Juice Processing Plant

1️⃣ Fruit Reception & Sorting

Arrival: Fresh fruits (like oranges, apples, mangoes, pineapples) arrive at the plant.

Inspection & Sorting: Workers or machines inspect the fruit and remove damaged, unripe, or spoiled ones.

Washing: Fruits are washed to remove dirt, pesticides, and other contaminants.

2️⃣ Peeling, Destoning, and Crushing

Depending on the fruit:

Citrus fruits are peeled.

Mangoes and peaches are destoned.

Apples are cored and crushed.

Pulverizing/Crushing Machines turn the cleaned fruit into pulp.

3️⃣ Juice Extraction

Presses, centrifuges, or belt presses extract the juice from the pulp.

Seeds, skins, and solid residues (pomace) are separated.

The extracted juice may still contain fine solids, so it often moves to a clarification step.

4️⃣ Filtration / Clarification

Juice is filtered to remove remaining pulp and cloudiness (unless it’s meant to be “cloudy juice” like some apple or orange juices).

Common systems: Plate filters, decanters, ultrafiltration.

5️⃣ Pasteurization

Juice is heated (usually to 85–95°C for 15–30 seconds) to kill harmful bacteria and enzymes.

After pasteurization, it is quickly cooled.

Some juices (like fresh-squeezed) might skip this and use cold-pressed / HPP (High Pressure Processing) instead.

6️⃣ Formulation & Blending

Juice might be mixed with:

Other juices (e.g., tropical blends), Water (for juice drinks), Sugar or sweeteners, Preservatives,Flavor enhancers or vitamins.

7️⃣ Homogenization (optional)

If the juice contains pulp or oil (like orange juice), homogenizers ensure even texture by breaking down particles.

8️⃣ Filling and Packaging

The juice is transferred to sterilized containers:

Glass bottles, PET bottles, Tetra Pak cartons, or metal cans.

Filling is usually done aseptically (sterile environment) to prevent contamination.

Sealed and labeled.

9️⃣ Storage and Distribution

Stored in cold rooms (if not shelf-stable).

Shipped to retailers, wholesalers, or exported.

? Supporting Systems

Quality Control Lab: Tests for taste, sugar content (Brix), pH, microbial safety.

Water treatment unit.

Waste management: handles peels, pulp, seeds (sometimes sold for animal feed or compost).

? Variations:

NFC (Not From Concentrate) juice: extracted and pasteurized, but not concentrated.

Concentrated juice: juice is evaporated into concentrate to save on shipping, then reconstituted with water at the destination or plant.