To produce good-quality clari®ed juice (Vaillant et al.,
1999), the enzyme liquefaction treatment carried out
before membrane ®ltration has the advantage of not
only lowering the juice viscosity but also of reducing the
SS content. Insoluble solids can then be re-concentrated
by micro®ltration until the concentration is the same as
the original juice. The clari®ed juice can thus be extracted
without lowering the retentate's economic value.
This methodology, if it were applied in a plant
producing pulpy juice, would not generate waste or byproducts
and would diversify the range of products being
oered. The costs of producing clari®ed juice would
also be highly competitive, compared with other established
processes and would have a higher production
yield. For tropical fruit juice industries, it represents a
real alternative method to diversify production and increase
market share. This methodology also allows fully
continuous processing that can be easily integrated into
the normal processing line and can also be automated.
Indeed, in the trials, permeate ¯ows seem to remain
almost constant, not showing the classical decrease observed
during micro®ltration done in concentration
mode.