NFC Strawberry Juice
NFC strawberry juice is juice pressed from Fragaria ananassa fruit and preserved at its natural soluble solids, without the evaporation and reconstitution steps used to make juice from concentrate.
Strawberry is one of the fruits for which the not from concentrate route makes the largest difference, because both the colour and the aroma are unusually fragile. The red colour is carried by pelargonidin 3 glucoside, an anthocyanin that fades quickly under heat, light and oxygen and that browns in the presence of ascorbic acid degradation products. The aroma rests on a set of esters together with furaneol and mesifurane, all volatile enough to be stripped in an evaporator. Natural Brix is 7 to 9, titratable acidity is 0.7 to 1.0 percent as citric acid, and the pH sits near 3.3 to 3.6.
The juice ships chilled, frozen or aseptically filled, and as clarified bright juice or as cloudy juice retaining suspended solids. Because strawberry is high in pectin and in seed and receptacle fragments, screening and enzyme treatment decide how the juice behaves in a bottle. Colour loss over storage is the practical shelf life limit, so the material is held cold and filled with minimal oxygen pickup.
We source bulk NFC Strawberry 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.
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 | Bright or uniformly cloudy liquid, free from seeds and stalk fragments |
| Colour | Bright red to deep red, free from brown cast |
| Flavour and odour | Characteristic fresh strawberry, no cooked, jammy or fermented note |
| Soluble solids | 7.0 to 9.0 Brix at 20 degrees Celsius, natural strength |
| pH | 3.3 to 3.6 |
| Titratable acidity as citric acid | 0.7 to 1.0 percent |
| Total anthocyanins as pelargonidin 3 glucoside | 150 mg/L minimum |
| Transmittance at 625 nm | 90 percent minimum, clarified grade |
| Lead | 0.03 mg/kg maximum |
| Arsenic | 0.1 mg/kg maximum |
| Total plate count | 100 cfu/g maximum, aseptic grade |
| Yeast and mould | 10 cfu/g maximum |
| Escherichia coli | Negative in 1 g |
| Salmonella | Negative in 25 g |
Common Markets Grades
The two forms in routine trade are clarified juice, depectinised, fined and filtered to a bright liquid for clear drinks, and cloudy juice, which keeps its fine suspended solids for a fuller colour and mouthfeel. Puree and puree concentrate made from finished pulp are traded alongside and account for a larger share of strawberry volume than pressed juice does. Preservation route is a grade distinction in itself, between frozen, aseptic ambient and chilled high pressure processed material.
Lots are bought on Brix, titratable acidity and the Brix to acid ratio, on colour measured as absorbance or as total anthocyanin content, and on the absence of seed fragments. Cultivar and origin are declared because colour depth and aroma vary widely between varieties bred for fresh market and those bred for processing. Organic certified material and sulphite free declaration are traded as separate specifications, and lots are commonly segregated by crop year given the rate at which colour ages.
Applications
- Chilled strawberry juice and juice blends sold on a not from concentrate declaration
- Juice drinks, flavoured waters and still beverages dosed to a declared juice percentage
- Smoothies and blended drinks, where cloudy juice contributes colour and body
- Dairy fruit preparations, drinking yoghurts and fermented milk drinks on a low pH base
- Ice cream, sorbet, frozen yoghurt and dessert bases
- Bakery fillings, mousses, tart preparations and dessert sauces
- Jams, compotes and fruit spreads
- Confectionery, jellies and fruit chews, used as a combined natural colour and flavour source
- Alcoholic ready to drink mixes, fruit beers, ciders and cocktail bases
- Infant and toddler pouches and drinks formulated without added sugar
China Manufacturers of NFC Strawberry Juice
Top NFC Strawberry 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
In the United States strawberry juice is a conventional food, and processors operate the hazard analysis and critical control point plan required by 21 CFR Part 120, including the pathogen reduction requirement applying to juice. The Brix reference value published for strawberry establishes single strength for the percentage juice declaration on a finished beverage. Where strawberry juice is used specifically to give colour to another food, it is regulated in the United States as a colour additive exempt from certification, which is a different status from its use as a juice ingredient and carries its own labelling consequences.
In the European Union strawberry juice falls under the Fruit Juice Directive as amended, which reserves the description fruit juice for material that has not been reconstituted from concentrate. Fruit juices used for colouring purposes are treated under the additives framework as colouring foodstuffs where they are prepared by non selective processes, and as colour additives requiring authorisation where pigment has been selectively extracted. This distinction is checked for concentrated strawberry preparations. Codex covers the material through its general standard for fruit juices and nectars. Pesticide residue limits are a routine specification point because strawberry is a high residue crop, and hepatitis A and norovirus contamination of soft fruit is the microbiological hazard driving supplier controls.
Manufacturing Process
Strawberries are received fresh or as individually quick frozen fruit, since the crop window is short and much of the juice trade works from frozen stock. Fresh fruit is washed, destalked and sorted for mould and soft rot, and frozen fruit is thawed under controlled conditions. The fruit is milled to a mash and heated briefly, both to inactivate polyphenol oxidase and pectin methylesterase and to help extract anthocyanins from the flesh, though the hold is kept short because the pigment itself is heat sensitive. Pectinase is dosed and the mash held until viscosity falls far enough to press, since untreated strawberry mash gives very poor yield.
The mash is pressed on a belt or horizontal rotary press and the raw juice is screened to remove seeds and receptacle fragments, then centrifuged. Clarified grades take a second enzyme hold, fining with gelatine and silica sol, and filtration on diatomaceous earth or a crossflow membrane, while cloudy grades pass forward with their fine solids. The juice is deaerated under vacuum to remove oxygen, pasteurised on a plate heat exchanger with a short hold and rapid cooling, and then filled aseptically, chilled or blast frozen. No evaporation is carried out at any point.
