Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
nutritional, technical and fl avouring benefi ts. One of the most important natural
extracts that in many instances characterises soft drinks is sugar and other related
carbohydrates such as fructose. Since these carbohydrates are an important subject
in their own right they are excluded from further consideration in this chapter.
Water is a natural ingredient but it is arguable as to whether it could reasonably
be described as a 'natural extract'. However, in view of its importance as the
ingredient that invariably dominates lists of ingredients in soft drinks, water
quality is covered in Section 15.6.
Natural extracts may be obtained from both animal and plant sources, although
for use in beverages, there is with few exceptions, little use for animal extracts.
Extracts may be categorised in a number of ways and the following system is
based on methods of extraction from the plant. Whatever the primary means of
extraction, there is invariably further processing to procure the required extract.
•
Expression.
Fresh plant material is subject to pressure in appropriately
designed plant to obtain an expressed material. This is an important source of
extracts for soft drink use as fruit juices are mostly obtained by this technique.
Some citrus essential oils are also produced in this way. So-called 'fi xed oils',
such as olive oil or sunfl ower oil, are widely obtained by expression although
they have little potential for use in beverages.
•
Milling and dry extraction.
There is a wide use of dried and milled (but
otherwise unprocessed) plant material in foods generally, with perhaps the use
of herbs and spices being the most obvious. Whilst such extracts are not used
directly in beverages they are used as the basis for the preparation of fl avouring,
colouring and other ingredients.
•
Steam distillation.
Although not the most obvious source of plant extracts,
this technique is important as the means of producing essential oils that form
the basis of many fl avours.
•
Solvent extraction.
There are many plant materials that are obtained in this
way including sugars, nutritional and other fl avouring and colouring extracts.
Water is widely used as a solvent although there is a limited use of other
solvents permitted for products to be used in food and beverages.
•
Fermentation.
The use of microorganisms to produce natural ingredients provides
an important source of potential ingredients for general use in foods and beverages.
The most obvious process is perhaps the production of alcohol which, although it
has little direct use in soft drinks, is still important as a solvent for fl avourings.
Other ingredients that may be produced by fermentation include citric acid.
•
From these categories, there is available a wide range of materials of natural
origin that enables the manufacturer to produce soft drinks.
15.2 Fruit juices and oils produced by expression
Many soft drinks are formulated to replicate fruit juices but at a lower ingredient
cost. Whilst it is possible to produce acceptable drinks without any fruit content
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