Improving the quality of apple juice by using hydrodynamically activated polymer flocculants in the coagulation process

Introduction.Improving the quality of apple juice by clarifying and purifying it using hydrodynamically activated polymer flocculants has been carried out.Materials and methods.Apple juices from the following four varieties of apples: Jonathan, Snow Calville, Glory to the Winners, Wealthy.Polyethylene oxide and hydrolyzed polyacrylamide were chosen as the polymeric flocculants.A flocculator was used to activate the flocculant through turbulence in a circular tube that was rolled into a spiral coil without a frame.Evaluation of apple juice transparency was carried out via optical density measurements.Results and discussions.It was found that treating a mixture of juice and polymeric flocculants polyethylene oxide and polyacrylamide during flow in a circular tube results in increased clarification rate of apple juice and reduced flocculant consumption only in turbulent mode.Experiments on apple juice clarification using activated flocculants demonstrated the high efficacy of the triple injection method.The optimum concentration of polyethylene oxide was 1.5 and 1.5 mg/l (2 and 3 portions), and bentonite 340 mg/l (1 portion).On the basis of the established effect of turbulence on the flocculation process by varying the molecular concentration characteristics of polyethylene oxide solutions injected into the juice and the methods of their injection, rational parameters of apple juice clarification were obtained.The sensory analysis of apple juices made from different varieties of apples allowed to juice properties (appearance, color, consistency, smell, and taste) and proved the high quality of the products.The determined sensory assessments of the quality of apple juices processed using activated polyethylene oxide on a 5-point scale, taking into account the weighting coefficients of indicators (appearance, color, consistency, smell, and taste) for juices from apples of Glory to the Winners, Jonathan, Wealthy, and Snow Calville varieties were as follows: 4. 97, 4.95, 4.93 and 4.93, respectively.Conclusions.An innovative technological solution for the use of polymeric flocculants has been proposed, consisting in the processing of juice products using hydrodynamically activated polyethylene oxide and hydrolyzed polyacrylamide that has significantly increased the speed and degree of apple juice clarification, as well as improved their quality.