Fruit puree processing line: how does it work?

Pasteurize your fruit puree

Before packaging, fruit puree is pasteurized and completely sterilized to make it thoroughly safe for human consumption. Pasteurizing the fruit puree is critical for eliminating any potential microorganisms that might still exist in the puree. Pasteurization also prolongs the shelf life of the product and keeps it from spoiling prematurely.

Fruit puree is pasteurized at high temperatures, ranging from 60°C to 100°C. The puree is then cooled and packaged in aseptic (sterile) conditions.

Hydrodynamic cavitation for fruit puree

In 2015, a group of scientists from Canada started researching hydrodynamic cavitation (HC) and its impact on fruit puree and fruit juice. They developed an innovative Venturi tube-based HC technology that can simultaneously crush, homogenize and pasteurize the fruit. Scientists found that by using HC, the fruit particles were finer than in traditional pureeing methods.

The same study found that HC completely eradicated heat-resistant molds that could still grow and develop into mycotoxins after pasteurization at 96°C. Moreover, by using hydrodynamic cavitation, scientists remarked the puree’s longer shelf life and retention of nutrients. With the HC device, fruit processing manufacturers can lower production costs and reduce production time because three previously separate steps could be done simultaneously.