 This module covers juice processing and preservation methods that will help ensure the safety and quality of fruit and vegetable juice products. We will begin with the importance of high quality raw materials and then discuss treatment methods for juice products specifically designed to give you the highest quality juice. Along the way we will provide you with an overview of some of the currently available equipment and technologies as well as new methods to help you achieve the highest standards for your juice products. A high quality finished product starts with high quality raw ingredients. Nowhere is this more valid than in the making of juices, particularly fresh juices. Every company should establish its own specifications for each of the raw materials or juice ingredients whether fruits, vegetables, puree or concentrate and ensure that they are followed. Specifications may also require the suppliers follow good agricultural practices, GAPs, for the growing, harvesting and packing of raw commodities or juice ingredients as discussed in the previous module. At the receiving point the processor should obtain and evaluate documentation to show that the raw commodities or ingredients were produced according to specifications such as GAPs and GMPs and that they meet both company and regulatory requirements. For example, current federal regulations require that only tree picked fruit be used for the production of citrus juice when pathogen reduction treatments are applied to the fruit surface rather than to the expressed juice. Consequently, manufacturers of citrus juice using surface treatments need to verify that their suppliers meet these standards. At the time of receipt, visually examine the incoming raw materials for bacterial rot, fungal decay and presence of excessive organic material, foreign objects, punctures and or other defects. Exampling of raw fruit or vegetables may also help to ensure that the raw material parameters such as pH, sugar content, bacterial load and other factors meet company specifications. Incoming products should be rejected if it does not meet company specifications. Remember to carefully document your observations and findings as good documentation will also allow you to respond quickly should problems arise. It is recommended that processors document the following at the time of receipt of an ingredient, type of product or ingredient, package size or weight, vendor or manufacturer, lot number and any other identifiers from the pallet tag. In case of a trace back, maintaining good records will minimize the public health and economic impact of a product recall. Preparation of the raw materials for processing is a critical operation in any food processing plant. Generally, raw materials are sorted, culled or pre-cleaned prior to the washing step. Cleaning methods include washing with detergents and or chlorinated water, brushing and rinsing. The objectives of cleaning are to remove field soil, pesticide residues and foreign objects and to reduce microbial load on the surfaces of raw commodities. Mechanical conveyors are commonly used for moving raw materials and other ingredients from one area of the processing facility to another. There are many different types and designs that include rubber, plastic, stainless steel, roller, chains of different designs as belts or bars, spiral screw, vibrating, wheels and elevators. If sorting during conveying is done by hand, conveyor speed should be set to move the product slowly enough to allow hand sorting by the line workers. Cleaning may also be automated using a physical characteristic such as color. Again, as with hand sorting, the speed of the conveyor should be slow enough to allow proper sorting. Conveyors should be inspected for damage regularly and they should be washed and sanitized according to the prerequisite SSOP procedure established by your company. Frequently, potable water is used to transport raw materials in flumes. In some food processing facilities, counter-flow water has been used for fluming of raw commodities. In other words, the water in a flume or dump tank may have been used previously for another purpose such as cooling and may not be objectionably contaminated. Remember, however, that any water that comes into contact with the fruit or vegetable must be pathogen-free, both at the beginning and throughout its use. You can help maintain the quality of water that repeatedly contacts product by adding disinfectants such as chlorine. Chlorine concentration should be sufficient to prevent bacterial buildup. Since chlorine is more effective at neutral or acid pH, the pH of the water should be monitored. The buildup of organic matter should also be minimized as organic matter, such as dirt, vegetable material and juices, can quickly tie up free chlorine, reducing or eliminating its effectiveness. Be sure to measure and document the free chlorine levels and pH as frequently as needed to maintain water quality. More information on the importance of water quality can be found in Modules 4 and 5. In addition to sanitizer or cleaner concentration, the temperature of your water is also an important consideration. When the temperature of your water is lower than the temperature of your fruit or vegetable, microorganisms from the surface and in the water may become internalized in the fruit. Internalized microorganisms will not be affected by any surface antimicrobial treatments. There are many different methods that are used for effective washing of raw fruit and vegetable commodities. For example, treatment with hot water, steam or hot sanitizer solutions may substantially reduce microbial load on the fruit or vegetable surfaces. Detergents may also be used, particularly for those commodities grown in contact with the soil or harvested by mechanical means. A brush or washer can also remove soil and other contaminating material. Steam or a hot water bath may be effective for surface cleaning of fruits or vegetables prior to extraction. Such surface treatments may be used as part of the five log pathogen reduction treatment allowed for citrus juices only. It is important to remember that any such process used to meet the five log pathogen reduction requirement must first be validated, demonstrating that the process is adequate to control food hazards that are reasonably likely to occur. In addition, if such a process is used, its effectiveness must be verified, establishing the validity of the process and that the treatment is being performed according to the HACCP plan. Consequently, the temperature of the treatment as well as the duration of the treatment could become critical control points and must be monitored and documented accordingly. Additional steps, using various cleaning agents and or sanitizing agents