GB2224627A

GB2224627A - Method of making a natural coconut juice beverage

Info

Publication number: GB2224627A
Application number: GB8921820A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Zheng Zilong
Original assignee: TIN FACTORY OF HAIKOU
Current assignee: TIN FACTORY OF HAIKOU
Priority date: 1988-10-11
Filing date: 1989-09-27
Publication date: 1990-05-16
Anticipated expiration: 2009-09-27
Also published as: GB2224627B; CN1009704B; PH25890A; HK5793A; MY105802A; CN1037072A; GB8921820D0

Abstract

A milk-like natural coconut juice beverage is produced by processing the white flesh of fresh coconut by crushing, pulp grinding, centrifuging, mixing and emulsifying the juice, colloid milling, adding sugar liquid for blending, cooking, homogenizing and finally filling into containers. During the process no aromatics or other fruit juices are added. Even with the storage period at the normal temperature and low temperature, the finished product exhibits no coagulum nor creaming and within it is preserved the natural aroma and nutrients of fresh coconut.

Description

METHOD OF MAKING A NATURAL COCONUT JUICE BEVERAGE This invention relates to a method of making a natural fruit beverage, especially to method of producing a milk-like coconut juice beverage from the flesh of coconut containing high protein and fat.

The conventional method of producing fruit beverage comprises crushing and pressing the flesh of the fruit, adding water, sucrose and additives, and then sterilizing, thus producing a desirable beverage. This method, however, is only suitable when utilizing normal melons and other similar fruits as raw material; the method is not quite ideal however when dealing with coconut containing high protein and fat. Thus the conventional method does not preserve the natural aroma or nutrients contained in the coconut flesh, and during the process the natural occurring protein or fat is not dissolved in the water. Consequently, separation of oil and water and protein coagulum occurs and is apparent in the beverage.

In order fully to capitalize on coconut resources, some countries, such as the Phillippines, Singapore, India and Indonesia, are actively engaged in coconut beverage research. Some producers press coconut juice by using its white flesh, add aromatics, additives and other fruit juice to make some mixed fruit juice beverage. Producers in some other countries make concentrated coconut juice diluted with water before drinking. All these methods have not fundamentally solved the key technical problems of natural formation of active components in the coconut juice, nor protein coagulum as well as creaming of fat globules. Therefore, the beverage produced does not preserve the natural aroma or nutrients in the original coconut flesh.

In view of the above defects in the conventional process, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method of producing a milk-like natural coconut juice, which maintains the physical stable state of homogeneity, does not coagulate or cream at normal temperature and low temperature during the producing process of the semi-finished product and within the shelf-life of the finished product and in which no other aromatics is added in addition to the coconut's natural aroma and nutrients.

According to the present invention there is provided a method of producing a natural beverage of coconut juice comprising crushing, pulp grinding and centrifuging coconut flesh to produce fresh original coconut juice, mixing and emulsifying the juice, colloid milling the mixed and emulsified juice, blending the milled juice with sugar liquid and cooking to produce a milled and blended mixture, homogenizing the mixture and storing the homogenized juice in either rigid or soft containers which are then pasteurised at high temperature or flash sterilised and asceptically packed, respectively.

The composition of the coconut juice produced by the above process is 8-10 weight percent of fresh coconut juice, 0.2-0.3 weight percent of emulsifier, 0.3-0.5 weight percent of stablilzer of the total amount of the juice, the balance being water.

Preferred embodiments of the invention will now be described.

There is no natural or artificial aromative added to the milk-like natural coconut juice.

The ripe coconuts are first treated in the conventional way by stripping the husk, removing the hard shell and disposing of black skin so as to produce the white flesh of fresh coconuts. The flesh is then crushed (or pulped), normally to granules of abour 5-6mm3 in size. Hot water (50-800C) is added and the mixture ground to pulp, whereafter by centrifuge action fresh original coconut is produced.

The yield is about 50-60%.

The active tissues or components in fresh coconut juice are liable to appear in the natural state.

Therefore, the juice has to be treated in time.

Hot water with a temperature of 60-80"C according to certain proportion (e.g. 1:1) is added to fresh, original coconut juice within half an hour, and then the coconut juice is collected in a clean mixing tank.

An emulsifier and a certain proportion of water (e.g. 4-5 times) are put into a high-speed mixer for preparing emulsifier liquid at a temperature of 60-70"C with a mixing speed of 2800 rpm for about 3-5 minutes.

