Processing of clear and turbid grape juice by a continuous flow UV system

The inactivation of inoculated (S. cerevisiae) and spoilage microorganisms, i.e. yeasts and lactic acid bacteria (LAB), in clear and turbid grape juice was investigated using a pilot scale UV system. The biodosimetry method was used for UV dose prediction in a continuous flow UV reactor. Weibull model was applied for fitting the inactivation data. The flow rates (774, 820 ml/min) in this system were very close to the ones used in fruit juice processing. S. cerevisiae in clear juice was reduced by 3.39 ± 0.04 at 65.50 mJ/cm² of UV dose. 1.54 ± 0.04 and 1.64 ± 0.03 log CFU/ml reductions were obtained for spoilage yeasts and LAB in turbid juice at UV dose of 78.56 and 67.97 mJ/cm², respectively. The soluble solids (°Brix) and pH of grape juice samples were not affected by UV-C treatment (p > 0.05). Although the color parameters slightly were changed after irradiation, the color of PCGJ and FSTGJ did not show visual difference compared to the untreated samples.Industrial relevanceUV light has a potential to reduce the levels of microbial contamination in liquid foods. Although grape juice has many beneficial health effects, it has a fairly short shelf life. Therefore, pasteurization is required. But the thermal pasteurization has some undesired effects on the juice quality. Consumer demands for high quality fruit juice with fresh-like characteristics have markedly expanded in recent years. In the current study, the microbial inactivation efficiency of a pilot scale UV system for non-thermal treatment of clear and turbid grape juice was evaluated under conservative conditions. Most of the physicochemical properties of grape juice samples were not significantly affected from UV-C treatment (p > 0.05). This would be a major advantage in the processing of nutritious juice products.