Patent ID: 7074448

Claim:
A process for making a low-acid single strength juice comprising not from concentrate (NEC) juice, comprising: providing an initial single strength juice flow having suspended solids; cooling the initial juice flow to a temperature of not greater than about 45Â° F. and maintaining the juice at or below this temperature throughout the process, except during pasteurization or enzyme deactivation, if same is practiced during the process; diverting from the initial juice flow a first portion of said juice from a second portion of said juice; separating out suspended solids from said first portion of juice to provide a solids-reduced juice having not greater than about 3 volume percent suspended solids based upon the total volume of the solids-reduced juice; directing the solids-reduced juice to a column containing a supply of ion-exchange resin and deacidifying the solids-reduced juice by contact with the ion-exchange resin; measuring the pH of the deacidified solids-reduced juice exiting the column and, if the pH is greater than about 4.5, adding a portion of the initial single strength juice flow to the deacidified juice immediately upon exiting the resin column in a ratio of between about 1:1 and about 2:1 of initial juice to deacidified juice to lower the pH of the deacidified juice to a value that discourages microbial activity so as to provide a lowered-pH deacidified juice; and combining the lowered-pH deacidified juice with said second portion of juice flow and with the separated suspended solids to achieve a final blend, which is a low-acid single strength juice.