Apple juice

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Filtered and unfiltered apple juice Apfelsaft im Glas.jpg
Filtered and unfiltered apple juice
Clarified apple juice, from which pectin and starch have been removed, in a plastic bottle Applejuice f83e1c36ea.png
Clarified apple juice, from which pectin and starch have been removed, in a plastic bottle

Apple juice is a fruit juice made by the maceration and pressing of an apple. The resulting expelled juice may be further treated by enzymatic and centrifugal clarification to remove the starch and pectin, which holds fine particulate in suspension, and then pasteurized for packaging in glass, metal, or aseptic processing system containers, or further treated by dehydration processes to a concentrate.

Contents

Russet apple juice from Bolney, Mid Sussex, England, in a glass Russet apple juice.JPG
Russet apple juice from Bolney, Mid Sussex, England, in a glass

Due to the complex and costly equipment required to extract and clarify juice from apples in large volume, apple juice is normally produced commercially. In the United States, unfiltered fresh apple juice is made by smaller operations in areas of high apple production, in the form of unclarified apple cider. Apple juice is one of the most common fruit juices globally, with world production led by China, Poland, the United States, and Germany. [1]

Production

Apples used for apple juice are usually harvested between September and mid-November in the Northern Hemisphere and between February and mid-April in the Southern Hemisphere. A common cultivar used for apple juice is the McIntosh. Approximately two medium McIntosh apples produce around 200 millilitres (7.0 imp fl oz; 6.8 US fl oz) of juice. After the apples are picked, they are washed and transported to the processing facility. The apples are then pressed and juiced right away to avoid spoilage. [2] Depending on the company and end-product, the apples can be processed in different ways before pressing. Apple juice is then filtered, with the number of solid particles remaining partly defining the difference between apple juice and apple cider. In cases where the apple juice is treated enzymatically, the typical class of enzymes used are pectinases. [3]

Pasteurization

Because apple juice is acidic, typically with a pH of 3.4, it can be pasteurized for less time or at lower temperatures than many other juices. For this purpose, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommends the following thermal processing times and temperatures in order to achieve a five-log reduction of Cryptosporidium parvum as this parasite is more heat resistant than E. coli 0157: [4]

Unpasteurized juice and foodborne illnesses

From 2000 to 2010, there were over 1700 cases in North America of illnesses related to drinking unpasteurized juice and ciders. The pathogens related to these food-borne illnesses included parasites, bacteria, and viruses. The most common pathogens were E. coli 0157 and 0111, Salmonella , Cryptosporidium , Clostridium botulinum , and hepatitis A. Pathogens can be spread in a number of ways, such as contamination where the fruit is grown, being carried in contaminated containers, or due to poor handling and washing. [5]

Composition and nutrition

Apple juice is 88% water and 11% carbohydrates (including 9% sugars), with negligible content of protein or fat. [6] A 100 ml reference amount of unsweetened apple juice supplies 46 calories and no significant content of any micronutrients. [6]

Storage

Fresh apple juice requires refrigeration. Sealed bottles of canned apple juice can be stored in a dark, cool place, such as a pantry or cupboard, to delay the degradation of the product. [7] The appearance, texture, or taste of the juice might change over time.

Once the juice package is opened, or if it was not sealed and shipped without needing refrigeration by the manufacturer, it must be resealed tightly and refrigerated to avoid contamination from microorganisms such as bacteria. [8] The ideal storage temperature for apple juice is between 0 °C (32 °F) and 4 °C (39 °F).

Apple cider

While apple juice generally refers to the filtered, pasteurised product of apple pressing, an unfiltered and sometimes unpasteurized version of the juice is commonly known as "apple cider" in the United States and parts of Canada. Seeking to capitalize on this, some makers of filtered and clarified juice (including carbonated varieties) label and sell their product as "apple cider." Legal distinctions are not universal and elusive to apply. [9]

Elsewhere in the world, particularly in New Zealand, Australia, and the United Kingdom, the simple term cider refers to fermented fruit juice, usually made from apples but also from pears; this alcoholic beverage is known as hard cider in much of North America.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Food preservation</span> Inhibition of microbial growth in food

