Raw material

Apples are more widely grown than any other fruit; apple trees of one kind or another are grown all around the world. Apple production can vary from one year to the next by as much as 20 percent, depending on the climate of any given year. There are hundreds of apple cultivars, but only about 20 cultivars are commercially important. More than 90 percent of this production is represented by 14 cultivars and only five of these accounts for most of the world's apple production: Delicious, Golden Delicious, McIntosh, Rome Beauty and Granny Smith. Newer cultivars are becoming increasingly common in the marketplace. Some newly popular cultivars are Gala, Fuji, Jonagold, Braeburn and Lady Williams. Many new commercial cultivars are red strains of the primary cultivars. There is a wide variety in their characteristics. For instance, Gala matures in 100 days or less while the Western Australian cultivar Lady Williams needs more than 200 frost-free days to mature. Some need long cold winters to break dormancy while others can be grown in very mild climates such as Israel. While some cultivars are grown exclusively for use in processing, at least some of the harvest of all commercial apple cultivars is used in processed products. Only sound, ripe fruit should be used for further processing because decay, damage, maturity, firmness, colour, soluble solids, acids and tannins of the fruit impact the quality of the product. Perfectly good fruit from the commercial fresh market cultivars (an average of 20 percent) are used for processing. Some fresh market cultivars produce excellent juice and still others produce superior sauce. Some apples are grown specifically for processing, but most of the apples that are sold to the processor are salvaged fruit grown for the fresh market. Premium price is paid for large, bruise-, disease- and insect-free apples delivered to the processor. This requires apple producers to pay full attention to their cultural details whether growing for fresh or the processing markets. Production practices for apples will vary not only with the apples' destination, but also with the climate and soils in which they are grown.
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Harvest
The majority of the apple crop is hand harvested because only a very small percentage of that crop is intentionally harvested for further processing. To use mechanical harvesting, a grower or cooperative of growers must be producing at least 40 000 bushels (700 MT), in order to justify the cost. Since apple processing is mainly thought of as a salvage operation, the amount of apples available to process is largely dependent on the size of the fresh market harvest and its quality. Consequently, processing apples are harvested and stored in the same manner as premium, fresh market apples. Salvage operation or not, it is absolutely essential that fruit for juice (or any other application, for that matter) not be "drops", i.e. apples that have fallen from the tree and are collected off the ground. There have been numerous incidences of food poisoning associated with the use of drops for fresh, unpasteurized apple juice. Even with improved sanitation and a microbial kill step between processor and consumer, drops will invariably contain many damaged or partially rotten fruit, impossible to grade out. In addition, it doesn't take many mouldy juice apples to exceed the 50 parts per billion limit in juice of the fungal metabolite, patulin, a human carcinogen. While most aflatoxin analyses have been done on major crops such as apple, grape and orange, it is likely that tropical fruits contain levels worth establishing (and probably reducing). One advantage that apples have over other more perishable fruit crops is that the fruit may be successfully kept in storage for a few weeks to several months. However, to maintain their high quality for processing over storage time periods, it is extremely important that they are picked at the proper stage of maturity and storage conditions are optimized for specific apple cultivars. The processor must determine when the apples for processing are to be harvested.

Processing
Apples are processed into a variety of products, but by far the largest volume of processed apple products is in the form of juice. Apple juice is processed from apples that are unsuitable for peeling, such as "eliminator" apples, smaller than 57mm diameter, too small to peel. Apple juice can be produced and sold in several forms. Fresh apple juice or sweet cider is juice of ripe apples, bottled or packaged with no form of preservation. This form needs to be sold at the orchard or at outlets close by. Even under these conditions it is important to pasteurize the juice to eliminate E. coli or other dangerous organisms. This recommendation has been established after several incidents of serious E. coli problems associated with unpasteurized apple juice in the United States of America. Apple cider is considered around the world as the fermented juice of the apple, but in the United States apple cider refers to sweet cider, the simple juice of early season, tart apples. Shelf-stable apple juice is sweet cider that has been treated for preservation. This could include clarified juice (depectinized, filtered, pasteurized and bottled), crushed apple juice (pasteurized and with a high pulp content), natural unfiltered juice or juice concentrate; frozen (natural or clarified and concentrated to 42Brix) or high Brix (clarified and concentrated to 70Brix)