or combinations, are also frequently used to reduce the microorganisms found on the surface of the produce. Again, any process used to meet the HACCP requirement for pathogen reduction on surface treated citrus fruit must first be validated and usage must be verified. In addition, any cleaning agents or sanitizers must be approved for food contact use. For commodities other than citrus fruit, washed and sorted raw materials are usually conveyed to equipment such as a hammer mill, crusher, or a grater. This type of equipment produces a mash or pulp for juice extraction. Rice hull may be added to the raw commodity to improve juice yield during extraction. Many such added ingredients must also meet company specifications for safety and quality. In addition, some product types, such as tomato or grape, may receive a mild heat treatment after crushing. This heat treatment is not meant to meet the five log standard, but rather its purpose is to set color, deactivate enzymes, and or improve yield. There are a number of different techniques used for expressing and separating juice from fruits and vegetables. Action equipment and treatment methods can be highly specialized depending on the type of juice products produced. A few examples of such equipment are provided here. Mechanical reamers duplicate human hand reaming for extracting the juice of citrus fruits. These machines cut the fruit in half and hold the cut halves against rotating burrs. Inline juice squeezers or pinpoint extractors operate differently. In these extractors, a hollow tube perforates the citrus peel. Later meshing metallic fingers then squeeze the intact fruit to force the pulpy juice out through the hollow tube. Following extraction, the seeds and pulp are separated from the juice in cylindrical pulpers and finishers. For processors that produce fresh-greased citrus juices, it is important that the extraction be performed in a manner that avoids any potential for contamination of the juice by pathogens that may be present on the peel during the extraction operation. Juice presses are adaptable for a wide variety of fruits including apples, berries and grapes to extract juice. The most common type of juice press is the batch hydraulic press, where the whole or chopped raw commodity is placed in bags that are stacked alternately with separator grids made of plastic and subjected to hydraulic pressure. Other commonly used equipment includes a pulper with tapered screws or paddles that squeeze juice and puree through a cylindrical screen while carrying the pomace to one end for discharge. Finishers with different size of openings are used for straining juice or puree. For acid fruits, all equipment in direct contact with the juice should be made of acid-resistant material such as stainless steel or food-grade plastic. Press racks should have a smooth finish and rounded edges for easy handling and cleaning. Press cloths are most commonly made of nylon as they give greater strength and their impermeability makes them very easy to clean. Juice tanks should be made of stainless steel and covered to prevent any airborne contamination. Juices are frequently marketed in both un-clarified and clarified styles to allow for consumer choices. Clarified juices require additional treatment such as filtration steps to remove suspended particles. The removal of this solid material often requires the addition of enzymes or other processing aids. All such processing aids must be approved for use in foods. Once the juice is extracted from the fruit or vegetable, it is ready for further processing to the finished product and application of the federally mandated 5 log reduction standard. Plant design is especially important at this point. Extracted juice should be kept separate from raw materials. This is especially true for citrus juice that has already received a surface treatment of the fruit to meet the 5 log reduction standard. Care must be taken to prevent recontamination. Many juices are further processed after extraction and prior to the 5 log reduction step by blending or mixing with other ingredients. These other ingredients may include other types of juices or juice concentrates, vitamins or preservatives. All such ingredients must be approved for food use and should be handled with the same care as the freshly extracted juice to avoid introducing additional contamination. For some juices, water may be an ingredient, particularly if juice concentrates are added. Any water added as an ingredient must be potable. Care should also be exercised in standardizing the physical and chemical properties of the juice. The final physical and chemical properties of any juice can fundamentally affect the required treatment to achieve the 5 log reduction standard. Treatments to meet the 5 log standard are often validated only within specific ranges of physical and chemical parameters, such as solids content, sugar content or pH. If your final product varies substantially from the product used to validate your treatment, then you may not achieve a 5 log reduction in the pertinent pathogen. For more information on the 5 log standard or pertinent pathogens, please see module 7. Some juices are concentrated prior to packaging or other use. Concentration occurs by removing water from the juice. Water can be removed by simply boiling the juice in an open kettle. The boiling process converts the water to steam and the juice becomes concentrated as the water is removed. To make this more efficient and improve the quality of the product, the heating container can be connected to a condenser and to a vacuum. The vacuum allows the juice to boil at a lower temperature, thus reducing heat damage to the product. There are various types of vacuum assisted evaporation units. All units consist basically of a heat exchanger enclosed in a large chamber. Steam heats the product through the heat exchanger. The product in the chamber is kept under vacuum. The vapors, produced by the boiling of water in the product, are conveyed through a condenser by a vacuum system. The condensed vapor is discarded as water. The steam is condensed in the heat exchanger and the condensate is discarded. The concentrated juice exits the chamber and is ready for packaging. One of the most common and well-known methods to achieve the 5 log reduction standard is pasteurization. Both batch and continuous methods are used. In batch pasteurization, both the time and temperature of the juice treatment must be monitored to ensure that the process is sufficient to destroy pathogens. For processors using high temperature, short time, HTST, pasteurization, the heat time must be designed into the system by controlling the flow rate of the juice through the heat exchanger. Other parts of the system, such as the positive