Production of dates juice

Dates fruit are a good source of sugars, fibers, and minerals, exhibiting many beneficial health effects such as being antioxidant, antimutagenic, antibacterial, antitumoral, and antifungal. Date juice extraction system results in a main product (date juice) and a by-product (presscake).

Date juice is made by dissolving and diluting soluble solids of date in water and removing insoluble solids. In this operation, stirring, heating, and macerating the date can increase the yield of the process. This product is sometimes consumed as a drink. In contrast with other fruits, date juice cannot be extracted by pressing because of high total soluble solid content.

Crude juice contains soluble and insoluble solids as well as foreign matter. Several technologies have been employed for clarification of date juice, such as juice pretreatment by boiling, precipitating or hydrolyzing colloids by enzyme, removing insoluble foreign matters by means of filtration or centrifugation, decolorization using activated carbon or ion exchange, removing the minerals using chemicals or ion exchange, and removing high molecular weight compounds by foaming.

Juice is pasteurized at 85°C to inactivate the enzyme, cooled and centrifuged at 3000 rpm to get clear juice. Date juice was found to be rich in reducing sugars (16.1%) and total sugars (18.3%).
Production of dates juice