Nutrients in the edible portion of 454 g of apples. Energy Protein Fat Carbohydrate Calcium Phosphorus Products Raw fresh Applesauce Unsweetened Apple juice Frozen slices Apple butter Dried, 24% Dried, 2% (Calories) 242 413 186 213 422 844 1 247 1 601 (g) 0.8 0.9 0.9 0.5 0.9 1.8 4.5 6.4 (g) 2.5 0.5 0.9 0.1 0.5 3.6 7.3 9.1 (g) 60.5 108.0 49.0 54.0 110.2 212.3 325.7 417.8 (mg) 29 18 18 27 23 64 141 181 (mg) 42 23 23 41 27 163 236 299

Apple juice manufacture

Apple juice flowchart

Apple receiving at juice plant for immediate processing or storage

Prejuicing
Apples are brought to the processing building and dumped by the truckload or out of pallet bins, into a water-filled tank. (Such practices should be discouraged for fresh juice manufacture, due to the potential for contamination, particularly when dump water temperature is lower than the fruit temperature. In this case water-borne pathogens may be sucked into the fruit and hence protected from subsequent fruit surface sanitary measures). Fruit are then spray washed and sorted (removing damaged and diseased fruit). Depending on process logistics, clean, sorted fruit may be stored (and inspected again before juicing) or juiced immediately. To prepare them for juicing, a disintegrator, hammer mill or grating mill may be used to grind the apples. The mashed apples need to be free of large pieces yet not so fine that pressing becomes difficult. The type of extraction equipment may dictate the chopping method to achieve highest efficiency. The hammer mill adjusts more easily to different pulp consistencies.

Although apples contain potent browning enzymes, pectin enzymes are in low concentrations. Thus, commercial macerating enzymes are usually added. There are a number of enzyme products prepared just for apple mash pretreatment that break down cell walls to free the juice, lower the viscosity and reduce pulp slipperiness.

Extraction
Extraction may be accomplished through pressing chopped apple continuously or in batches. There are a number of pressing systems:

The hydraulic cider press is one of the older methods of pressing ground apples but is still widely used in commercial setups around the world. Since the ground apple pulp passes directly from the chopper to the press cloth, this method usually does not involve using enzymes in the mash. The press racks are now made of food grade plastic. (They were previously square lattices of wood cut to fit each press.) They are slats about 1.9 cm wide and .6 cm thick, spaced about .6 cm apart. The top part of each slat is rounded for easy cleaning. Elm or poplar was the woods of choice for these slats, but oak has also worked well. All slats should be well coated with a chemical resistant varnish to make them nonabsorbent and easy to clean. Nails should be brass or, better still, stainless steel. For loading, a rack is placed in the press truck; a form or bottomless box is placed on the rack; a press cloth is placed on the rack so that the corners hang over the sides. The press cloths are coarsely woven cloths cut to fit a given press. They are made of cottons, wool, or nylon, with nylon being preferred because it is light, strong, easy to clean, nonabsorbent and resistant to stains and mildew. However, they need to be "heat set" so that they will not harden when washed in hot water during cleaning. Apple pulp is placed in the form until it is evenly filled. The apple pulp is then wrapped up in the cloth. Another rack is placed on the filled cloth and the process repeated until there is a stack of "cheeses" that fit the capacity of the press. Ripe apples allow thinner layers of mash than harder apples. The layers should be uniform for highest
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efficiency of pressing. Some plants have devices that measure the "cheeses (using either a volumetric or weight principle) to eliminate the chance of uneven loading. The average pressing cycle for a cider press is 20 to 30 minutes,

The bladder press is an effective batch system. The Willmes Pressor is a horizontal, cylindrical screen lined with press cloth material, with a large inflatable tube in the centre that inflates and presses pulp up against the lothcovered wall. The whole assemblage is rotated after it is filled and closed and as the tube is being inflated. Juice is expressed into a catch trough below and collected from a drain. Pressure on the tube reaches a maximum of 6 atmospheres or approximately 600 kPa. Usually a press aid is needed to keep the pulp from adhering to the press cloth and stopping the free flowing of the juice.

