International Symposium

Sustaining Food Security and Managing Natural Resources in Southeast Asia

- Challenges for the 21st Century January 8-11, 2002 at Chiang Mai, Thailand

Possibilities for Improving Quality of Fruit Juices and Drinks from

Tropical Fruits by Homogenization and Addition of Pectin
S. Neidhart, M. Reiter, M. Mensah-Wilson, G. Stemmer, C. Braig, S. Sevin, R. Carle
Hohenheim University, Institute of Food Technology, Plant Foodstuff Technology,
70593 Stuttgart, Germany

Keywords: juice, pineapple, passion fruit, pectin, homogenisation

Juice products produced from tropical fruits have increasingly gained importance on the
world market because of their exotic aroma and mostly intensive colour. For producer
countries of tropical fruits, the aim is to meet the local demand as well as to be able to
compete on the export market with high quality intermediate and final products. From the
viewpoint of regional development, processing of locally grown fruits and increase in
value must be ensured for the region itself. Juice quality is known to be a result of both
applied process technology and processed fruit material, i.e. fruit species and cultivars. The
presented study compares juice quality of juices and fruit drinks from various fruit species,
considering cloud stability of the product, and suggests suitable process technologies for
juice products from pineapple and passion fruit which are known to possess insufficient
cloud stability during usual shelf-life of juice products due to the nature of these fruits.
Fruit juices, nectars and functional beverages with usually lower juice contents are
increasingly offered as cloudy products. This especially holds for tropical fruit juices.
Cloud stability of the bottled juice is essential for these beverages to be successful on the
market. Homogenous distribution of cloud particles or fruit pulp throughout the bottled
volume without sedimention during the required shelf-life is expected by the consumer,
whilst especially products with a clear phase above a sediment at the bottom are rejected.
In the production of cloudy beverages from purchased juices or juice concentrates, cloud
stability can no longer be influenced by the choice of raw material or by improved juice
extraction, which was shown by various studies to be decisive for the cloud stability of
single strength juices. Technological measures for optimized production processes of
beverages produced from intermediate products are required. Hydrocolloid addition
besides homogenization treatments have been suggested for various cloudy juice products.
In contrast to juices from all other fruit species, the addition of pectin (E 440) up to 3 g/l
juice has been recently permitted by German law for juices and nectars from pineapple and
passion fruit due to the negligible native cloud stabilizing potential of these juices [1,2].
Pasteurized fruit juices and drinks were produced on pilot plant scale from concentrated
intermediates of juice or pure, respectively, which had been industrially manufactured
[4,5,6]. Citrus pectins of defined degree of methylation were a gift of Herbstreith & Fox,
Neuenbrg, Germany. For high pressure homogenization of the unheated beverage, a
homogenizer Lab 60-10 TPSX (APV, Lbeck, Germany) was used prior to vacuum
deaeration, pasteurization (87-88C), hot filling and bottling with steam injection.
Turbidity and cloud stability of the final beverages were studied by means of a
centrifugation test as described previously [3]. Properties of cloud particles known to
influence sedimentation behaviour of beverage cloud such as their size distribution, surface
charge, and density were determined by established physical methods [3]. Viscosity of the
continuous phase in the cloudy beverage (serum viscosity) was determined using a

Improving the Quality of Fruit Juices and Drinks from Tropical Fruits

capillary viscosimeter (AVS 400, Schott, Hofheim, Germany) [4], which was also used for
determination of intrinsic viscosity of the dissolved pectins [6].
The presented studies were aimed at the complex mechanismes of added pectins resulting
in cloud stabilization. The stabilizing potential of citrus pectins differing in their degree of
methylation was evaluated for model drinks produced from apple, peach or pineapple
concentrates with juice contents of 50% and 100% [4]. Although cloud stability could be
improved in all types of drinks by the addition of high-esterified pectins up to 3 g/l, this
effect strongly varied depending on the processed fruit material, and some types of drinks
could not be prevented from strong clarification. As expected, addition of any highesterified pectin always resulted in a significant increase of the viscosity of the continuous
phase in the drinks. Simultaneously, adsorption of pectin to cloud particles became evident
through the increase in the negative particle charge and the reduction of particle density.
However, only in low pulp drinks, i.e. nectar-like drinks with 50% juice, both mechanisms
contributed to cloud stabilization. In juices, i.e. drinks with high pulp content, cloud
stabilization was decisively determined by the thickening properties of the pectins, since a
good correlation (r2 > 0.92) was only found between the cloud stability of the beverage and
the viscosity of its continuous phase for the juice, but not for more diluted drinks.
Moreover, among high-esterified pectins, an increasing degree of methylation of pectin
only improved cloud stability in the juice, but not in any nectar-like drink investigated so
far.
The cloud stabilizing effect of pectin can be enhanced by homogenization treatments, as
shown for a passion fruit-orange drink which was prone to total clarification without the
addition of pectin [5]. A synergistic effect of both measures became evident, which
obviously resulted from intensified interactions between pectin and particles through
homogenization.
The effects of various homogenization treatments of pineapple juices on particle size of the
pulp as well as molecular size and thickening properties of added pectins were studied [6],
since these properties of juice and pectin, respectively, are known to markedly influence
final cloud stability. For this purpose, intrinsic viscosity of pectin was determined in clear
pineapple juices homogenized at various pressures after the addition of pectin. Mechanical
degradation of pectin molecules during homogenization steps in juice processing could be
evaluated by means of the occurring reduction of their thickening and stabilizing capacity
indicated by the intrinsic viscosity of the pectin before and after homogenization.
Based on the knowledge on the complex stabilization mechanisms of added pectins,
refined process technologies could be derived for selected juice products depending on
fruit species and juice content. This was shown for juices and drinks produced from
concentrated juice intermediates. However, this basic knowledge is applicable to the
production of juices not from concentrate (NFC) at the same time and is therefore of
general interest among juice producers. Addition of pectin combined with high pressure
homogenization at moderate pressure decisively improved cloud stability and, hence,
visual appearance of juice products prone to total clarification such as pineapple juices and
passion fruit drinks.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research project was supported by the FEI (Forschungskreis der Ernhrungsindustrie
e.V., Bonn), the AiF and the Ministry of Economics and Technology. Project No.: 11394N.

Neidhart et. al

Furthermore, the authors thank Herbstreith & Fox, Germany, and Jaffa Fruit Products,
Belgium, for the support of the follow-up study on pineapple juice, and Mr. Klaus Mix,
Hohenheim University, for his assistance in numerous pilot plant experiments. Several fruit
juice producers in Europe and Thailand are acknowledged of the juice and pure
intermediates processed in this study.
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