Syrup clarification for exceptional, refreshing products

Food & Beverage

Syrup clarification for exceptional, refreshing products

The history of soft drinks started in the medieval Middle East, where fruit-flavoured soft drinks were widely popular. They were often sweetened with ingredients such as sugar, syrup and honey.

Another early record of soft drink production was made in France around 1676 where people were selling lemonade, made of water and lemon juice sweetened with honey, without carbonated water.

There has always been interest for non-alcoholic beverages which has led to developing a wide variety of flavours, ingredients and technology innovations.

Despite the change in technology and methods of making soft drinks, fruit syrups and their quality have always been at the centre of any soft drink production.

Syrup is made directly from fresh fruit and/or by mixing sugar, flavourings, essences and water.

The quality of the syrup is crucial, as it could affect the appearance, taste and flavour of the final soft drink products. One of the challenges for soft drinks producers is to ensure that the bulk visible contaminants such as fruit fibres, sugar crystals,  sediment and gels are removed.

These problematic contaminants are typically removed using trap filtration methods to protect the downstream filtration from premature clogging and also tank protection.

Sanitary Stainless Steel housings (SPECTRUM PSFH) are used for their ease of access for cleaning, sanitary connections and crevice free surface.

Depth cartridges (SPECTRUM PSP) are typically used between 5µm – 20µm nominal to remove fruit fibres, sugar crystals and sediment and for heavy loading, filter bags can be considered (SPECTRUM EBEP).

Where finer particles are to be removed, trap filtration includes higher efficiency polypropylene pleated cartridges (SPECTRUM PPP) which aids clarification and for further clarification glass fibre pleated cartridges are applied (SPECTRUM PPG).