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