Continuous plate or belt press is a press in which a layer of apple pulp is squeezed between moving vertical plates. Apple pulp with press aid added is spread on a horizontal nylon belt having a weave similar to that in press cloths used in the hydraulic press. As the belt is moved forward converging chains to bring its outer edges together form a continuous U-shaped pocket before it passes between vertical panels attached to heavy roller type chains. Increasing pressure is exerted on the pulp causing the juice to be forced out between the plates and into the collection pan. At the end of the press, the cloth belt diverges until it passes over horizontal rollers for discharge of the pomace and cleaning. It then returns to the point of feed. A juice yield of 730L/MT of apples may be obtained,

Screening type centrifuge is a revolving, cone-shaped, self-cleaning screen through which juice is squeezed by centrifugal force. The pulp that is discharged from this system is then pressed again by one of the first two methods listed. It has been determined that this method is rapid and gentle, but less efficient than the aforementioned methods.

Apple juice from any of the presses described is invariably cloudy and contains particles (bits of apple and press aid particles) that can be removed by screening. A cylindrical "cider" screen, which is made of stainless steel screening of approximately 100 to 150 mesh, revolves on a system of rollers. The revolving action keeps the screen clean by causing the pomace to gather into small balls and finally into a continuous roll which falls off the end of the slightly sloping screen. A stainless, dewatering shaker screen can also be used. Screened juice reduces the load on the filter.

Unclarified juice
For the "natural" look associated with fresh apple cider, the ground apple pulp is treated with ascorbic acid before pressing to minimize browning. The juice is screened or settled, but not otherwise filtered. The ascorbic acid is best added directly to the mill, to be mixed with the pulp as soon as possible after the apples are crushed and pulp exposed to air. About 30 grams of ascorbic acid added to 100 kg of apples seems to be effective, if all processing is done without delay. (This amount may be cultivar dependent since a cultivar may have a very active oxidative enzyme system requiring an increase in ascorbic acid.) In view of recent fresh cider food poisoning outbreaks, the majority of unclarified juice is flash pasteurized.

Enzyme treatment
An enzyme step is not employed if the end product desired is a cloudy or "natural" looking apple juice. Otherwise, after juice extraction, the raw apple juice must be treated with enzymes to remove suspended solid materials. If not removed, this colloidal material can clog filters, slowing production and can cause the juice to form a haze later on. Enzymes work by hydrolyzing soluble pectinaceous materials, hemicelluloses and other polymers and colloids that increase juice viscosity, thereby leaving the juice more easily filtered. Many enzyme preparations are available both in
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liquid and powder forms. They are all subject to conditions that can influence enzyme performance such as pH, temperature, enzyme concentration and length of reaction time. Considering these variables, it is recommended that test trials be conducted with specific enzymes under typical operating circumstances to determine the proper concentrations and conditions. There is a hot and a cold method for enzyme treatment. In the hot method, the enzyme is mixed into juice at 54C and held for 1 to 2 hours. In the cold treatment, the enzyme is mixed into the juice at room temperature, 20C and held 6 to 8 hours. The enzyme activity can be monitored by adding five milliliters of juice to 15 ml of HCLacidified ethyl alcohol, observing the mixture for 5 minutes for gel formation. No gel formation means that the depectinization has been completed.

Tannin and gelatin treatment

For highly astringent apples, tannin removal is beneficial. Many of these tannins can be precipitated with addition of gelatin. However, in order not to remove all tannins and therefore some of the flavour and colour of the juice, it is often the practice to first add more tannin and then precipitate a certain amount with gelatin. Solution 1. Dissolve 9.45 g of tannin (tannin acid) in 176 ml of 95 percent ethyl alcohol. Then add 704 ml of water and mix thoroughly. Solution 2. Dissolve 21.2 g of gelatin in 704 ml of water and add 176 ml of 95 percent ethyl alcohol. Heat a portion of the water and add the gelatin slowly, stirring continuously. Then add the rest of the water and dissolve the gelatin by heating in a pan of hot water or double boiler and stirring. Add the alcohol and mix well. These solutions should be kept in stoppered bottles and may be used as needed, the alcohol acting as a preservative in both cases. In some cases the gelatin will gel when cold, but can be liquefied when needed by putting the container in hot water.
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Four clear glass quart bottles should then be filled to the neck with apple juice and numbered 1, 2, 3 and 4. Then add to each bottle the following amounts of Solution 1 (tannin) and Solution 2 (gelatin). Bottle No. 1 Bottle No. 2 Bottle No. 3 Bottle No. 4 Solution 1. (ml) Solution 2. (ml) 10 5 10 10 10 15 10 20