Similarly a stabilizer and a certain proportion of water (e.g. 4-5 times) are put into another highspeed mixer for preparing stablizer liquid with mixing speed at 2800 rpm at the normal temperature for about 3-5 minutes.

After preparing the emulsifier liquid and stabilizer liquid, they are sequentially put into the mixing tank containing fresh coconut juice, mixing 3-5 minutes respectively at a temperature of 60-70"C for mixing and emulsifying treatment. At this time, the amount of the emulsifier and stabilizer added is 0.2-0.3% and 0.3- 0.5% of the total amount respectively.

The emulsified juice is then pumped into a colloid mill, and milled in a three stage circulation according to the various grain size, producing fat globules in the juice which are crushed by using whirl force shear at the temperature of 60-70"C.

The liquid of emulsified juice after colloid milling is passed to a blending kettle, where sucrose liquid is added for blending and cooking. When the total amount reaches a certain amount, refractive index of the tested Brix is required at about 10 .

After blending, the emulsified liquid of coconut juice is pumped to an homogenizer. The fat globules in the liquid juice is again crushed to globules less than 5u in diameter at the temperature of 80-900C and at a high pressure of 180-200 kg/cm2.

The obtained coconut juice at this time appears homogeneous and of a milky colour, no fat globules are rising or creaming, and there is no protein coagulum sedimentation. According to market demands, two kinds of processes of rigid container packaging and soft carton packaging are adopted. For finished products packaged in rigid containers, the coconut juice is first evacuated at 600-650 mmHg, raising the temperature to 121-1250C within 10 minutes, holding at that temperature for 10-12 minutes, then lowering the temperature for 10 minutes, finally to 1000C, and cooling it to 38-40"C in time. For soft carton packaging of the finished product, the juice is under flash sterilization within 4 seconds, then aseptically packed. During the whole process, no aromatics or other fruit juices are added.

The milk-like coconut juice produced by using the technique of this invention is stable while stored at ambient temperature and low temperature.

No coagulumWsedimentation, no freely moving fatty oils are found in the juice produced. The special coconut aroma or natural nutrients are not destroyed.

Examples of the process according to the present invention are as follows: EXAMPLE 1 50 kg white flesh of choice coconut was rinsed with running water, crushed and pulped. 30 kg hot water at a temperature of 60"C was added for grinding the pulp. The juice was extracted by centrifuge.

An equal amount of hot water at 70" was added to the mixing tank containing the juice and mixed for 3 minutes. An emulsifier and five times the amount of water at a temperature of 700C were added to a high speed mixer at the speed of 2800 rpm and mixed for about 5 minutes. A stabilizer and five times the amount of water at the temperature of 300C were added to another high speed mixer at the speed of 2800 rpm and mixed for about 3 minutes.

At this time, an emulsifier liquid was poured into the mixing tank containing the juice at a temperature of 65"C and mixed for 3 minutes. During this procedure the emulsifier content was 0.25% of the total amount and stabilizer content 0.45% of the total amount of the juice. Thereafter, the emulsified liquid of coconut juice was pumped to a colloid mill for milling treatment at a temperature of 68"C for 3 minutes. Prepared sucrose liquid was added to the colloid juice until the total amount reached 300 kg and the tested Brix was 9.5 of refractive index.

Then, the juice was pumped to an homogenizer and homogenized for 5 seconds at a temperature of 80"C and at a pressure of 180 kg/cm2. Finally, the finished juice was produced. Empty cans were sprayed by hot steam for 2 minutes. Hot juice at the temperature of 85"C was filled in the cans or bottles. After sealing the cans were sterilized a high temperature, then cooled, cleaned, oiled and sent to storage.

EXAMPLE II The physical stable state of natural coconut juice beverage during storage is as follows: Temperature time stable state ( C) (month) Room Temp 1-6 Homogeneous and milky colour, no creaming, no coagulum 20-30 sedimentation.

20-30 7 idem 20-30 8 idem 20-30 9 No creaming, but there was trace floc.

Temperature time stable state ( C) (month) 20-30 10 No evident creaming, but there was trace fat rising and a small amount of coagulum sedimentation.

Low temp 1-8 Homogeneous and milky colour, 1-5 no creaming, no coagulum.

