Fruit juice maker avoids the crush

Milton Keynes, UK -- Suffolk fruit juice company, James White Drinks Ltd (JWDL) claims to offer some of the finest pressed apple juices anywhere in the world – the product, it says, of high quality ingredients and state-of-the-art production systems.

For the past two years, the company has employed decanter centrifuge technology instead of the traditional juice extraction system to give it both the quality and quantity to maintain a leading market position.

According to equipment supplier, Westfalia Separator Technology, JWDL was the first company in the UK to invest in its decanter centrifuge for the juicing process. The decanter, it said, provides gentler treatment as it spins the juice out of the fruit, compared to traditional pressing, which squashes the juice out of the fruit.

The decanter system is designed for most types of fruit and vegetable and to allow quick, trouble-free processing even with small batches. The result, claims the equipment maker, is high yield and consistently high juice quality compared with conventional pressing methods.

Since the installation at JWDL the decanter has been optimised and developed further to achieve maximum yields at higher outputs. The drinks maker is also continuously experimenting; processing all sorts of fruit and vegetables and blending them with ingredients such as blackcurrant, raspberry, cranberry, carrot, elderflower and cinnamon to develop new flavours.

Decanter technology allows high flexibility and efficiency combined with easy, automatic and clean operation, according to James Mwayi, general manager of JWDL, adding “From where we are now, we would never go back to presses again.”