Gas separation membranes upon production of functional berry juice

Abstract

Nowadays manufacturing of new-generation food, including functional products, is especially important. Drinks based on fruits and berries are considered at present as optimum form of food required for organism replenishment with biologically active components and vitamins aiming at organism recovery. The retention of valuable components of fruits and berries is of great concern during such production. In order to produce functional juices, it is required to decrease oxygen amount upon their production in order to prevent destructive changes in drink, to improve its quality, to perform subsequent procedures and preservation. It is proposed to modify deaeration and to apply advanced equipment: deaerator with gas separation membrane which would allow to remove higher oxygen amount in comparison with the existing equipment while producing juices of predefined quality with high content of vitamins. The experiments were carried out with freshly squeezed black current juices using a vacuum unit, an Expert-009 analyzer of dissolved oxygen with optical sensor, a gas separation membrane. The juice quality was determined by its content of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) since it is destroyed under impact of oxygen. The content of ascorbic acid during storage was measured on juices produced by different deaeration procedures. The obtained experimental results proved efficiency of membrane application during juice production showing high content of vitamins. The content of ascorbic acid during storage was higher in the juice after deaeration using gas separation membrane in comparison with the juice without treatment and with the juice after vacuum deaeration. Therefore, the most efficient method to achieve the best removal of oxygen from juice is preheating of juice to 65°C with subsequent application of deaerator with gas separation membrane, subsequent packing and cooling of final product.