Measure and add the amounts of solutions shown to each bottle, adding the tannin first in all cases and shaking well after the addition of each solution. Let the bottles stand for 10 minutes. The bottle showing the clearest juice is the one to which the proper proportions of tannin and gelatin were added. The quantities of tannin and gelatin to use for 380L-batches of apple juice are then found by referring to the table below. For smaller amounts of cider, proportionate amounts of tannin and gelatin are used. For example, if bottle 3 showed the clearest juice at the end of 10 minutes, 35 gm of tannin and 126 gm of gelatin should be added to each 380L of juice; for 190L, one-half these amounts should be added. AMOUNTS OF GELATIN AND TANNIN TO BE USED FOR 100 GALLONS APPLE JUICE Bottle No. 1 Bottle No. 2 Bottle No. 3 Bottle No. 4 Tannin (grams) Gelatin (grams) 35 42 35 84 35 126 35 252

The actual clarification of apple juice according to this procedure is carried out by first stirring into the apple juice a solution containing the proper amount of tannin. A few minutes later the correct quantity of gelatin, dissolved in hot water, is added, stirring constantly. It is most essential that the juice be very thoroughly stirred after the addition of the treating chemicals. After standing overnight, the clear supernatant liquids are drawn off and filtered. In some plants, the liquid is not separated from the
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sludge since the filter retains the sludge. This speeds up the operation and eliminates the waste due to discarding juice with the sludge." The success of the tannin-gelatin method of clarification is due to some extent on the experience of the operator. Too much gelatin in the juice can slow filtering and cause the finished juice to cause a cloud or precipitate upon storage.

Heat clarification
Flash heating the apple juice between 82 and 85C will coagulate the particles that interfere with juice filtration. The juice is then rapidly cooled and filtered or centrifuged. There are some difficulties with this method.

An additional heating step prior to final pasteurization may have a detrimental effect on flavour,

Rapid cooling is necessary to minimize flavour changes, The method efficiency is cultivar dependent and not applicable to all apples, If the pasteurization temperature is higher than that used for flash heating, additional heat-induced coagulation may occur after filling.

Centrifuged apple juice

Centrifuged juice is slightly clearer than unclarified juice but quite cloudy and viscous compared to the filtered juice although free of visible suspended particles. The pressed, screened juice is fed to either a tubular bowl or continuous centrifuge. Both types work well, but the continuous type is self-cleaning and therefore does not have its operation interrupted for cleaning.

Bentonnesite fining
A means of reducing both haze and juice astringency uses the adsorbtive properties of bentonnesite. The finely divided bentonnesite clay particles have an
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enormous surface area to which tannins and protein-tannin complexes adsorb. Since this may be at the expense of colour and flavour, treatment amounts must be carefully chosen. Fining is also effective in reducing harshness and astringency in some wines As such, it has an unexploited juice flavour cleanup potential.

Filtration
To obtain a brilliantly clear apple juice polish filtration is necessary. Filtering freshly pressed juice is a difficult operation due to the pectinaceous nature of apple juice and the potential for post filtration haze formation. Untreated juice can be rough filtered in large capacity filters with large filter areas that can be easily cleaned. The juice from this method has superior flavour and excellent body. It may have a slight haze that increases with time as proteins and tannins react. Filtering juice that has not been depectinized reduces the filtration rate to about 1/3 of enzyme treated juices. There are many types, styles and capacities of filters available. Plate and frame filters with disposable pads or sheets are easy to clean, but readily clog after extended use. Continuous filters with back flush capability are preferred. The juice contact surface should be stainless steel or food grade plastic. In a pre-coated filter, the liquid, containing suspended filter aid, is forced by pressure of vacuum through a coated membrane. In the case of apple juice, the medium is usually diatomaceous earth. This medium is available in many grades. It takes skill and experience to operate a filter in an apple juice plant.

