A glass of clear apple juice, from which pectin and starch have been removed.

Apple juice is the fruit juice product manufactured from the pressing of apples.

Production

Apple juice is produced by the crushing of apples, and then filtered extraction of the clear juice. It is usually then pasteurized.

Due to the heavy equipment required to extract juice from apples, apple juice is almost always commercially produced as opposed to the juices from easily juiced fruits such as oranges or lemons. In the United States, unfiltered fresh apple cider is produced by many small and large farms and mom and pop-type businesses. Apple juice is one of the most common fruit juices in the world, with world production led by China, followed by Poland, Germany and the United States. ^[1]

Apple juice concentrate is produced by evaporating fresh apple juice that is extracted from fresh apples. Fresh apple juice has a concentration of around 11 to 13 brix. Evaporating the fresh juice reduces packaging volume and shipping costs. The high concentration also helps reduce spoilage of the product.

There are two types of apple juice concentrate, clear apple juice concentrate and cloudy apple juice concentrate. Pectin and starch are removed during the production process to produce clear apple juice concentrate. Cloudy apple juice concentrate's appearance arises as a result of evenly-distributed small pulp suspensions in the juice concentrate.

Uses

Apple juice is a common beverage both for children and for adults, but in North America, apple juice is often marketed specifically to children, who are informally considered its major consumers. Apple juice is also a component of several cocktails; it is also used as a filler in some drinks, because it is less expensive and more widely available than most other juices. It may also be produced and consumed in a carbonated form, referred to as sparkling apple juice.

Health benefits

Apple juice has a significant concentration of phenolics thought to help protect from many diseases associated with aging, including heart disease and cancer. Aside from other obvious fruit vitamins like vitamin C, apple juice also contains the mineral nutrient boron, which is thought to promote healthy bones.^[2] Reseach from the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML) suggests that apple juice increases acetylcholine in the brain, resulting in increased memory.^[3]

Apple cider

While "apple juice" generally refers to the filtered, pasteurized product of apple pressing, an unfiltered, sometimes unpasteurized product of apple pressing, commonly known as apple cider in the United States and parts of Canada, is packaged and sold as "apple juice" in some places. In the U.S., there is no legal distinction between filtered apple juice and apple cider.^[4] In other places such as New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom "apple cider" is an alcoholic beverage. The alcoholic beverage is sometimes referred to as "hard cider" in the United States.

References

See also

• Apple cider
• Apple sauce
• Cider (the alcoholic beverage known in the U.S. as hard cider)

External links

• Production of cloudy and clear natural Apple juice
• Video on production of organic apple juice on The Sandringham Estate, England

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