Sugrcane Juice

1. Title: Bottling of sugarcane juice - a profitable venture (small scale or on large scale). Personal Authors: Rao, K. C. Author Affiliation: Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore 641 007, India. Document Title: Agricultural Papers of the Fortieth Annual Convention of the Deccan Sugar Technologists' Association. Sugarcane juice samples, obtained from mature canes of 30 Coimbatore-bred cultivars by crushing together with 25 lemons + 500 g ginger/quintal, were strained through cloth then sterilized for 10 min at 80° in a stainless steel vessel; scum was ladled off and 125 p.p.m. K2S2O5 was added while the juice was still hot (60°); the juice was then transferred to presterilized bottles; these were corked and kept 10-15 min at 80° before storage at room temperature. At intervals of 15 days the juice was analysed for Brix, sucrose (hence purity), pH, conductivity and titratable acidity, and assessed organoleptically for palatability on a scale of 1-4; microbiological analysis was also performed. Quality and palatability were still good after 10-12 weeks; Leuconostoc was detected, but no fungi. The best cultivar was judged to be Co.C.671, closely followed by Co.86250, Co.7204 and Co.8362. Addition of 100 p.p.m. Bactrinol-100 (bromonitropropanediol) before bottling slightly improved keeping quality (according to sucrose content) but adversely affected palatability. Pretreatment with activated carbon improved colour but impaired palatability via adsorption of flavour compounds; cation- + anion-exchange resins had similar effects and introduced an aromatic taint. Addition of lemon and ginger essences to expressed juice instead of co-crushing gave a poorer product. The overall cost of a 200-ml bottle of juice (which could be sold for Rs. 2.50) is calculated to be Rs. 1.50 for small-scale and Rs. 1.00-1.10 for automated large-scale production. 2. A technology has been developed for preserving the sugarcane juice in bottles for a period up to six months. The process of preserving the sugarcane juice involves peeling, crushing, filtration, pasteurization and bottling. Sodium Benzoate @ 125 ppm is added as preservative. The bottled juice can be stored without any loss in the quality and flavour for six months at room temperature. The cost involved for the production of one bottle (200 ml) of juice is Rs.1.50. Consumer acceptability of the preserved juice was evaluated and found to be 98 per cent. 3. A method is provided for extracting and processing sugar cane juice from sugar cane sticks to produce a natural juice product. The method includes the steps of: providing sugar cane sticks having a high sucrose level; extracting sugar cane juice from the sugar cane sticks using a roller mill apparatus; filtering the extracted sugar cane juice through a screen filter; stabilizing the pH of the juice in a non-acidic solution of calcium hydroxide; flocculating the sugar cane juice with a mixture of water and at least one natural flocculate product; evaporating the sugar cane juice to form a sugar cane juice concentrate and extracting the sugar cane juice concentrate from the evaporator.