Food preservation includes processes that make food more resistant to microorganism growth and slow the oxidation of fats. This slows down the decomposition and rancidification process. Food preservation may also include processes that inhibit visual deterioration, such as the enzymatic browning reaction in apples after they are cut during food preparation. By preserving food, food waste can be reduced, which is an important way to decrease production costs and increase the efficiency of food systems, improve food security and nutrition and contribute towards environmental sustainability. For instance, it can reduce the environmental impact of food production.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pasteurization</span> Process of preserving foods with heat

In the field of food processing, pasteurization is a process of food preservation in which packaged and unpacked foods are treated with mild heat, usually to less than 100 °C (212 °F), to eliminate pathogens and extend shelf life. Pasteurization either destroys or deactivates microorganisms and enzymes that contribute to food spoilage or the risk of disease, including vegetative bacteria, but most bacterial spores survive the process.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orange juice</span> Juice made from oranges

Orange juice is a liquid extract of the orange tree fruit, produced by squeezing or reaming oranges. It comes in several different varieties, including blood orange, navel oranges, valencia orange, clementine, and tangerine. As well as variations in oranges used, some varieties include differing amounts of juice vesicles, known as "pulp" in American English, and "(juicy) bits" in British English. These vesicles contain the juice of the orange and can be left in or removed during the manufacturing process. How juicy these vesicles are depend upon many factors, such as species, variety, and season. In American English, the beverage name is often abbreviated as "OJ".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fruit press</span> Machine or tool for separating fruits juices from the rest of their parts

A fruit press is a device used to separate fruit solids—stems, skins, seeds, pulp, leaves, and detritus—from fruit juice.

Perry or pear cider is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented pears, traditionally in England, particularly Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, and Worcestershire, parts of South Wales and France, especially Normandy and Anjou, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Winemaking</span> Production of wine

Winemaking or vinification is the production of wine, starting with the selection of the fruit, its fermentation into alcohol, and the bottling of the finished liquid. The history of wine-making stretches over millennia. There is evidence that suggests that the earliest wine production took place in Georgia and Iran around 6000 to 5000 B.C. The science of wine and winemaking is known as oenology. A winemaker may also be called a vintner. The growing of grapes is viticulture and there are many varieties of grapes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apple cider</span> Non-alcoholic apple beverage

Apple cider is the name used in the United States and Canada for an unfiltered, unsweetened, non-alcoholic beverage made from apples. Though typically referred to simply as "cider" in North America, it is not to be confused with the alcoholic beverage known as cider in other places, which is called "hard cider" in the US. Outside of the United States and Canada, it is commonly referred to as cloudy apple juice to distinguish it from clearer, filtered apple juice and hard cider.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raw milk</span> Milk that has not been pasteurized

Raw milk or unpasteurized milk is milk that has not been pasteurized, a process of heating liquid foods to kill pathogens for safe consumption and extending the shelf life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apple butter</span> Concentrated form of apple sauce

Apple butter is a highly concentrated form of apple sauce produced by long, slow cooking of apples with apple juice or water to a point where the sugar in the apples caramelizes, turning the apple butter a deep brown. The concentration of sugar gives apple butter a much longer shelf life as a preserve than apple sauce.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cranberry juice</span> Liquid juice of the cranberry

Cranberry juice is the liquid juice of the cranberry – a fruit recognized for its bright red color, tart taste, and versatility for product manufacturing. Major cranberry products include cranberry juice, dried cranberry, cranberry sauce, frozen cranberry, cranberry powder, and dietary supplements containing cranberry extracts.

Flash pasteurization, also called "high-temperature short-time" (HTST) processing, is a method of heat pasteurization of perishable beverages like fruit and vegetable juices, beer, wine, and some dairy products such as milk. Compared with other pasteurization processes, it maintains color and flavor better, but some cheeses were found to have varying responses to the process.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grape juice</span> Drink made from grapes

Grape juice is obtained from crushing and blending grapes into a liquid. In the wine industry, grape juice that contains 7–23 percent of pulp, skins, stems and seeds is often referred to as must. The sugars in grape juice allow it to be used as a sweetener, and fermented and made into wine, brandy, or vinegar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ice cider</span>

Ice cider is the cider equivalent of ice wine: a fermented beverage made from the juice of frozen apples. Similar to ice wine, the use of frozen apples concentrates the natural sugars in the apples, resulting in a higher alcohol content than cider made by traditional methods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cider</span> Fermented alcoholic beverage from apple juice

