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How is the lemon juice extracted? Well, it seems easy, you only have to squeeze it… But what if you need more than a glass?
The production of lemon juice in large quantities entails more elaborate procedures. Let us see which ones.
First of all, the lemon must be cleaned and washed with quaternary ammonium salts disinfectants. Afterwards, it is cut all along the equatorial section and deprived of the pulp by miller-like machines.
The juice can be consumed as it is or, after being pasteurized, it can be homogenized, filtered and de-aerated.
The concentrated juice (of inferior quality, from the organoleptic point of view, compared to the natural fresh or packed juice) is obtained through fractional freezing, removing little by little the ice or lowering the temperature of the juice to sublimate the ice with vacuum-packed evaporators (lyophilized juice).
Specifications
The juice is more or less the 40-50% of the mass of the lemon and has the following chemical-organoleptic characteristics:
› Colour: yellow-green
› Taste: sour
› Chemical composition: 5-7% citric acid, free and combined organic acids, 2-3% sugars, nitrogenous substances and vitamins (especially vitamin C or ascorbic acid).
The various uses of the lemon juice
› It is usually implied raw as a food or drink dressing
› As a detoxicant and diuretic in the diets
› As a hot or cold drink
› To extract the citric acid
› As a natural cleanser in the housework and in many other do-it-yourself remedies
› Besides, the “pastazzo”, what remains after the processing and extraction of the juice, is usually given to the livestock. Anyway, fresh or dried, it is also an excellent raw material (together with the pips) from which the pectins can be extracted.
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How the pasteurization of the lemon juice is carried out
To inactivate spores and micro-organisms, the lemon juice is submitted to a quick and brief warming, at more or less 90-95° C. Then it is cooled down.
Curiosities
The quantity of juice that can be extracted from a lemon depends on the stage of ripeness of the fruit. The verdelli, for example, have less juice (20%). According to the CE 1799/2001 Regulations, the fruit must have at least a 25% of juice, except those from Sorrento, from which a 30% of juice is expected; the regulation is more severe for the Femminello di Gargano, from which at least a 35% of juice is exacted. The percentage of juice, anyway, is not indicative of quality: often the lemons from which much more than 50% of juice can be extracted are mainly composed of water.
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