Consistent Commercial Food Production Quality Through ºBrix Monitoring
All commercial food brands must meet the high standards that their customers have come to expect. A change in the quality of their product may cause a shift in the customer's purchasing habits. Consistency and flavor are essential for satisfied customers and continued sales.
The measurement of "Brix" is vital for producers of many commercial food items, such as wine, fruit juice, jams, and carbonated drinks, to monitor quality.
Brix is a unit of measurement for sucrose and other sugars (and other dissolved solids) concentrations in aqueous solutions. One degree Brix (symbol °Bx) represents the strength of a solution as a percentage by mass and is described as 1 gram of sucrose in 100 grams of the solution when measuring sweetness.
Inline refractometers provide vital details about the make-up of commercial fruit, juice, and wine products. Many commercial food processing plants use refractometers to ensure quality by blending their products to a consistent Brix stage. Since the dissolution of sucrose and other sugars in a solution alters the solution's refractive index, calculating this adjustment is a reliable way to assess consistency and efficiency. A refractometer works by shining an LED light source through a product sample and onto a prism surface from various angles. A critical angle can be measured and the refractive index correctly estimated by calculating the difference in the light source's reflection and refraction. Thus, inline refractometers are effective instruments for measuring Brix in all food processing applications. Furthermore, this measurement and calculation can is performed reliably, repeatably, and quickly.
Inline refractometers calculate sucrose, fructose, and dextrose content in the following applications:
- Dairy, soft drinks, and fruit juices
- Apple sauces, jams, and jellies are all delicious.
- Beer, wine, coffee, and tea are all available.
- Oils from vegetables.
- Sauces and pastes made from tomatoes.
- Honey
Contact Electron Machine Company at 352-669-3101 or visit http://www.electronmachine.com if you have any question regarding the usage of refractometry in food and beverage production.
Inline Refractometers for Fruit and Vegetable Juice Concentration
The array of fruits processed into concentrate includes almost every commercially harvested type. The production of fruit juice concentrate involves taking a comparatively dilute feedstock of fruit juice and delivering a uniformly concentrated output. Fruit juice concentrate contains the feedstock fruit juice's solid components and provides more accessible transportation and longer storage life. The method of producing fruit juice concentrates is an excellent way to save money on packaging and transportation. It also ensures that the final goods are of consistent quality. In the meantime, the rise in sugar and acid content favors preservation. Qualified fruit juice concentrate must maintain the same color, taste, and nutrition as the original fruit juice.
Water is removed from freshly squeezed fruit and vegetable juice to make fruit juice concentrate. The process requires the removal of water through a variety of operations employing purpose-specific equipment. Juice is extracted from various fruits in several ways, specifically adapted for its shape, size, and nature.
Vacuum Concentration
Vacuum concentrate systems, refrigeration-based concentrations, and membrane-based concentrations are the most used fruit juice processing technologies.
Vacuum concentration necessitates heating fruit juice under low pressure to lower the boiling point and allow the water content to evaporate quickly. The most critical and commonly used device in the fruit juice concentration process is vacuum concentration equipment.
Freeze Concentration
Lowering the temperature of fruit juice to ice point is referred to as freeze concentration. Before the concentration of fruit juice exceeds the eutectic threshold, the water content freezes and separates.
Membrane Concentration
Reverse osmosis and ultrafiltration are two forms of membrane technology. It operates based on osmotic pressure. A semipermeable membrane built in the center divides a container into two parts, with each position filled with solution A and solution B separately.
No matter the method used, juice concentration will vary initially due to several natural factors. The concentration process chosen must produce output that will provide product uniformity.
Regardless of the method used for concentrating the juice, inline process refractometers can be used at strategic points in the concentration process to measure the percentage of solids and evaluate equipment performance and product quality.
Inline refractometers produce accurate and repeatable output signals that allow the process to rapidly adjust, opening control valves, adjust the flow, change pressure, or modulate temperature. The use of these instruments provides a continuous measurement of the process variables, ensuring consistency and making the most efficient use of the energy-consuming concentration equipment.
In a high-volume commercial juice production environment, ruggedness, reliability, and accuracy are critical features for an inline process refractometer. While the devices are not inexpensive, their upfront investment pays off quickly in production speed and product quality.
Electron Machine Corporation
https://electronmachine.com
+1 352-669-3101
Industrial Applications for Inline Refractometers
The applications for inline industrial refractometers are many. Outlined below are several of the more common applications and processes.
Spray Dryers: Spray drying is a way to produce a dry powder from a liquid or slurry by drying quickly with a warm gas, a preferred drying technique for many thermally sensitive products like foods and pharmaceuticals. Consistent distribution of particle size is the goal for spray drying. Process refractometer monitors the feed line's concentration to the spray dryer, ensuring correct particle size after drying and improving product shelf life.
Evaporation: An evaporator is a tool used to transform the liquid form of a chemical substance such as water into its gaseous / vapor form. During that phase, the liquid is evaporated or vaporized into a gas. Inline refractometers provide real-time data of concentration changes in the process media.
