Consistent hygienic mixing for fruit drink blender The fruit juice blender David Berryman Limited, Dunstable, United Kingdom, has invested in an all-stainless steel, high-shear mixer with a Marlin stainless motor, from the Ytron and Quadro range of Quadra Engineering, Canada. David Berryman Ltd. is at the forefront of its field and is very much involved with the introduction of new products and fruits to the drinks market. Current examples include work with fruits such as Goji and Acai berries and the production of juice drinks for a health food company, Julian Graves. This is in addition to their involvement in the supply of close to 30-40 per cent of the juice and soft drink products found on the shelves of supermarkets in the United Kingdom. The Ytron-Y ByPass incorporates an integral feed chute that delivers ingredients directly to the mixing head below the liquid level. This ensures that ingredients are instantly wetted, suspended or dissolved to achieve a truly homogeneous mix. It is equally effective for both dry ingredients and liquids, even highly viscous ones, with the negative pressure created by the rotating mixer head helping to draw the ingredients into the mix. Contact: Marlin Stainless, Electra Way, Crewe, Cheshire CW1 6GL, the United Kingdom. Tel: +44 (1270) 270 022. Source: www.processingtalk.com

Malt beverage process John Labatt Ltd. offers a process for the production of a non-alcoholic malt beverage, the conditions of which favour minimization of undesirable aldehyde flavourants while avoiding any substantial ethanol production. The cold contact process comprises the steps of preparing a boiled malt wort of about 12º-20º Plato and acidifying the wort through the addition of an edible acid, to a pH of greater than 4.0 but less than 4.6. To this acidified wort is added an amount of about 25-75 per cent wet-packed yeast slurry suspended in a freshly harvested regularly brewed, barm beer. The slurry is added in adequate portions to produce a yeast cell concentration in the resulting wort/slurry mixture, of about 40-80 million yeast cells/ml thereof. The yeast and the wort are held in contact in the mixture for 10-30 hours at a temperature of 0º-7ºC. The resulting beverage is then aged after separating the wort from all but 0.5-2 million yeast cells/ml of the separated wort. The resulting product may be organoleptically supplemented with beer ester flavours to produce an ester and beer-flavour supplemented mixture that is then diluted with water to make a non-alcoholic malt beverage. Source: www.freepatentsonline.com

Sugars and acids-rich juice and phytochemical-rich juice Ocean Spray Cranberries Inc., the United States, has patented a method for processing fruit or vegetables into two different juices: one with a relatively high level of phytochemicals and low level of sugars and acids, and the other with a relatively low level of phytochemicals and a high level of sugars and acids. The method entails providing three juice streams. The first juice stream is passed through an ultrafiltration or similar apparatus for preferentially separating the relatively lower molecular weight compounds from the higher molecular weight compounds. This yields two juice fractions – one relatively high in sugars and acids and the other is relatively high in phytochemicals. The second juice stream is combined with the juice fraction that is high in sugars and acids to create a juice that has relatively high levels of sugars and acids but a low level of phytochemicals. The third juice stream is combined with the juice fraction that is relatively enriched in phytochemicals to create a juice that has a high level of phytochemicals but relatively low levels of sugars and acids. Source: www.freepatentsonline.com