Passion fruit Juice
Practical Action
Method
Wash whole fruits in clean water and discard any bad part of the fruit.
Cut fruits in half with a stainless steel knife and scoop out pulp with stainless steel spoon.
Extract the juice from the pulp by liquidising the pulp at a very low speed (this stops the
chipping of the seeds, which turn out as black specks in the juice, they are very hard to remove
and look like dirt) for about one minute. Tip the contents into a muslin cloth and squeeze out
the juice leaving the seeds behind. Liquidise the juice only, at high speed, this reduces the
particle size and so helps to reduce settling in the final product. This will give a yield of juice
from the whole fruit of between 30-35%.
To make skin pulp take the same quantity of skins, as skin pulp required; boil the skins for
approximately 30 minutes, until the flesh of the skin is soft and translucent. Then remove the
skins from the water and scoop out the flesh from the outer cuticle. Liquidise this softened
flesh with water, (2 parts softened flesh, to 1 part water) to a smooth cream, then squeeze the
mixture through a muslin cloth to remove hard pieces of pith. The skin pulp is added to improve
the appearance of the juice, to reduce settling it contains pectin and gives the juice more fruit
particles.
Dissolve the sugar in the water and filter through a muslin cloth (sugar often contains dirt and
foreign bodies). Heat the sugar and water to 90°C and then add the rest of the ingredients to
the hot mixture (heating the sugar and water first, means that the fruit juice is heated very
quickly up to temperature and so reduces the loss of the sensitive flavour). Heat all the
ingredients until the temperature reaches 85°C as quickly as possible.
The fruit juice should be filled into bottles that have been cleaned and then steamed to sterilise
them, and are still hot so that the bottles do not crack. The bottles should be filled as quickly as
possible so that the juice is not heated for longer than necessary, or re-contaminated because it
has cooled down before being sealed in the bottle. The lip of the bottle should be clean and dry
(wipe with clean tissue paper) before placing the cap on it. Lay the bottles on their side for 15
minutes to cool. Cooling on their side is a most important step to avoid contamination while the
cap fits firmly down onto the glass as the vacuum forms.
Equipment list
Bottles, crown corks, and labels
Crown corking machine
Cooking facilities, gas ring, electric ring, etc
Stainless steel saucepan
Thermometer in protective jacket
Stainless steel cutting knife and spoon
Wooden spoon for stirring
Steam generator
Cutting board
Scales
Measuring cylinder
Funnel
Liquidiser
Muslin cloth
Reference and further reading
Practical Action Technical Briefs (Juices)
Small-scale processing of ready to drink pineapple juice. Food Chain No 27
Principles and practices of small and medium-scale fruit juice processing. FAO Agricultural
Services Bulletin 146, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), (2001).
Technical manual on small-scale processing of fruits and vegetables, Food and Agriculture
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