displacement timing pump and holding tube length, volume, and slope, must also be constructed so that the system will deliver a process in ensuring a specific minimum time of exposure. Operators of such a thermal pasteurizer must monitor the temperature at which the juice is treated to ensure the minimum temperature is held throughout the holding time. The pasteurizer should be equipped with an indicating thermometer and a temperature recorder, as well as a flow diversion valve that returns inadequately pasteurized product to the intake tank to be reprocessed. Equipment should be calibrated at appropriate periodic intervals to verify appropriate time-temperature treatments. Production records must be kept. Equipment for pasteurization is discussed in module 7. Recently, the FDA approved the use of ultraviolet radiation to reduce pathogens and other microorganisms in juice products. Any processor that adopts a UV treatment method or any other processing technology for treating their juice products must validate that the system will provide a five-log reduction in the pertinent pathogen. Validation needs to be performed by a processing expert with appropriate training. This processing authority may be your own employee or a consultant provided they have the appropriate training as outlined in 21 CFR 120.13. Among various filling and packaging methods is the hot, filled, and hold method of treatment, which allows for a five-log pathogen reduction and packaging in one step. Typically, the juice is heated to a specified temperature, held briefly at that temperature, then filled into containers while still hot. Again, it is important to consult with your processing authority for the appropriate temperature and time requirements of this procedure and obtain proper documentation. Juice products are also cold-filled or filled and frozen for storage. Clean containers are critical to ensure safety and proper shelf life. Containers in aseptic processes are sterilized prior to use. At a minimum, containers should be examined for cleanliness prior to use. Care must be taken to ensure that recontamination does not occur at the point of filling. Such operations should be covered appropriately and separated from earlier product streams. Containers play a critical role in ensuring the safety of all juice products, whether they are bulk packs for reprocessing or single-use consumer packages. Packaging can vary from plastic containers and metal cans to glass bottles and paper-based cartons. Containers include plastic bag liners and plastic totes and bolt tanks. For all types of containers, it is important that no extraneous materials such as wood chips, glass, or metal fragments are present. In particular, glass containers may present a serious risk. If broken glass is observed, the processing line should be stopped and the glass removed. In some processes, x-ray equipment is used to examine finished product to ensure there is no risk from broken glass or other extraneous materials. After the juice is sealed in its final package, a final inspection should be conducted to ensure that seals are properly closed and labeling and coating are correct. Finally, it is important to remember that the treatment to meet the five-log reduction standard, whether it is applied to the surface of citrus fruit or on the extracted juice, must be performed in a single facility. This requirement also applies to shelf-stable juices exempted from the HACCP requirement of 21 CFR120. If you ship your treated juice in bulk to another facility for final packaging, you must reapply your treatment to meet the five-log standard. This has been called the single facility requirement. FDA included this requirement because of concerns that separating the pathogen reduction steps and final packaging in time and space may compromise the HACCP system, including pathogen reduction. While the agency continues to be concerned about post-process contamination of juice during bulk transport, FDA has decided to exercise enforcement discretion for the single facility requirement for thermal juice concentrates and certain shelf-stable juices provided that certain conditions are met. More information on FDA's guidance for bulk transport of juice concentrates and certain shelf-stable juices can be obtained from the FDA website at www.cfsan.fda.gov under the heading HACCP. Production of a quality juice product doesn't end when a label is on the package. Storage facilities must be properly maintained to protect the shelf life and integrity of your product. Storage facilities for finished juice products should be clean and temperature regulated. Proper holding temperature is particularly important for products with a limited shelf life. Cleaning and pest control of your storage facilities should be a part of your GMP programs. If tanker trucks are used to transport juice, purees, or concentrates to another processing facility, the large holding tank should be cleaned and sanitized prior to introducing the juice and again after delivery of the juice. Temperature should also be monitored during transport, both in tankers or when the juice is in its final packaged form. Finally, ensure that product packages or cases include lot codes or date codes. Lot coding products by date or other coding facilitates recovery in the event of a recall of your product. If a pathogen or chemical contaminant is identified or if a foodborne illness outbreak occurs and your product is implicated, a recall will be necessary. The critical element is that warehouse records should be easily and quickly retrievable. They should also be able to trace back to the processing facility and to the raw material source or trace forward to distribution of the suspect product involved in the recall. In addition, recall procedures should allow a processor to recall a suspect product that has already been distributed to the marketplace. If a processor has accurate records of cleaning and sanitation, well-trained employees and a well-designed asset plan with appropriate five log reduction and monitoring procedures, the likelihood of being involved in an outbreak is greatly reduced. If one does occur, however, appropriate lot coding and record keeping will help to limit the extent of the recall. Processing of a quality juice product requires attention to every step along the way. In order to produce a quality product, one essential key is to start with a quality raw material. Along the way, that quality raw material needs to be protected from damage or contamination by using clean, well-maintained equipment and sound processing and sanitation practices. Attention to details such as segregation of the product streams and monitoring control points will ensure the highest quality and safety of the finished product.