Juicing under vacuum offers high-end product quality

To produce premium fruit juice products, oxidization is a big obstacle, if the majority of valuable compounds should be transferred from the fruit to the end product. A scientific study1 from Geisenheim University has discussed processing of the red-fleshed apple Weirouge, which is particularly susceptible to reactions with oxygen. The results acknowledge the advantages of the GEA vaculiq technology. Compared to alternative de-juicing with horizontal filter presses and decanters, the content of total phenols in fruit juice from red-fleshed apples is approximately twice as much and for vitamin C as ascorbic acid even up to four times higher.

Compared to conventional presses with a similar throughput, the yield of GEA-vaculiq skids is better: they deliver high yields of up to 80 percent in the flow range of around 1,000 liter per hour.

How does it work? GEA vaculiq is a vacuum spiral filter with an associated mill, the GEA multiCrush. With the GEA multiCrush Milling System, a large variety of different fruits and vegetables from apple to ginger can be grinded to a homogenous mash. To prevent any oxygen pick-up in this process and secure the product quality, the GEA multiCrush can be rinsed with an inert gas like nitrogen or CO2 in this step. Afterwards, the mash is transferred into the vacuum filter unit where it is conveyed into a fine-mesh sieve tube. Outside the sieve tube, a vacuum is applied to extract the juice together will all valuable compounds out of the mash. The pacemakers for the optimal yield are the residence time and the helical design of the spiral inside the sieve tube and the sieve tube itself. After the extraction, the remaining pomace is ejected continuously out of the system.

Solving typical challenges of the juices industry, GEA vaculiq is highly versatile being able to process a large number of different vegetables and fruits: The vacuum spiral filter can even process friable storage apples without using enzymes with convincingly high yields. GEA tests at the German Institute of Food Technologies also reveal the advantages when juicing ripe pears, where the mash tends to have a very pasty consistency and is thus rather difficult or impossible to process for other systems. Here, the yield can be increased by ten percent and more.

Beside classics like apples, it is already processing berries, grapes, vegetables like carrots, rhubarb, or ginger. Also, tropical fruits like mango, kiwi or pineapple can be de-juiced as well as stone fruits like cherry or plum.

With a variation of the used sieves and spirals of the GEA vaculiq the desired product can also be adjusted as well. From classical fruit juices to a naturally cloudy juice, to a smoothie-like thick juice, to a puree a wide range of products is possible.

Not only fruits and vegetables can be processed. Recently, other fields of applications have come into focus. Especially in the new food segment, significant concentration levels have been achieved in extraction of proteins from plants such as peas or soy.