There are many types of fruit juice in the beverage industry nowadays, which makes people confused about choosing the best drink for their needs.
Today’s topic is about juice concentrate – a notable beverage with beneficial nutrient ingredients in each drop. Made of various favored fresh fruit in your kitchen with a few simple steps, you will love juice concentrate drinks right away. Maybe, you will find it as a new business idea somehow.
What’s fruit juice concentrate?
Juice concentrate is a healthy alternative drink because all the beneficial nutrition lies in the pulp of fruits
Fruit juice concentrate drink is the residue after the water has been taken out of the fruit by using machines for extraction, resulting in the accumulation of ‘concentration’ of pulp from the fruit. It has been known as a healthy alternative drink because all the beneficial nutrition lies in the pulp of fruits.
Brightside and downside of juice concentrate
Brightside
There are numerous benefits of consuming juice concentrates; it can’t help your boost your energy and improve your whole physical health better right away. But If you are patient enough to drink juice concentrate every single day, you will see the miracle come to your body in the following aspects:
Healthy juice concentrates can assist in weight loss
- With the fortification process, nutrients not present in certain fruits, like calcium or magnesium, are added to the concentrated drink to make them healthier.
- If sold without impurities such as artificial elements and sweeteners, juice concentrates can be consumed as a natural health supplement with enormous notable nutrients. For example:
According to studies, a 4-ounce (120-ml) glass of orange juice prepared from concentrate provides 280% of the Daily Value (DV) of vitamin C. This nutrient plays an essential role in immunity improvement and wound healing.
Also, carrot juice from 100% vegetable concentrate is a rich source of provitamin A, providing a whopping 400% of the DV/8-ounce (240-ml). And the beta carotene in carrots has been shown to reduce skin inflammation
- Juice concentrates are a more convenient, financial-friendly, and equally healthy source of antioxidants.
- Healthy juice concentrates can assist weight loss by making the consumer feel satiated and then curbing the craving to eat.
- Juice concentrates are more affordable than normal fruit juice; this aspect is significant for most low-income consumers
- Juice concentrate drinks have a considerably longer shelf life than fruit juice or other whole fruit drinks.
Downside
Let’s take a look at the drawbacks of juice concentrates. There are a bit has been touched upon regarding the drawbacks of fruit juice concentrates such as:
- Important vitamins are not present because the concentrate process may dilute or destroy them.
- Juice concentrates contain a higher amount of calories, which causes get-weight.
- Most juice concentrates are sold with added colors, flavors, and sweeteners, making them unhealthy drink for children and older people in particular.
- They do not contain 100% nutrition like the original fresh fruit because they lack other essential bodily requirements like fiber.
- Added sweeteners such as high fructose corn syrup are detrimental to our health and have been associated with many severe problems like disrupted metabolism and arthritis in young adults.
According to a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services report, people should get less than 10% of their daily calories from added sugars. A diet high in added sweeteners can lead to chronic illnesses, such as diabetes and heart disease. So you should opt for concentrates without added sugars as much as possible.
- In most cases, fruit intake is not known officially, and it might be sprayed with pesticides and fertilizers.
Fruit juice concentrate method with 3 steps
Concentrate method is based on the type of fruit
There are two primary methods to make juice concentrate from the original fruit. They base on the type of fruit you are using.
For wetter type, easily juice-able fruits, go for Step 1: Frozen Concentrate. Good for oranges, lemons, …
For hard fruits that will be a pain to juice, go for Step 2: Boiled Concentrate. Good for berries, pomegranate, apples, and pears, …
Step 1: Frozen Concentrate
The freezing method is based on the fact that juice can be extracted from ice. Here’s how to do that.
- Juice the fruit by any method- a hand juicer, a lime squeezer, by hand, into a freezer-safe container.
- Freeze it. This step might take time.
- Organize a big container that can hold all of the juice with a narrow funnel on top. Upend frozen juice on top of it.
- Let put it at room temperature place while the juice drips out.
- When the ice is sufficiently clear or white, it’s done! Take out the ice and keep the concentrated juice for later use.
- Repeat freezing or thawing if it’s necessary.
Step 2: Boiled Concentrate
This method is for hard fruits such as those pictured above. If you have a juicer, you should use that to get juice, then you can skip back to the Frozen Concentrate step, as boiling the fruit can change the taste and may dilute some of the natural sweetness and nutrients.
Essentially, the concept is to take the juice out of the fruit by boiling the fruit to a pulp. The heat changes the proteins, releasing some of the sugars (and flavor) into the water. The water then boils off as steam.
- Wash, peel, and slice fruit if necessary.
- Put the fruit in a pot; pour water to cover. This step is so that you don’t accidentally fry the fruit.
- Be on medium heat, bring to a boil (uncovered).
- Boil until the fruit is mushy pulp. Boiling longer will reduce water content but may change the flavor of the concentrate.
- Strain pulpy fruit sludge.
Step 3: Concentrate!
Now you have fruit concentrate!
Fruit concentrate should be stored and frozen for future use, added with water to be drunk as normal juiced drinking, and used as a flavoring agent in drinks- or anything else you would love to.
Learn more about other juices to distinguish them from concentrated juices?
Fruit juice is concentrated in various ways
Pure fruit juice
Squeeze fresh fruit with some water, separate the pulp, cool it, pasteurize it, and then bott it as the last step. This method is quite popular and easy to manage because it is fast and convenient.
The downside of pure fruit juice is that the fruit content will be reduced due to dilution with water. The pressing process also loses the original taste and some nutrients of the ingredient fruit.
Mixed juice concentrate
Fruit juice is concentrated in various ways, and it can be freezing or using heat to evaporate, and then the product is condensed like syrup texture, for easy transport and storage for a long time.
When processing, they revert to a quantity of water, and add substances to create flavor, artificial sweetness, and some elements such as antioxidants, and stabilizers, …
The procedure of condensing and reconstituting the water, processed in many stages, also makes the product’s natural taste and nutritional ingredients go away. It can be said that mixed juice has the least nutritional value but is the most popular on the market today.
Note that this drink is straightforward to confuse with concentrated juice because they have the same name. But it is essential to understand that pure juice is concentrated and kept intact; juice concentrate is a concentrated product that is prepared to be finished. And the way these two products are concentrated is also totally different.
Juice not from concentrated blends
Juice not from concentrated blends retain the ingredient content
In contrast to juice from a concentrated mixture, this type, when pressed, will retain the ingredient content. That means do not add anything in the pressing process. Even save some of the fruit pulp for a light consistency.
And it will be processed immediately, frozen quickly, pasteurized, bottled and delivered to the supermarket for ended-consumers. This type of juice is also one of the highest quality nutritional beverage products on the market nowadays.
In conclusion
Juice concentrate drinks are cheap alternatives to juice that don’t spoil quickly and provide numerous vitamins and antioxidants.
Nevertheless, they’re highly processed and often loaded with added sugars and other artificial additives. If you buy juice concentrate drinks, look for ones made from 100% natural juice. However, original fruit is always a healthier option for wise consumers.
Let’s check out our discussion about everything in the beverage industry; it may help you find a new idea for your business!
Tan Do is a global beverage ODM/OEM manufacturer and supplier located in Vietnam. Since 1996, we have built trust and credibility not only throughout Vietnam but also in many parts of the world. Leveraging state-of-the-art technology, we have crafted thousands of products that align with ISO, HACCP, HALAL, FDA, and many other standards.
