Patent ID: 8124155

Claim:
A method of processing raw fruit/vegetable juice to form a food product, comprising: a) Separating a raw fruit/vegetable-juice stream into a decanted fruit/vegetable juice and a decanting concentrate, using centrifugal separation; b) Processing the decanted fruit/vegetable juice, by means of membrane ultrafiltration separation, thereby producing an ultrafiltered fruit/vegetable juice and an ultrafiltration concentrate, said ultrafiltered fruit/vegetable juice having been clarified; c) Processing the ultrafiltered fruit/vegetable juice, by means of electrodialysis, thereby producing a deacidified demineralized fruit/vegetable juice and an electrodialysis concentrate; d) Removing a first portion of water from the deacidified demineralized fruit/vegetable juice by means of reverse osmosis, thereby producing a reverse osmosis concentrate; e) Mixing the reverse osmosis concentrate and the electrodialysis concentrate, thereby forming an evaporation feed; f) Processing the evaporation feed to remove a second portion of water from the evaporation feed, thereby forming an evaporation concentrate; g) Pre-mixing the evaporation concentrate and the decanting concentrate, thereby forming a first pre-mixture; h) Processing the first pre-mixture through a size-reduction unit operation, thereby forming a first mixture having a reduced particle size; and i) Lastly, mixing the first mixture and the ultrafiltration concentrate, thereby producing a fruit/vegetable paste product.