Key Processing Technology Points for Clarified Peach Juice Beverage

(1) Process flow: Raw material selection → fruit washing → pulping → enzymatic hydrolysis → juicing → clarification → blending → degassing, sterilization → filling, sealing.

(2) Technical points:

① Raw material selection: Select well-ripened fruit; if ripeness is low, post-ripening is required. Remove diseased, insect-damaged and rotten fruit. Rinse clean with clean water. If there is too much peach fuzz, it can be washed off with detergent, then rinsed clean with clean water.

② Pulping: After washing, the peach fruit is directly pulped with a pulping machine to separate the skin and pit. Water may also be added at 0.5 times the weight of the fruit for pulping.

③ Enzyme treatment: Add 1.2 kg of refined peach-specific pectinase preparation per ton of peach pulp. First prepare the pectinase into an enzyme solution with an enzyme content of 2% using fruit juice, then add it and stir evenly. Perform enzymatic hydrolysis at 30-35°C for 3-4 hours.

④ Juicing: Press the enzyme-treated fruit pulp until the pomace becomes a dry cake.

⑤ Clarification: Filter or clarify the obtained peach juice. If the amount of enzyme added during enzymatic hydrolysis is insufficient or the hydrolysis time is not enough, causing incomplete pectin decomposition, the filtered juice may easily form secondary precipitation due to pectin. Add 30-50 g of pectinase preparation per ton of juice for a second enzymatic hydrolysis. After fine filtration, clarified peach juice without precipitation can be obtained.

⑥ Blending: Prepare a 60% sugar solution with white granulated sugar, boil and filter. Prepare a 50% acid solution with citric acid. Use the sugar solution, acid solution and water to adjust the original juice content in the beverage to above 10%, the sugar content to 12%, and the total acid content to 0.35%, then use the natural pigment tartrazine for color adjustment. It may also be blended without adding pigment.

⑦ Degassing, sterilization: Vacuum-degas the blended juice and subject it to high-temperature short-time sterilization. Sterilization conditions: 96°C, 30 seconds.

⑧ Filling, sealing: Fill the juice while hot into sterilized hot glass bottles, and keep warm in a steam or boiling water bath for 10-20 minutes. Cool in stages to 38°C.

(3) Quality requirements: Yellow peach juice beverage is light yellow, white peach juice beverage is white, clarified and transparent with no precipitation and no foreign matter. It is pleasantly sweet and sour, with the distinctive flavor of peach, and a sugar content above 12% (by refractometer).