Cider is an alcoholic beverage made from the fermented juice of apples. Cider is widely available in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The UK has the world's highest per capita consumption, as well as the largest cider-producing companies. Ciders from the South West of England are generally higher in alcoholic content. Cider is also popular in many Commonwealth countries, such as India, South Africa, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. As well as the UK and its former colonies, cider is popular in Portugal, France, Friuli, and northern Spain. Germany also has its own types of cider with Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse producing a particularly tart version known as Apfelwein. In the U.S. and Canada, varieties of alcoholic cider are often called hard cider to distinguish it from non-alcoholic apple cider or "sweet cider", also made from apples. In Canada, cider cannot contain less than 2.5% or over 13% absolute alcohol by volume.

This glossary of winemaking terms lists some of terms and definitions involved in making wine, fruit wine, and mead.

Alicyclobacillus is a genus of Gram-variable, rod-shaped, spore-forming bacteria. The bacteria are able to grow in acidic conditions, while the spores are able to survive typical pasteurization procedures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juice</span> Naturally-occurring liquid present in fruits and vegetables

Juice is a drink made from the extraction or pressing of the natural liquid contained in fruit and vegetables. It can also refer to liquids that are flavored with concentrate or other biological food sources, such as meat or seafood, such as clam juice. Juice is commonly consumed as a beverage or used as an ingredient or flavoring in foods or other beverages, such as smoothies. Juice emerged as a popular beverage choice after the development of pasteurization methods enabled its preservation without using fermentation. The largest fruit juice consumers are New Zealand and Colombia. Fruit juice consumption on average increases with a country's income level.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cherry juice</span> Fruit juice (beverage)

Cherry juice is a fruit juice consisting of the juice of cherries. It is consumed as a beverage and used as an ingredient in various foods, processed foods and beverages. It is also marketed as a health supplement. It is produced by hot- or cold-pressing cherries, collecting the juice, and then filtering and pasteurizing it.

The 1996 Odwalla E. coli outbreak began on October 7, 1996, when American food company Odwalla produced a batch of unpasteurized apple juice using blemished fruit contaminated with the E. coli bacterium, which ultimately killed a 16-month-old girl and sickened 70 people in California, Colorado, Washington state, and British Columbia, of whom 25 were hospitalized and 14 developed hemolytic uremic syndrome. Odwalla made and marketed unpasteurized fruit juices for the health segment of the juice market.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cold-pressed juice</span> Juice extracted by hydraulic press

Cold-pressed juice is juice that uses a hydraulic press to extract juice from fruit and vegetables, as opposed to other methods such as centrifugal or single auger.

References

  1. USDA Foreign Agricultural Service. World Apple Juice Situation. 2004-2005. Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 2008-02-20.
  2. "Code of Practice for the Production and Distribution of Unpasteurized Apple and Other Fruit Juice/Cider in Canada 5.2 Fruit Storage Practices". Canadian Food Inspection Agency. 25 June 2012. Archived from the original on 29 April 2015. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
  3. Madden, Dean (December 2000). "Enzymes in Fruit Juice Production" (PDF). National Center for Biotechnology Education. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-05-17. Retrieved 9 September 2017.
  4. "Commercial Food Processing" (PDF). Penn State Extension. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016.
  5. "Unpasteurized Fruit Juices and Ciders" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on March 5, 2016.
  6. 1 2 "Apple juice, canned or bottled, unsweetened, without added ascorbic acid per 100 ml". Nutritiondata.com, Conde Nast; from the USDA National Nutrient Database, SR-21. 2018. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  7. "How Long Does Fruit Juice Last? Shelf Life, Storage, Expiration". Eat By Date. Archived from the original on 2016-05-26. Retrieved 2016-05-29.
  8. "How Long to Keep/Best Way to Store Apple Juice, Commercially Canned Or Bottled, Sold Unrefrigerated — Unopened". stilltasty.com. Archived from the original on 2020-10-22. Retrieved 2016-05-29.
  9. What's the difference between apple juice and apple cider? Archived 2008-10-06 at the Wayback Machine , The Straight Dope. Retrieved 2008-02-20.
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