The beverage market saw dramatically increasing sales (nearly 100 thousand million dollars in 2020). Such a large amount illustrates the potential scale of the juice segment.
Nowadays, we find it easy to select popular drinks on the supermarket’s shelves groceries. In today’s drink market, beverage manufacturers offer us a great many new products and categories. There is a list of emerging juice concepts such as NFC juice, cold-pressed, etc. These new juice products welcomed by consumers are rapidly accounting for a specific market share in the juice market.
Also, NFC Juice is acknowledged as one of the newest irresistible in the beverage industry. With this article, we will provide our customers with a comprehensive understanding of NFC juice.
NFC Juice – an emerging new factor in the beverage market
What is NFC Juice?
NFC juice stands for Not From Concentrate Juice. It’s produced by fruit juice extraction, sterilization, and filling, without the concentration or reduction process.
In other words, NFC juice (known as 100% fruit juice) is fresh juice extracted from the fruit and has not been concentrated. It is usually judged of higher quality than juice from concentrate and is slightly more expensive.
What exactly is the NFC Juice?
NFC juice is, at present, the closest match to freshly squeezed juice. It meets with excellent consumer acceptance for its flavor, convenience, and image of a healthy food product. It commands a steadily growing market share and competes successfully with FCJ and retail frozen concentrate for home use.
By far, the most significant proportion of RTD juices, both NFC and FGJ, are pasteurized by aseptic processing. Huge quantities are stored under refrigeration in tank farms.
These days, we can see a significant increase in the drink market, including the quality and quantity of fruit juice types and NFC Juice. Thanks to flavor expertise, many new flavors are added to NFC drinks such as Beetroot, Mango, Mangosteen, Watermelon, etc.
The market for NFC Juice is developing at a rapid rate. According to Statista, revenue in the juices segment amounts to $96,674 million in 2020. The average per capita consumption stood at 4.5L in 2020.
What are the differences between NFC juice and FC Juice?
Compared to FC Juice, NFC Juice is classified by its production, nutritional differences, and shelf life.
The difference between NFC Juice and Traditional Juice
- In terms of production, the most apparent difference between FC and NFC juice is the temperature. The extracted juice is concentrated by high-heat or vacuum treatment and recovers by adding the same water quantity. After sterilization and packing, they will be put on the shelves. Whereas NFC juices are manufactured under the technology of filling fresh fruit juice under low-temperature conditions after pasteurization.
- A nutritional distinction is considered the main attribute to differentiate them from another that is elusive to the naked eye and personal feelings. We can’t deny that the more fruit juice beverage or drink contains, the more nutrients that type of juice has. Despite having fewer nutrients than traditional juices, NFC juices still contain a range of minerals, vitamins, and bioactive compounds, such as phytochemicals, that are important for good health.
- Finally, we clearly observe the shelf life in each label for distinguishing both. NFC juice’s shelf life is influenced by the raw materials quality, processing technology, and packaging. In general, NFC juice can preserve the freshness of juice as much as possible. Still, the shelf life is usually less than 45 days in 0-4℃ condition. Whereas FC juices have a far greater shelf life at room temperature for several months.
NFC Juice’s production process
An NFC Juice manufacturer usually takes six following exhaustive steps to get the ultimate beverages.
- Fruit juice, including NFC juice, usually adopts fresh juice or frozen original juice as chief raw materials.
- The fruits will be cleaned and sorted before extracting to produce the best quality juices. Then, original juices are extracted from these fresh fruits. In case they are made of frozen fruit juice, the first step is actually to unfreeze.
- If your drinks contain two flavors or more(blended fruit juice), that means they are mixed from different fruit juice in a specific proportion.
- Sterilization is an obligatory step in the F&B industry. It includes ultra-high pressure processing and pasteurization methods. The former one is accomplished at an average temperature with the aim of less damage to the juice flavor and nutrition.
- Subsequently, the filling process also has cold-filling and hot-filling two methods. The cold filling needs to lower the temperature of sterilized juice to 20℃. Cold-filling products have a shorter shelf life and need to be preserved in cold storage.
The production process of NFC Juice
Additionally, NFC juice can be classified into two categories in terms of production technology, including temperature NFC juice and Cold-storage NFC juice. The latter has higher nutritional value and better taste, so it is more popular. But while it also has higher requirements for the cold chain, the drinks possess a shorter shelf life.
