Orange Juice Drink Stability

We are having a problem of final juice product stability. the product is made from 50brix orange concentrate, orange oil as flavour, sodium metabisulphite as preservative, colourants , treated water and dissolved sucrose(simple syrup). The final product is packaged in 2Litre PET bottles in which upon standing the product separates, the pulp material goes on top and the liquid part on bottom , ie phase separation whch is unacceptable for customers. Can the separation be explained in terms of emulsion stability based on Stoke's law or for a permanant solution , emulsifiers/stabilisers should be roped in to have a stable product that can stay for more than 6 months.the product is said to have a shelf life life of 9 months.

The problem is likely to be separation of the oil and water phases in the concentrate. It is characterized by an oilly ring around the filling line in the PET bottle. The problem tends to be seen in certain products more than others e.g. orange base products. One solution is to use a homogenization pump to transfer the concentrate to the mix. This will help to break up the oil droplet size and stabilize the emulsion for longer. High ambient temperatures during stroage will obviously accellerate the rate of seperation. Investigate the use of the pump though as this may help you to avoid the use of emulsifiers/stabilizers in the product. I have seen this solution work practically in industry.

George

I get what you are suggesting. I have some clarifications. our concentrate does contain very little orange oil as it is removed during juice processing. As of now , we are using a Hurell homogeniser for orange oil and concentrate, that utilise a gap of 0.10to 0.13mm. Can you clarify on the homogenisation pump that you talked about and probably simple tests that can be done on final product or concentrate that can determine stability.

The best way is to use water soluble or emulsion type flavors. Oil soluble Orange flavor should be avoided as they tends to seperate easily without emulsifiers or weighing agents in these kind of applications.

My suggestion is to get in touch with your local flavor companies to help solve your problems. They have the ingredients and expertise so you do not have to worry about it.

Passing the juice conc through homogenizer only gives you a temporary solution. If amout of oil used is high, the seperation can happen within a few hours or overnight.