Citrus comminutes

Another very important development was the production of citrus comminutes. These were produced by mixing together, in appropriate proportions, the juice, peel components and essential oils of citrus fruits and comminuting the mixture in a stone mill. The resulting product delivered a more intense flavour and cloud than could be obtained from juice alone and allowed the creation of whole fruit drinks , which have dominated the concentrates market in the United Kingdom over the past 40-50 years. 

Figure 6.1 Simplified outline process for citrus comminute production.

The fat content of soft drinks is negligible and any present will derive from essential oils added as constituents of flavourings, citrus comminutes or clouding emulsions. 

The only sources of NSP in soft drinks are fruit materials, gums and stabilisers such as sodium carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) and pectins. Of these items, only fruit juices are used in significant quantities. The NSP content of most fruits falls within the range 0.9-3.6% w/w but, as Table 13.4 shows, very little remains in processed juices. Citrus comminutes are conventionally considered to have the same NSP content as the corresponding fruit but if they are known to contain substantial amounts of peel extracts this should be accounted for in calculations. 

Whole fruit drink 10% w/v comminuted citrus fruit No minimum... 

Comminutes. The process of comminution refers only to citrus products, where the oils that reside in the flavedo (coloured peel) have intense flavour characteristics. At its simplest, comminution involves taking a complete orange (or other citrus fruit) and making a pulp from it. This pulp will have a much more intense flavour than juice alone but because of the presence of much peel and albedo (pith) it would be unacceptable in taste to most consumers. Thus, the process of comminute production, developed in the immediate postwar years, is typically as set out in Figure 6.1. 

Dried citrus juice sacs have excellent water and fat absorption capabilities, absorbing 10 to 12 times and 4 to 5 times their weight of water and fat, respectively. These absorptive properties make dried juice sacs valuable as emulsifiers or binders for comminuted meat products like luncheon meats, bologna, sausages, and frankfurters. 

Production By mechanical processes from the skins of unripe lime fruits, e.g., by comminutation of the whole fruit with addition of water and centrifugation of the obtained oil/water emulsion or puncturing or grating the skin ( citrus oils). 

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