Blueberry Concentrate
Blueberry concentrate is the concentrated fruit fraction of Vaccinium species, most often the cultivated highbush blueberry Vaccinium corymbosum or the wild lowbush blueberry Vaccinium angustifolium, sold either as a clarified juice concentrate or as a concentrated purée retaining the pulp.
The compound that defines the product is anthocyanin. Blueberry skin carries a complex mixture of glycosides of delphinidin, cyanidin, petunidin, peonidin and malvidin, and these give both the colour and most of the functional claims made for the fruit. Their behaviour decides how the fruit is handled: they are red and stable at low pH, shift towards blue and colourless forms as pH rises, degrade quickly on heating and oxidation, and fade under light, so the entire process is built around short thermal exposure and low temperature storage. Wild lowbush fruit carries a considerably higher anthocyanin concentration than cultivated highbush and is priced accordingly.
Juice concentrate is a deep purple red liquid at around 65 degrees Brix, while purée concentrate is a viscous mass at lower solids that carries the skin and pulp and therefore far more colour and fibre. Both are shipped frozen in drums and pails or aseptically at ambient temperature, and both are specified on colour value as well as on Brix and acidity, because two lots at identical Brix can differ substantially in colour strength.
We source bulk Blueberry 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.
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- Function
- Beverage ingredient
Specifications
| Item | Specification |
|---|---|
| Appearance | Viscous liquid, clear for juice concentrate or uniformly opaque for purée concentrate |
| Colour | Deep purple red, matched to the retained colour standard |
| Flavour and odour | Characteristic blueberry, no cooked, fermented or oxidised note |
| Total soluble solids | 65.0 degrees Brix minimum, juice concentrate |
| Acidity, as citric acid | 2.5 to 5.0 percent on concentrate |
| pH | 2.8 to 3.4 |
| Total anthocyanins | Declared per lot, expressed as cyanidin 3 glucoside |
| Colour value | Within the agreed absorbance range on standardised dilution |
| Lead | 0.1 mg/kg maximum |
| Arsenic | 0.1 mg/kg maximum |
| Total plate count | 100 cfu/g maximum |
| Yeast and mould | 10 cfu/g maximum |
| Escherichia coli | Negative in 1 g |
| Salmonella | Negative in 25 g |
Common Markets Grades
The first division is between clarified juice concentrate, in which pectin is broken down and the solids filtered out, and purée or pulp concentrate, which retains the skin and flesh. Between them sits cloudy juice concentrate, depectinised but not clarified. Fruit type is the second axis, with wild lowbush and cultivated highbush material traded separately on anthocyanin content and flavour. Wild fruit gives the more intense colour and a sharper flavour.
Concentrates are quoted at a stated Brix, most commonly 65 for clarified juice, with acidity and the Brix to acid ratio specified alongside. Colour grades are defined by an absorbance or colour value measurement on a standardised dilution, and colour rich grades selected for use as a colouring foodstuff are a separate commercial line from grades bought for flavour. Further grading covers organic certified material, single strength juice and purée for buyers who do not want concentrate, freeze dried and spray dried powders made from the same juice, and de-aromatised concentrate from which the volatile fraction has been stripped and sold separately as an aroma.
Applications
- Juice blends and superfruit drinks, dosed for deep colour and for the blueberry declaration
- Smoothies and chilled blended beverages, where the purée grade also contributes body
- Yoghurt fruit preparations and dairy desserts, formulated at low pH so the anthocyanin colour holds
- Bakery fillings, muffin ripples and fruit swirls, thickened with starch or pectin
- Confectionery, gummies and fruit chews, concentrated further and gelled
- Jams, spreads and fruit sauces, cooked with sugar and pectin
- Ice cream and sorbet ripples, where the low pH and high solids resist freezing solid
- Nutritional supplements, shots and gummies specified on anthocyanin content
- Colouring foodstuff applications, where the concentrated fruit replaces an added colour on the label
- Spray dried and freeze dried powders for dry mixes, bars and capsules
Brands Using Blueberry Concentrate
Widely-distributed consumer products that list Blueberry Concentrate on the ingredient label.
Brand names, product names and logos are the property of their owners. They appear here as published evidence that the ingredient is used, taken from the brand's own label or website. Their appearance is not an endorsement, and it does not mean the brand buys from us or from any manufacturer listed on this site.
China Manufacturers of Blueberry Concentrate
Top Blueberry 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
Blueberry concentrate is a food rather than a food additive, so it carries no E number and no additive listing in the United States. In the European Union Directive 2001/112/EC as amended defines concentrated fruit juice and concentrated fruit purée, sets the treatments permitted, requires that the reconstituted product returns to the reference Brix of the fruit and prohibits the addition of sugars to material sold as juice. Regulation 852/2004 and the general food law govern manufacture in the European Union, and the preventive controls rules at 21 CFR Part 117 govern it in the United States, with the juice hazard analysis regulation at 21 CFR Part 120 applying where the concentrate is reconstituted and sold as juice.
One distinction matters commercially. Where the concentrate is used for its colour rather than for flavour or nutrition, the question arises whether it is a colouring foodstuff, which stays outside the additive rules, or a colour, which does not. In the European Union that depends on whether the material has been selectively extracted so that the pigment is concentrated relative to the other components of the fruit, as set out in the Commission guidance on that distinction. Heavily colour selected concentrates can fall on the additive side. In the United States, fruit juice used to colour a food is a colour additive exempt from certification, 21 CFR 73.250 and 73.260 list it for fruit juice and vegetable juice respectively, and the label must declare it appropriately. Regulation 396/2005 sets pesticide residue limits in the European Union, and 40 CFR Part 180 sets tolerances in the United States.
Manufacturing Process
Fruit is received frozen or fresh, cleaned of stems, leaves and unsound berries, and milled to a mash. The mash is warmed and treated with pectinase, which breaks down the pectin holding the cell walls together and both raises press yield and releases anthocyanins from the skin into the liquid phase. Some processors carry out a short heated mash step specifically to extract colour before pressing. The mash is then pressed on a belt or horizontal press, or in the purée route it is passed through a pulper and finisher rather than pressed, which keeps the skin and flesh in the product.
Juice destined for clarification is treated with further enzyme, fined, and filtered through diatomaceous earth or ultrafiltration membranes to remove haze and protein. Aroma is stripped at the front of the evaporator and recovered separately. Water is then removed in a multi effect falling film evaporator under vacuum, so concentration proceeds at low temperature and the anthocyanins survive. Purée concentrate is instead concentrated in a scraped surface or forced circulation evaporator that can handle the viscosity. The concentrate is standardised for Brix and colour, pasteurised briefly, cooled quickly, and filled into drums or pails for frozen storage or into aseptic bags for ambient shipment.