Pasteurization
The most important method of preserving apple juice is pasteurization, which involves heating the juice to a given temperature for a length of time that will destroy all organisms that can develop, if juice is put hot into containers that are filled and hermetically sealed. Flash pasteurization is, true to its name, the rapid heating of juice to near the boiling point (greater than 88C) for 25 to 30 seconds. Steam or hot water passes the juice between plates or through narrow tubes that are heated. Design of the
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heat exchanger provides juice flow turbulence and even heating to prevent scorching and burn-on in the unit. There are numerous flash pasteurization heat exchangers available. They are all adaptable to a continuous operation set-up. Juice can be canned or bottled in cans, glass or plastic. Cans used are enamel or lacquer lined to resist corrosion from the juice. As the cans travel the canning line, they must pass through a can washer, be filled from filling machines and immediately sealed on a can-closing machine. After closure cans should be positioned or inverted so that the hot fill will be in contact with the lid and thus, pasteurize it. From here, the cans must be removed to a cooling room where they will be cooled to near 38C to stop the effect of high heat on the contents. If cooled to a temperature lower than 35C, the labels will tend to detach, the can will not dry and will be susceptible to surface rusting. This necessitates that the cans travel continuously from washing, to filling to cooling to labelling and packing. Bottling juice requires specialized equipment. Cans can be roughly handled, but bottles are fragile ("bruising" not visible to the eye can cause breakage later) and susceptible to thermal shock. Temperature changes of greater than 7C should be avoided. Bottles must be cleaned before filling then heated (steam jets) within 7C of the fill temperature. The best filler draws the liquid into the bottle by evacuating the bottle, thus reducing oxidation. Bottle closures can be screw caps, crown caps or vacuum caps. The vacuum caps have the advantage of allowing less headspace; if the contents ferment only the cap will blow off rather than the bottle exploding. Bottles also must be cooled. This can be accomplished in a special cooler that sprays hot water on them and decreases the temperature as the bottles move along. At the end, they emerge close to 38C, still warm enough to dry. Newer packaging and processing systems use plastic containers that can be hot filled and rapidly cooled without the danger of thermal shock. In addition, aseptic processing greatly reduces heat-induced flavour changes. Still, glass bottles are the traditional standard and carry a quality image not implicit in cans, plastic bottles or
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aseptic packs. Recent concerns about contaminated fresh cider have resulted in United States Federal Regulations that strongly discourage unpasteurized juice and advise pasteurization of all apple juice products, even at small roadside stands and country markets that prepare juice on site. The alternative is a not very appealing warning label on fresh apple juice.

Concentration
Apple juice may also be concentrated as a form of preservation, for use as reconstituted juice and in further processing. Evaporating systems such as rising film evaporators, falling film evaporators and multiple effect tubular and plate evaporators can be used. Because apple juice is so sensitive to heat the multiple effect of evaporation with essence recovery is the one most commonly used. This method heats the juice in stages. The juice is evaporated to 20 to 25Brix at 90C and the aroma captured by fractional distillation. This concentrate is brought to about 40 to 45Brix at about 100C. In the third stage it is heated to about 45C and concentrated to about 50 to 60Brix. The final heating at 45C will bring it to 71Brix. The concentrate is cooled to 4 to 5C and standardized to 70Brix and then bottled, barrelled or stored.

Applesauce
Although not strictly a beverage, applesauce merits mention as a co-product of apple processing operations. For making applesauce, clean, sorted, peeled apples, plus all the apple sauce recipe ingredients, are chopped and cooked in a cooker heated by live steam or jacketed steam. Liquid sugar is the preferred sweetener because it imparts a desirable "sheen" to the finished product appearance. The chopped apples are cooked at 93 to 98C for 4 to 5 minutes to soften the apples and inactivate the enzymes responsible for browning. The cooked apples are passed through a pulper with a screen for the purpose of removing undesirables and for sizing the sauce. Baby food goes through a 0.8 mm screen for the finest of textures. The sauce is next inspected by being poured over a backlit flat plastic sheet. Inspectors remove all dark pieces with a flexible vacuum tube.
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The applesauce is now ready to be canned or bottled. It is heated to 90C and piston-filled into cans or bottles. Applesauce must be filled and sealed at 88C in the seamer or capper. To insure a vacuum in the container, a jet of steam may be passed over the top of the container just prior to sealing. As the steam condenses, a vacuum is created in the container. This step is important in cans to prevent headspace detinning. The containers are held for 1 to 2 minutes prior to cooling to insure sterilization of the lids or caps. Water-cooling takes place in a draper belt, walking beam or reel cooler to an average of 35 to 40C to prevent "stack cooking" in the warehouse.

References
http://www.fao.org http://www.principles and practices of apple processing.org http://www.appleproducts.org/pandt.html
http://www. manuals.info.apple.com

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