Acai Concentrate
Acai concentrate is the pulp of the fruit of Euterpe oleracea, the acai palm of the Amazon estuary, separated from the seed and reduced in water content to a high solids paste or liquid.
Acai is not a conventional juice fruit. The edible layer is a thin skin and mesocarp around a large seed that accounts for most of the drupe, and that mesocarp is high in fat rather than sugar, carrying roughly 40 to 50 percent lipid on a dry basis, mainly oleic and palmitic acid. Sugar content is low, which is why acai preparations taste more like an oily berry than a sweet one. The colour is the commercially important attribute and comes from anthocyanins, principally cyanidin 3 glucoside and cyanidin 3 rutinoside, supported by other polyphenols.
Because the material is an oil in water emulsion rather than a solution, it does not concentrate like a clarified juice. Concentrate is traded as a thick, deep purple pulp at raised total solids, usually held and shipped frozen. It requires homogenisation and often an added hydrocolloid to prevent creaming and serum separation. Anthocyanins degrade rapidly under heat, light and oxygen, which drives the whole process design.
We source bulk Acai Concentrate from top China manufacturers for our partners. The manufacturer is in Shanghai. A smaller requirement can ship in a combined container with other ingredients.
Please send the grade you need, the volume and your destination port, and we will come back with a solution and a price.
or call +86-21-6858 0751
- Function
- Beverage ingredient
Specifications
| Item | Specification |
|---|---|
| Appearance | Thick homogeneous pulp, free from seed and fibre fragments |
| Colour | Deep purple to purple black |
| Flavour and odour | Characteristic earthy berry, no fermented or rancid note |
| Total solids | 14.0 percent minimum, heavy pulp grade |
| Fat | 5.0 percent minimum on wet basis |
| pH | 4.5 to 5.5 |
| Total anthocyanins | Declared per lot, expressed as cyanidin 3 glucoside |
| Serum separation | None after thawing and agitation |
| Lead | 0.1 mg/kg maximum |
| Arsenic | 0.1 mg/kg maximum |
| Total plate count | 5,000 cfu/g maximum |
| Yeast and mould | 100 cfu/g maximum |
| Escherichia coli | Negative in 1 g |
| Salmonella | Negative in 25 g |
Common Markets Grades
Trade grades follow total solids. Light pulp at around 8 to 11 percent solids, medium at 11 to 14 percent and heavy or thick pulp at 14 percent and above are the common tiers, with concentrated grades above that range sold where the buyer wants to minimise frozen freight. Fat content moves with solids and is specified alongside, since it determines mouthfeel and emulsion stability in the finished product.
Process grades cover unpasteurised frozen pulp, pasteurised frozen pulp, which is the standard export form, and high pressure processed pulp where a fresher colour is required. Organic certified material is a large share of the export trade. Sweetened grades blended with sugar or with guarana are traded for direct use in acai bowls, and freeze dried and spray dried powders made from the same pulp are related products rather than grades of the concentrate.
Applications
- Acai bowls and frozen dessert bases, blended and served semi frozen
- Smoothies and chilled blended drinks, where the fat contributes body
- Superfruit juice blends, dosed for deep purple colour and polyphenol content
- Sorbets, ice creams and frozen novelties
- Yoghurt and dairy fruit preparations, where the pulp survives the low pH base
- Functional shots and wellness drinks specified on anthocyanin content
- Supplement liquids, capsules and gummies using acai as the polyphenol source
- Powdered drink mixes and nutrition products after freeze or spray drying
- Bakery fillings, mousses and dessert layers requiring natural purple colour
China Manufacturers of Acai Concentrate
Top Acai Concentrate manufacturers in China.
Company names and logos are the property of the manufacturers themselves. They are listed here because our own directory records them as producing this ingredient. A listing is not an endorsement by them, and we do not represent them or speak on their behalf.
Regulatory Status
In the European Union the status of acai preparations is determined by reference to the Commission novel food catalogue, in which Euterpe oleracea fruit and pulp are recorded with a history of food use. More heavily processed preparations such as certain extracts and dried powders can fall under Regulation 2015/2283 and require assessment. Importers verify the entry that matches the exact preparation before first placement, and the general food law and hygiene requirements apply to the pulp in any case.
In the United States acai pulp and concentrate are marketed as conventional foods under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, with no additive listing involved because the material functions as a food. Packaged juice and juice containing beverages made from it are subject to the hazard analysis and critical control point requirements of 21 CFR Part 120, and frozen pulp production for further manufacture falls under the preventive controls rules at 21 CFR Part 117. Acai carries no E number. Where the anthocyanin fraction is extracted and used specifically to colour another food, that preparation is regulated as a colour rather than as a fruit ingredient, which is a distinction buyers have to make at the specification stage.
Manufacturing Process
Harvested drupes reach the processing plant within a day, because the fruit deteriorates quickly once picked. They are washed, then softened in warm water, which loosens the thin edible layer from the seed. Depulping machines abrade the softened fruit against a screen so that the mesocarp and skin are removed as a pulp while the seeds pass out intact, and water is added during depulping to allow the pulp to be pumped. The crude pulp is passed through finisher screens to take out fibre and seed fragments.
The pulp is homogenised to stabilise the fat globules, then concentrated. Because heavy evaporation would destroy the anthocyanins and break the emulsion, the concentration step is limited: water is removed at low temperature under vacuum, or the pulp is simply produced with less added water at the depulper so that the solids are naturally high. Stabilisation follows by short time pasteurisation, typically at 85 to 95 degrees Celsius for a few seconds, or by high pressure processing where colour retention matters more. The product is filled into pouches or drums and blast frozen, and it is held and shipped frozen throughout.
