Cloudy Soft Drinks

This is by far the largest category within the world of soft drinks. In many cases, the turbidity provides a criterion for quality to the consumer. Turbidity is a visual proof that there are ingredients in the drink, beside sweeteners and acidifiers. 

Soft Drinks Based on High Juice Content 

High juice content is defined by a content of more than 20% by weight in the final drink. In this category, the turbidity derives from a stable colloidal dispersion of fruit cells. Stability and quality of the final drink are mainly based on the quality of fruit juice concentrates formulated into the product. Additional stabilisers, mainly hydrocolloids, might be added. 

In this category, citrus juices are by far the most common raw materials. Orange juice is a multidisperse system of suspended fruit particles and emulsified essential oils and provides, in many cases, the backbone of this kind of drink. Acidity is added by using lemon juices. A variety of juices is added to provide extra taste, e.g. passion fruit, pineapple, mango, peach and apricot. Others are added to provide colour as well as taste, e.g. carrot, elderberry, aronia and blackcurrant [12], 

Low juice content is defined by a content of 1 to 20% by weight of juice in the final drink. These products are mainly based on citrus juices. As mentioned before, citms juices provide good turbidity and stability even with low juice content. In combination with special raw materials made from citrus, like cloudy concentrates or peel oils, very stable low-juice drinks can be obtained. Turbidity comes from a complex mixture of dispersions of fruit cells and oil-in-water emulsions, stabilised by fruit pulp particles and hydrocolloid stabilisers, such as locust bean gum [9]. 

---

Despite the removal of compositional legislation, the descriptions of dilutable soft drinks in the United Kingdom are still widely used today. Consumers and enforcement authorities alike still have an expectation that a product described as a squash will be a cloudy product containing a significant proportion of fruit juice. Similar expectations still apply to the other products mentioned above. 

Concentrated juices. It will be evident from the section on nomenclature that the principal fruit components that are used in dilutable soft drinks are fruit juices (both clear and cloudy) and whole fruit preparations - the so-called comminutes. 

The soft drink circle should be read from inner to outer circle. First of all, the world of soft drinks can be categorised into clear and cloudy products, as further described in 5.2.1.1 and 5.2.1.2. In these chapters, more information can be found on important raw materials, like juices, extracts and emulsions. Within these main categories of soft drinks, it is also important to differentiate between juice specialities, flavours, source of extracts and the principal bases of emulsions. 

Brominated vegetable oils have been used in the soft drinks industry as dispersing agents for the flavouring citrus oils and to give the drink a cloudy appearance but they are no longer permitted in many countries. 

---