Crystallizers: In industry, crystallizers create liquid-solid separation. They are an essential component of chemical processing equipment as they can generate high-purity products from a relatively low energy input. The refractometer controls the liquor concentration to determine the right seeding point (evaporative crystallizer) or to detect when crystals start to form (cooling crystallizer).
Dissolving Tanks: Dissolving tanks dissolve solids into a liquid, thereby changing the concentration of the solution. Refractometers provide continuous measurement of the concentration components in solution as the solute dissolves into water or solvent, with real-time information for dissolving rate.
Solid / Liquid Extraction - Solid / Liquid extraction method is a prevalent method in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and food industries to acquire natural ingredients such as natural raw material flavors and fragrances. Inline refractometers measure the amount of extracted substance (dissolved solids) in the liquid after the extraction process. The measurement is not affected by undissolved solids, only by the dissolved matter, making it ideal to follow extraction efficiency.
Reverse Osmosis: Reverse osmosis (RO) is a water purification method that removes ions, unwanted molecules, and bigger particles from drinking water using a partially permeable membrane. Inline refractometers provide real-time data of concentration changes in the process media.
Reactors: Process reactors are typical in commercial production applications in adhesives processing, agriculture, chemical processing, cosmetics, food and beverage production, paints and coating production, paper and pulp processing, pharmaceutical and medical production, plastics, and thermoplastics processing. The real-time progress can be followed using inline refractometers, either through the leveling out of process key process variables or reaching a single component's targeted refractive index value.
Cooking Processes: The art, technology, science, and craftsmanship of preparing food for consumption are cooking. The large-scale production of juices, jams, jellies, dairy, and fruits in modern production facilities requires automation and control instrumentation for quality and efficiency. Sugar is a critical component in many foods. The inline refractometer measures the refractive index to determine the cooking process's end and boost the cooking effectiveness.
Other areas where you'll find the use of industrial process refractometers are; adhesives processing, agriculture, chemical processing, cosmetics, food and beverage production, paints and coating production, paper and pulp processing, pharmaceutical, plastics, and thermoplastics processing.
For more information about applying the refractive index to industrial process applications, contact Electron Machine by calling 352-669-3101 or by visiting https://electronmachine.com.
Demonstration of Measuring °Brix in Tomato-based Food Products with an Inline Process Refractometer
Are you a producer of tomato-based food products that wants better quality control while reducing cost? Stay tuned to see how the inline process refractometer can help you out.
Welcome to Electron Machine Corporation, manufacturer of the world's most rugged refractometer, found in various industries across the globe.
Typically installed in a pipeline, the MPR E-Scan is set up here as a demonstration equipment piece. In this demo, a static cup measures a variety of popular tomato-based food products. In production, the refractometer is commonly installed right inline with the process piping of the tomato-based product being run.
Hopefully, you'll enjoy this demonstration into what the refractometer can do and how it measures the sugar content of tomato-based product. Stay tuned for the next series of videos. We'll highlight another product for the refractometer to measure.
Electron Machine Corporation
https://electronmachine.com
+1 352-669-3101
Demonstration of Measuring °Brix in Soft Drinks (Soda) with an Inline Process Refractometer
Are you a soda manufacturer that wants better quality control while reducing cost? Stay tuned to see how the inline process refractometer can help you out.
Welcome to Electron Machine Corporation, manufacturer of the world's most rugged refractometer, found in various industries across the globe.
The next series of videos will highlight some of the most common applications for Electron Machine refractometers.
Typically installed in a pipeline, the MPR E-Scan is set up here as a demonstration equipment piece. In this demo, a static cup measures a variety of popular sodas. The refractometer s commonly installed either on a bottling line to determine what soda you're running or on the blending line mixing the syrup with the carbonated water to ensure that it stays at the correct consistency from bottle to bottle.
Hopefully, you'll enjoy this quick little look into what the refractometer actually can do and how it measures orange juice. Stay tuned for the next series of videos. We'll highlight another product for the refractometer to measure.
Electron Machine Corporation
https://electronmachine.com
+1 352-669-3101
Demonstration of Measuring °Brix in Fruit Juices with an Inline Process Refractometer
Are you a juice manufacturer that wants better quality control while reducing cost? Stay tuned to see how this instrument can help you out.
Welcome to Electron Machine Corporation, manufacturer of the world's most rugged refractometer, found in various industries across the globe.
The next series of videos will highlight some of the most common applications for Electron Machine refractometers.
Typically installed in a pipeline, the MPR E-Scan is set up here as a piece of demonstration equipment. In this demo, a static cup measures a variety of juices. The juice industry uses refractometers to make sure they have a consistent product by concentrating or blending it. You may mix different types of orange juices to keep the same flavor and taste throughout the year.
You also may concentrate the liquid, such as you find in a frozen can of apple juice. The refractometer ensures it stays consistent so that when you add three or four cans of water to it, it tastes as it should. In other cases, they sometimes add sugar to the juices to control the °Brix content, and that's where the refractometer excels.
Hopefully, you'll enjoy this quick little look into what the refractometer actually can do and how it measures orange juice. Stay tuned for the next series of videos. We'll highlight another product for the refractometer to measure.
Electron Machine Corporation
https://electronmachine.com
+1 352-669-3101
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