1-5 9-10 No evident creaming.

1-5 10-12 Evident creaming, trace coagulum sedimentation, but dissolved when heating, recovered to original uniform state.

EXAMPLE III Main ingredients and content or natural coconut juice Item Content Item Content (g/100g) (mg/100g) Water 89.7 Vitamin E Not detected Protein 0.65 Phenylalanine 13.9 Fat 1.60 Lysine 0.6 Carbohydrate 9.04 Threonine 10.5 Item Content Item Content (g/100g) (mg/100g) Diet fibre Not detected Methionine 5.9 Ash 0.05 Leucine 28 Content (mg/100g) Isolecucine 14.4 Ca 6.25 Valine 25.8 P 7.4 Aspartic Acid 23.7 Fe 0.18 Serine 13.5 Cu 0.02 Clutamic Acid 51.5 Zn 0.07 Proline 58.4 Mn 0.04 Clycine 1.0 Mg 2.42 Alanine 13.2 Vitamin A Not Detected Cystine 3.9 Carotene Not Detected Tyrosine 10.3 Thiamine 0.001 Histidine 7.5 Riboflaving 0.0030 Arginine 17.6 Niacin 0.05 Vitamin C Not detected

Claims

CLAIMS 1. A method of producing a natural beverage of coconut juice, comprising: a) crushing, pulp grinding and centrifuging coconut flesh to produce fresh original coconut juice, b) mixing and emulsifying the juice, c) colloid milling the mixed and emulsified juice, d) blending the milled juice with sugar liquid and cooking to produce a milled and blended mixture, e) homogenizing the mixture, and f) storing the homogenised juice in either rigid or soft containers which are then pasteurised at high temperature or flash sterilised at high temperature and asceptically packed, respectively.
2. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the size of said crushed granules of coconut flesh are controlled at about 5-6mm3, and the yield of fresh, original coconut juice through centrifuging is in the range 50-60%.
3. A method as claimed in claim 1 or 2 wherein hot water at the temperature of 60-80"C is added to the fresh, original coconut juice according to a predetermined proportion (e.g. 1:1) to avoid natural formation of active tissue in said coconut juice.
4. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein an emulsifier with a 4 to 5 times proportion of water is added together into a high-speed mixer, the mixing time being 3-5 minutes at a speed of 2800 rpm, and a temperature of 60-70"C.
5. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein a stablilzer with a 4 to 5 times proportion of water is added together into another highspeed mixer, the mixing time being 3-5 minutes at a speed of 2800 rpm and at ambient temperature.
6. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein a prepared emulsifier liquid and stablizer liquid are sequentially mixed with said fresh coconut juice in a mixing tank, for 3-5 minutes respectively, at a temperature of 60-70"C, to provide a mixing and emulsifying treatment.
7. A method as claimed in claim 6 wherein the emulsifier content is equal to about the total amount of the milk-like coconut juice.
8. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein said mixed and emulsified juice is pumped into a colloid mill for a 3-stage colloid milling treatment at a temperatutre of 60-70"C for about 2-4 minutes.
9. A method as claimed in any preceding claim wherein sucrose liquid is added into the emulsified juice after colloid milling treatment for blending, and under the condition of a certain total amount, Brix should be controlled at about 100 refractive index.
10. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein fat globules in said emulsified juice are homogenized to globules less that 5 in diameter, at the temperature of 80-90"C and at a pressure of 180-200 kg/cm.
11. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the rigid containers are filled with the finished product at 600-650 mm Hg, and at a temperature of 85-90"C, then pasteurized, raising the temperature in 10 minutes to a maintained temperature of 121-125"C, and then timely cooling the containers to 38-40"C.
12. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein for soft-packaged coconut juice, the juice is under a four second flash sterilization at a temperature of 137"C.
13. A method as claimed in any preceding claim wherein no aromatics or other fruit juice are blended in during the production process of said beverage.
14. A method of producing a natural beverage of coconut juice, comprising: a) crushing, pulp grinding and centrifuging coconut flesh to produce fresh original coconut juice, b) mixing and emulsifying the juice, c) colloid milling the mixed and emulsified juice, d) blending the milled juice with sugar liquid and cooking to produce a milled and blended mixture and e) homogenizing the mixture.
15. A method of producing a natural coconut juice substantially as hereinbefore described.