15.

1 Pineapple

The manufacture of pineapple juice is a good example of the interaction of plant

breeders, horticulturists, food technologist and engineers in an industrial process that
evolved over many decades (Tressler and Joslyn, 1961 and 1971; Nelson and Tressler,
1980; Mumaw, Somogyi, et al., 1996b). Peeling and coring equipment was predicated
on a cylindrical pineapple, figuratively the shape and diameter of a number 21/2 can
(~99 mm diameter by ~109 mm height). The `Smooth Cayenne' (Figure 15.1) was
well suited to the Ginaca machine that, in a series of operations turned a cleaned,
crown and root-free, whole pineapple into an intact cylinder (subsequently sliced into
rings), core and extracted flesh from the residual side peel and 2 ends. Several sizes of
Ginacas accommodate inspected and sized uniformly cylindrical fruit at the rate of
over 90 fruit/minute, while off shape fruit are routed to other uses for instance juice or
vinegar.

Figure 15.1: Smooth Cayenne pineapple.

The juice was and to some extent still is a by-product of solid pack operations. Table
15.1 shows the partitioning of processed pineapple products in roughly descending
order. A fresh whole fruit or the cored and peeled flesh has the highest market value,
but a limited shelf life, up to three weeks under proper conditions. Large slices in
syrup or juice are next in value. Broken slices and smaller fruit can be cut into spears
and chunks. The odd pieces are diced into ~1 cm cubes as crush. These operations
generate a large amount of juice. The eradicator flesh (scooped from the peel or shell
and ends), together with peeled off-size/shape fruit and core, are comminuted and
passed through a finisher or screw press. Screening and centrifugation of these
fractions is necessary to remove skin specks or eyes and adjusts the pulp level for
blending with other juice streams.

Table 15.1: Hierarchy of pineapple products.

Product Procedure
 Fresh Careful selection
fruit, with refrigerated
whole holding
Fresh Refrigerated
peeled and cylinder, slices, or
cored spears
Whole Frozen or
slices thermally
processed in
No.21/2 to No.1
cans
Spears and Odd or broken
chunks rings, frozen or
thermal processed
Crush Eradicator flesh,
frozen or thermal
processed
Juice Canned single
strength or frozen
concentrate
Vinegar From combined
process waste
streams
Stems Bromalain

The pineapple thus goes from intact fruit to at least five separate product streams
within several minutes in a high throughput, labour efficient, capital intensive system.
Many pineapple cultivars are ideally suited for juice, including some with exceptional
flavour, but lighter in colour than the typical "pineapple yellow" of `Smooth
Cayanne'. Of course, odd sized, noncylindrical-shaped cultivars and fruit with deep
seed pockets are not amenable to a Ginaca machine. In these cases, other mechanical
or even hand peeling/coring devices are used. Yet, given the commercial effectiveness
of ginaca type operations, it is hard to compete with anything less than a highly
mechanized operation.

Thorough comminution of pineapple flesh and cores followed by passing the slurry
though finishers with ~0.5 to 1-mm screens produces a pulpy juice of 12 to 15ºBrix
and °Brix/A around 20. Decanting centrifugation then adjusts the pulp (insoluble
solids) level to 12 to 24 percent (Hooper, Ashurst, 1995).

Pineapple juice with a pH of ~3.5 can tolerate moderate thermal processing. A fill
temperature of 70ºC followed by rapid heating to 95ºC or a hot fill at ~90ºC with
rapid cooling in both cases maintain quality. Major quality defects are: excessive
heating or slow cooling, resulting in a dark, scorched juice; too little or too much pulp
creating a thin or thick consistency; excessive shell material yielding dark specks and
harsh flavour. Home or village processing operations exist where under/over ripe or
spoilt fruit are juiced with poor results. The juice can be concentrated to 72ºBrix with
or without essence recovery and add-back. The frozen concentrate has a global market
as reconstituted juice or a major blending stock. Pineapple is either the base or
component of many juice and beverage blends. The trade demands a bright yellow
colour, however, some pale yellow, even whitish-fleshed cultivars, when fully ripe
can have an excellent flavour, although only appreciated locally.

Despite the impressive efficiency and automation of all pineapple operations, from
production through juice processing and shipping, competitive pressure from low
labour and land cost Pacific Rim countries have largely decimated the Hawaiian
pineapple processing industry. Since the early 1960s when Ginacas and other high
throughput equipment became available outside the United States, efficient, low cost
producers have captured the majority of global markets for processed pineapple.

These lines rapidly replaced hundreds of workers manually performing mundane

preparation steps. Migration of the Hawaiian pineapple industry and ongoing shifts of
citrus processing from Florida to Brazil and elsewhere serve as both an inducement
and challenge to entrepreneurs interested in exploiting a region's juice potential.
Given an adequate infrastructure, sufficient capital and skilled labour, developing
regions can compete effectively against industrialized countries, but so can their
evolving competitors.

15.2 Mango