Cold pasteurised juice goes on sale in the UK

Closed Loop Foods makes Coldpress juices in a range of apple varieties such as Braeburn, Cox and Pink Lady as well as a Valencia orange and mixed fruits like Apple & Lemon. Coldpress uses HPP to kill off organisms and extend shelf-life without the heat required by conventional pasteurisation.

Nick Cliffe, marketing manager at Closed Loop Foods, told FoodManufacture.co.uk: “One of the main reasons for focusing on apples is the volatile compounds in apples that give them their distinctive taste are very susceptible to heat damage and that’s why all pasteurised apple juice tastes similar. ​

Delicacy​

“The HPP process preserves the individual delicacy ​[of the fruit]. Drinking Pink Lady or Braeburn tastes like you’re drinking the apple.”​

The juice will be available in all Waitrose stores and the initial response has already been outstanding, Andrew Gibb, the owner of Coldpress told FoodManufacture.co.uk. The company is currently processing 40,000 litres of juice per month. But that was a low starting point and is expected to increase significantly once the trade launch at the Restaurant Show takes place later this month, he added.

Cliffe said: “The original idea for doing a juice came out of doing large batches of fruit pu​rées – predominantly for the catering market. It was there that we really started to gain the understanding of how gentle the HPP process was on the fruit flavour, while giving fantastic shelf-life in chilled storage. In retrospect it almost seems amazingly simple. ​

“Liquid is especially easy in HPP. Hydrostatic pressure equalises and is transmitted through the juice without harming the packaging.”​

Distinction​

Coldpress use customised polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles produced by Constar for its juices and does the HPP at Deli 24’s facility in Milton Keynes as part of a tolling scheme. The hexagonal design of bottles helps with the HPP process and storage, as well as providing on-shelf distinction, Cliffe said.

HPP works by placing the juice bottles in water before: “Pump[​ing] an extra 15% more water into the machine’s pressure vessel ​[which creates] a hyperbaric pressure. Like the juice was sitting at the bottom of the deepest part of the world’s ocean floor (but only at six times more pressure, 600MPa),”​ according to Coldpress’s website.

HPP is meant to be a big innovation in the production of preservative-free products due to its ability to sterilise and extend shelf-life without resorting to pasteurisation. But progress has been stymied by technical difficulties and price associated with the process.