NFC Juice benefits
Originally, NFC Juice is one of the typical fruit drinks in the F&B industry. Like other tropical fruit juices, NFC juice also contains essential nutrients not produced by our bodies, such as Carbohydrates, Vitamin C, Folate, Potassium, Phytochemicals… Therefore, the benefits we can gain from NFC juice are undeniable.
Increased Vitamins ad Minerals in Your Diet
Most children don’t like eating fruits and vegetables. So drinking a glass of NFC juice is a fun way to encourage them to incorporate nutrients into their diet. These days, drinking juice is considered a substitute way to provide our bodies with a healthy source of vitamins and minerals that could be missing from our diet.
According to Healthline, approximately 120 ml of juice, including NFC juice, is just as rich in most vitamins and minerals, including primary nutrients such as iron, potassium, magnesium, and B vitamins, as the same quantity of fresh fruit. Thus, juice in NFC juice contains beneficial compounds such as carotenoids, flavonoids, and others that can neutralize free radicals and lower your disease risk.
NFC Juice – a natural source of nutrients
Improve Your Digestion System Naturally
We all know the way you eat has a massive impact on how your digestive system works. Our digestive system is more comfortable to digest in liquid form than regular foods. The first benefit of NFC juice is to promote digestion.
Juices are not just for cleansing, detoxing, and dropping pounds in record time. It is also a powerful way to improve the digestion system while loading up on bioavailable vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, and so are NFC Juices.
Digestion System Improvement
For instance, juices whose ingredients are tropical fruits such as apricots and raspberries help you improve your digestion system significantly.
Boost the immune system
Boost The Immune System
Everyone knows that eating a healthy, balanced diet with fresh fruits and vegetables sources is an efficient way to improve your overall health. It provides essential vitamins and minerals to bolster your immunity. With plenty of nutrients, fruits completely compensate for the nutrients we lack per day.
Instead of eating fruits and vegetables, you also can drink their juices. Some people favor drinking juices because it is quicker and easier than eating the recommended servings of fruits and vegetables in a day.
Increased Energy
If your body lacks several of the main vitamins and minerals, that means your body isn’t working to its full potential. Juicing is a fast, healthy, and easy way to get such nutritional vitamins into your system.
This is a useful fact that one of many ways to boost our energy is through digesting more foods that contain B vitamins. This type of vitamin is abundant in leafy greens, some citrus fruits, and not surprisingly, energy drinks.
Jumpstart your new day with a Fruit Juice
NFC Juice’s prospects for consumption in the coming year
Along with the increase in food safety awareness, worldwide consumers started to enjoy more natural and organic products. As part of the trend for healthier and more natural products, demand for NFC juices has risen significantly, especially in Europe.
From a beverage study in B&P engineering, the consumption of NFC juices in Europe increased by almost 14% during 2012-2016. Also, (NFC) Puree Market share is expected to register over 5% CAGR up to 2025, owing to rising fruit production in developing countries.
Not only in Europe, but we also saw a significant growth of NFC juice consumption in other parts of the world. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), NFC consumption has increased rapidly in recent years. This provides opportunities for organic orange juice exports, notably in North America.
As a result, many manufacturers are expanding their range of drink catalogs, including NFC Juice. Such brands following are the most prestigious beverage manufacturers named:
- USA: Tropicana, Florida’s Natural, Bolthouse Farms, Welch’s, Sunsweet, Naked Juice, Odwalla, Ocean Spray…
- The Middle East: Kariz (Iran)…
- UK: Tesco, Kiril Mischeff, Döhler…
- Vietnam: Tan Do, Vinut, Rita, Wana…
Summary
In the beverage industry, there has been gradually a significant increase in health awareness in the community. With the newly diversified formula, customers have more options for drinks. That’s a good thing, as it started a trend for healthy beverage consumption.
Therefore, it is necessary to spend time and effort on attaining knowledge about the food and beverage we absorb daily. Simultaneously, that means we need to acknowledge many fruit juice types and choose the suitable drinks for your own family. From the scientist’s view, if you have a good understanding of the drinks you consume, you surely will be healthier.
Being one of the leading beverage manufacturers in Vietnam, Tan Do’s goods also includes NFC products in the various production line. Taking advantage of Vietnam’s tropical climate and agricultural availability, we commit to deliver the best quality NFC fruit-based drinks on the market.
Not only we could help you develop and manufacture your beverage products but also inform you of the most up-to-date changes and trends in the market, notify opportunities, and support your business. Therefore if you have the need to add NFC beverages to your product line then don’t hesitate to contact Tan Do!
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.
