Vacuum Cooking Jam Process Preserving Fruit Integrity
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Solution Overview
Problem
Industrial fruit jam manufacturing processes lead to degradation of pectins, loss of aroma, and disintegration of fruits, resulting in poor gelling, sandy texture, and altered flavor and color, failing to preserve the authenticity of fruit pieces or whole fruits in the jam.
Innovation Solution
A process involving pre-cooking fruits, adding sugars, vacuum cooking with condensate recovery and pectin addition, followed by citric acid addition and pasteurization, to concentrate the mixture while preserving fruit aroma and flavor, and maintaining fruit integrity by controlling temperature and pressure conditions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If vacuum cooking is used to reduce temperature and cooking time, then productivity is improved, but pectin degradation still occurs leading to poor gelling
Solution Approach 1:
Pectin is added to the evaporated liquid fraction before it is reintroduced to the cooking mixture. This preliminary action ensures that pectin is protected during the vacuum evaporation process and is already positioned to effectively gell the jam when the fraction is returned to the cooking tank, resolving the contradiction between fast cooking and good gelling.
Solution Approach 2:
The evaporated liquid fraction acts as an intermediary carrier for pectin. By extracting pectin into this fraction during vacuum evaporation and then reintroducing it to the cooking mixture, the process achieves both high productivity through vacuum concentration and reliable gelling through controlled pectin delivery.
2Productivity
If high temperature cooking is used to concentrate the mixture quickly, then productivity is improved, but aroma and flavor are lost
Solution Approach 1:
The process utilizes phase transition (evaporation) under vacuum conditions to concentrate the jam mixture quickly without high temperatures. The evaporated liquid fraction is then reintroduced to the cooking mixture, achieving rapid concentration while preserving aroma and flavor compounds that would otherwise be lost at high temperatures.
3Quantity of substance
If extended cooking time is used to extract pectin from fruits, then pectin content is improved, but fruit disintegration occurs
Solution Approach 1:
Pectin is extracted from the fruit into the evaporated liquid fraction during the vacuum concentration process. This extracted pectin is then reintroduced to the cooking mixture, achieving high pectin content without the need for extended cooking that would cause fruit disintegration. The pectin is separated and recovered rather than requiring prolonged heating.
Solution Approach 2:
The vacuum evaporation process preliminarily extracts and concentrates pectin into the evaporated fraction before the final cooking stage. This preliminary extraction achieves sufficient pectin content without extended cooking, preserving fruit integrity while ensuring adequate gelling capability.
4Object-generated harmful factors
If sucrose is inverted during cooking to increase sweetness, then flavor is improved, but sandy texture is produced
Solution Approach 1:
The process changes the cooking parameters by using vacuum evaporation at lower temperatures, which prevents sucrose inversion. This parameter change maintains sweetness without producing the sandy texture that results from sucrose breakdown, resolving the contradiction between sweetness and texture quality.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The process produces a jam with preserved fruit pieces or whole fruits, lighter color, and enhanced aroma and flavor, overcoming the limitations of traditional methods by maintaining fruit integrity and achieving desired Brix degrees.
Implementation Method 1
concentration of the contents of the cooking tank by evaporation of liquid
Implementation Method 2
cooking under vacuum the contents of the cooking tank
Implementation Method 3
recovering a first fraction of evaporated liquid in the form of a first condensate
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to a process for producing fruit jam that yields jam with improved taste and appearance.The process comprises the following steps: (a) transferring the previously prepared fruit into a cooking vat, (b) pre-cooking the fruit in the cooking vat, (c) adding a determined amount of sugars to the pre-cooked fruit in the cooking vat, (d) vacuum cooking the contents of the cooking vat, concentrating the contents by evaporating liquid, (e) recovering a first fraction of the evaporated liquid as a first condensate, (f) adding pectin to the first condensate recovered in step (e) to obtain a condensate-pectin mixture, (g) adding the first condensate-pectin mixture obtained in step (f) to the contents of the cooking vat, (h) adding citric acid to the contents of the cooking vat to obtain jam, (i) pasteurizing the jam, and (j) packaging the pasteurized jam in packaging means.