This document discusses the processing and ingredients of still beverages. It defines different types of still beverages like squash, crush, cordials and describes their key ingredients and specifications according to FSSAI. The main carbohydrate ingredients discussed are sucrose, invert sugar, and glucose syrups. Intense sweeteners like saccharin, aspartame, acesulfame, and sucralose are also compared. Important additional ingredients in still beverages include acids, preservatives, flavors, and colors. The document provides details on these ingredients and their typical usage levels in different still beverage products.

1. Processing Technology of
Still Beverages

2. Still beverages
• It means non-alcoholic beverages without carbonation, including
noncarbonated waters, flavored waters and enhanced waters, juices
and juice drinks, teas, coffees, sports drinks and noncarbonated
energy drinks.
• Squash
• Cordial
• Nectars

3. Soft drink
• Any liquid intended for sale for human consumption, either without
or after dilution, but excluding water, fruit juice, milk or milk
preparations, tea, coffee, cocoa, etc., egg products, meat, yeast or
vegetable extracts, soups, vegetable juices, intoxicating liquor.

4. Squash
• A soft drink containing fruit juice, not being a comminuted citrus
drink, intended for consumption after dilution.
• The minimum fruit content varies from 10 to 25% according to type.

5. Crush
• A soft drink containing fruit juice, not being a comminuted citrus
drink, intended for consumption without dilution and including any
cordial intended for consumption without dilution.
• The minimum fruit content varies from 3 to 5% according to type.

6. Cordials
• This term has no general statutory meaning, but may be applied to
any clear citrus squash or crush.

7. Principle ingredients

8. S. No Name of the
product
Fruit juice/puree
in the final
product (%),
Min.
Total Soluble
Solids %, Min.
Acidity
expressed as
citric acid,
Max
1 Squash 25 40 3.5
2 Crush 25 55 3.5
3 Fruit syrup / fruit
sherbats
25 65 3.5
4 Cordial 25 30 3.5
FSSAI Specifications for Still beverages

9. Ingredients - Concentrated juices

10. Carbohydrates
• Carbohydrates still feature as important components of many
non-carbonated beverages, and they are particularly important in
the manufacture of dilutable drinks.
• Historically, the UK Soft Drinks Regulations of 1964 required
dilutable drinks to have a minimum level of 22.5% w/v
carbohydrates unless they were declared to be ‘low calorie’.
• The regulations assumed a five times dilution factor (1 part
dilutable plus 4 parts water) and thus a minimum carbohydrates
level of 4.5% w/v in finished drinks.

11. Sucrose
• The preferred carbohydrate for most manufacturers is still
sucrose, although its 2004 price within Europe is so
artificially high that other alternatives are often sought and
are increasingly used.
• Sucrose is readily available as a bulk dry solid or as a 67Brix
syrup and it is in this latter form that most manufacturers
will use it.

12. Invert sugar
• Invert sugar, sometimes referred to as partially inverted refiner’s
syrup, is produced by acid or enzymic hydrolysis of the
disaccharide sucrose into its 2004 component parts of fructose
and dextrose (glucose).
• Invert syrups usually contain a mixture of sucrose, fructose and
dextrose.
• The main advantage of such a syrup is the reduced likelihood of
crystallisation and an increase in osmolality, which may be useful
in reducing spoilage risk.
• Because of the development of fructose-containing glucose
syrups, invert sugars are little used now.
• Some product formulators maintain that the sweetness of invert
syrup is marginally greater than that of sucrose at the same
strength

13. Glucose syrups
• Glucose syrups are a group of industrial syrups
manufactured from starch – usually corn starch (maize).
• Glucose syrups are often used in energy drinks, where a high
level of carbohydrate is required (e.g. 20% at drinking
strength) but without the sickly sweetness that this strength
of sucrose would bring.
• There can also be commercial advantages in using glucose
syrups as the solids levels are usually around 80% w/w
compared with the maximum of 67% w/w for sucrose syrup.
• One particular technical disadvantage is that glucose syrups
are often extremely viscous and if allowed to cool to below
30C can become very difficult to handle

14. Intense sweeteners - Saccharin
• Saccharin, by experiment, has a sweetness factor compared with
sucrose of 450 for the soluble form (sodium saccharin dihydrate) and
around 550 for the much less water-soluble imide form.
• Despite commercial advantages saccharin is little used now because
of its bitter aftertaste.

15. Comparison of carbohydrate sweeteners

16. Comparison of intense sweetener

17. Aspartame
• Aspartame is a widely used intense sweetener that has
excellent taste characteristics.
• It is a peptide made from two amino acids, phenylalanine
and aspartic acid, but will in an acidic beverage medium
slowly hydrolyse to its components.
• The fact that aspartame is a source of phenylalanine is of
concern to consumers with certain complaints, and suitable
label declarations are now required by law.
• Technically, this slow hydrolysis brings about loss of
sweetness.

18. Acesulfame
•Acesulfame K has similar taste characteristics to
aspartame but without the disadvantages of
hydrolysis causing loss of sweetness.
•The product has found wide use in beverages

19. Cyclamic acid
• Cyclamic acids in the form of cyclamate salts were in wide
use in the 1965–75 period but because of a sudden scare
that they could be a cause of certain cancers were removed
from the marketplace.
• Cyclamates were re-permitted on a limited basis in Europe in
around 1995 but have found little commercial use since
then.

20. Sucralose
• Sucralose is the most recently permitted artificial sweetener.
It is a chemically modified sugar but has a very high
sweetness factor, comparable with that of saccharin, but
without the unpleasant aftertaste
• The sweetness profile of sucralose is claimed to be excellent
and it has already found some use in the beverage and food
industries

21. Other ingredients - Acidulants
• The preferred acidulant for dilutable (and other) soft drinks
is citric acid, which is readily available both as a crystalline
solid (citric acid anhydrous) and as a 50% w/w solution in
bulk.
• Other acidulants that are used in specific products include
malic acid, lactic acid and tartaric acid.
• Phosphoric acid, until recently permitted only in cola drinks
• Acids other than citric are usually employed only where a
slightly different taste profile is needed.
• