In recent years, nutritious and healthy fruit juice is gradually becoming the mainstream of the beverage market, and more and more consumers are beginning to seek diversified and high-quality consumption methods and life attitudes, which has led to the continuous increase in sales of high-end fruit juice and its beverage products.
Nowadays, there are three main types of juice pressing and sterilization processes: FC, NFC, HPP.
So, what exactly is FC juice, NFC juice, HPP juice? What's the difference between them?
What is FC Juice?
Reduced fruit juice concentrate (FC) is a product obtained by adding the same amount of water as the natural water lost during fruit juice concentration to the concentrated fruit juice. This technology has been developed by traditional juice manufacturers after more than 20 years of experience.
One of the benefits of the ingredient list of traditional FC juice concentrate is that it can be stored for a long time without spoiling.
This is because after concentration, its sugar content is too high for microorganisms to survive in such a high osmotic environment. Because of this, concentrated reduced fruit juice has always been the mainstream fruit juice product in the market.
However, during the concentration process, many water-soluble aromatic substances will be evaporated along with the water.
In addition, the effect of high temperature in the sterilization process will also change the flavor of the juice to a certain extent.
What is NFC Juice?
NFC is the abbreviation of English Not From Concentrate, Chinese called "non-concentrated reduced juice", "NFC juice" is the fruit after juice is directly pasteurized, processed in a low temperature environment.
Because this freshly squeezed juice is heated for less time during processing, there is less nutrient loss and the original taste of the fresh fruit is better preserved.
The disadvantage of this juice is that it is suitable for cryogenic storage and has a relatively short shelf life; In addition, since it is a real pure fruit juice, the original fresh flavor of the fruit is completely preserved.
The filling of NFC juice is divided into cold filling and hot filling.
Cold filling is more conducive to preserving the nutrients and taste of the original juice, and hot filling is more conducive to the preservation timeliness of the juice, and it is not easy to store, so the cost is also higher.
The general production process of NFC juice is: picking→ washing→ extraction→ pressing, pasteurization (inhibiting the activity of enzymes while killing microorganisms), → filling and labelling→ pasteurization (killing microorganisms produced during the bulk storage stage) → cold chain distribution.
What is HPP Juice?
HPP果汁的核心在于HPP(High Pressure Processed)超高压灭菌技术的应用。
HPP uses ultra-high pressure sterilization, put the canned fresh juice into a sealed container, use water as a medium, and apply 400 to 600 megapascal ultra-high pressure (equivalent to 4000 to 6000 atmospheres) sterilization, so as to kill more than 99.999% of bacteria, mold and yeast in the juice, and will not destroy the nutrients and flavor in the juice like high temperature sterilization, so that the taste is as fresh as ever, and most of the vitamins and minerals can be retained intact.
Cold Press is a technique that changes the traditional juicing to "pressing", which uses pressure instead of cutting to press out the water in the fruit. In this way, the temperature of the fruit does not rise, which protects the nutrients and flavor in it.
Let's talk about the sterilization process. Traditional sterilization, whether pasteurization or UHT technology, is to let the juice reach a relatively high temperature and continue for a period of time to kill bacteria.
But just like juicing, high temperatures cause a loss of nutrients and flavor.
At present, most of the detox fruit and vegetable juices that are highly exposed on social media belong to HPP juices, focusing on the concepts of "detoxification and slimming", "fasting" and "meal replacement", so they are mostly sold in the form of packages, such as a week's drinking amount or different flavor combinations, etc., and the price is generally high.
Similar to NFC, HPP also needs a cold chain, the biggest difference is the shelf life, NFC mostly has a shelf life of no more than one month, HPP juice can be up to 180 days, and freezing can reach 1 year.
What is Freshly Squeezed Juice?
"Freshly squeezed juice" is a juice that is squeezed directly, without any other treatment or added ingredients, and is "in its original natural state".
Freshly squeezed juices are not sterilized and cannot be preserved. Therefore, it basically cannot be sold through logistics channels, but can only be squeezed and drunk in restaurants, bars, cold drink shops, etc.
Now there are also some "automatic juicers", where consumers operate the machine to complete the "fresh" operation after putting in coins.
Some people will notice that "freshly squeezed juice" is not necessarily better than "NFC juice" in the supermarket.
This is because the flavor of fruit juice is different from that of fruit, and the fruit that is suitable for juicing is not the same as the fruit that everyone usually eats directly.
A small summary
1. Most of the traditional 100% juices are concentrated and reduced, and there will be a certain loss of taste and nutrition.
2. NFC juice can significantly reduce the loss of nutrients and taste, and maintain better nutrition and flavor.
3. NFC, cold pressing, and high-pressure sterilization are all technologies that occur at different stages of juice production. Cold pressing is a new technology in the juicing process, NFC means that it has not undergone a concentration reduction process, and HPP high-pressure sterilization is a new technology in the sterilization process, so they can be used in any combination.
Source: People's Daily Science Popularization
Editor: Zhuhai Market Supervision Team
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