Concentrated Sour Jujube Juice
Concentrated sour jujube juice is the juice of the wild sour jujube, Ziziphus jujuba variety spinosa, concentrated under vacuum to a high solids liquid used mainly as a beverage base.
Sour jujube is the wild relative of the cultivated Chinese date. The fruit is small, with a thin layer of flesh over a large hard stone, and it is harvested from wild and semi wild stands in the hill country of Hebei, Shanxi and Shaanxi rather than from orchards. Compared with cultivated jujube the flesh is markedly more acidic, dominated by malic and citric acid, and it carries a high level of ascorbic acid together with flavonoids, jujuboside type triterpenoid saponins and a soluble polysaccharide fraction. The stone yields the seed used separately in traditional preparations, so processing lines are built to recover both fractions from one crop.
Concentrate is normally traded at 60 to 70 Brix as a reddish brown to dark brown viscous liquid with a sharp sour flavour and a faint dried fruit note. It disperses fully in water. Because the fruit is both very acidic and high in reducing sugars, non enzymatic browning during evaporation and storage is the main quality constraint, and ascorbic acid loss is used as an indicator of thermal abuse.
We source bulk Concentrated Sour Jujube Juice from top China manufacturers for our partners. The manufacturer is in Hebei. A smaller requirement can ship in a combined container with other ingredients.
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- Function
- Beverage ingredient
Specifications
| Item | Specification |
|---|---|
| Appearance | Viscous liquid, free from sediment and foreign matter |
| Colour | Reddish brown to dark brown |
| Flavour and odour | Characteristic sharp sour jujube, no cooked or fermented note |
| Soluble solids | 65.0 to 70.0 Brix at 20 degrees Celsius |
| pH | 3.0 to 3.6 |
| Titratable acidity as citric acid | 8.0 percent minimum on concentrate |
| Transmittance at 625 nm | 88 percent minimum, clarified grade |
| Pectin | Negative to alcohol test, clarified grade |
| Sulphur dioxide | Not detected |
| Lead | 0.05 mg/kg maximum |
| Arsenic | 0.1 mg/kg maximum |
| Total plate count | 100 cfu/g maximum |
| Yeast and mould | 20 cfu/g maximum |
| Escherichia coli | Negative in 1 g |
Common Markets Grades
Two forms dominate. Clarified concentrate is depectinised, fined and filtered to a bright liquid for clear drinks and for blending into tea beverages. Cloudy concentrate retains fine suspended solids and more of the polysaccharide fraction, and is preferred where a fuller body is wanted or where a whole fruit character is claimed. A pulp derived concentrate made from finished flesh rather than pressed juice is traded separately again and is thicker at equal Brix.
Lots are bought on Brix, on titratable acidity and on the acid to Brix ratio, since the acidity is the functional reason for using sour jujube at all. Colour is specified by absorbance or against a supplier reference, and flavonoid or polysaccharide content is specified where the material is going into a supplement. Organic certified material from managed wild stands, sulphite free declaration and lots segregated by production area are traded as separate specifications.
Applications
- Sour jujube juice drinks and reconstituted beverages, the principal outlet in the Chinese market
- Sour and digestive drink blends, where the high acidity supplies the sharp profile without added acidulant
- Herbal infusion beverages blended with liquorice, hawthorn, osmanthus or chrysanthemum
- Fruit juice blends, where a small addition raises acidity and adds a dried fruit top note
- Jellies, gummies and pressed fruit sweets, contributing tartness and natural colour together
- Dairy fruit preparations and drinking yoghurts formulated to a low pH base
- Dietary supplement syrups and sachet drinks specified on flavonoid or polysaccharide content
- Vinegar drinks and fermented fruit beverages, used as the fermentation substrate or as a finishing blend
- Sauces and braising liquids, where the acid balances sugar and salt
China Manufacturers of Concentrated Sour Jujube Juice
Top Concentrated Sour Jujube Juice 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
Sour jujube fruit is an established food in China and is also recognised there as a material with both food and traditional medicinal use, so juice from the fruit moves in trade as a conventional food ingredient. In the United States it is handled as a conventional food and as a dietary supplement ingredient under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, with no colour additive or food additive listing engaged because the juice functions as a food. Packers of juice for the United States market operate the hazard analysis and critical control point plan required by 21 CFR Part 120.
In the European Union the position depends on the history of consumption in the Union rather than on the species alone, and importers check the Commission novel food catalogue entry for Ziziphus preparations before placing new material on the market, since fruit juice and seed or extract preparations are treated differently. Where the juice is accepted as a food it falls under general food law and the fruit juice framework. Codex covers it through the general standard for fruit juices and nectars. Pesticide residue and heavy metal limits of the destination market apply as they would to any fruit product, and wild harvested material is normally tested lot by lot because growing conditions are not controlled.
Manufacturing Process
Fruit is received from wild and semi wild harvest, washed and sorted, then softened in warm water so that the thin flesh separates from the stone. Destoning is carried out on a pulping or scraping machine that recovers the seed intact for separate sale, and the flesh passes forward as a mash. The mash is heated briefly to inactivate polyphenol oxidase, then dosed with pectinase and held until viscosity falls far enough for the material to give up juice, since untreated sour jujube mash presses poorly and gels later in the evaporator.
The mash is pressed on a belt or horizontal rotary press and the raw juice is screened and centrifuged. Clarified grades take a second enzyme hold, fining with gelatine and silica sol, and filtration on diatomaceous earth or a crossflow membrane. The juice is deaerated and concentrated in a multiple effect falling film evaporator under vacuum, with the temperature kept low to limit browning and ascorbic acid loss. Concentrate is drawn at target Brix, pasteurised, cooled rapidly and either drum frozen or filled aseptically into bag in box.
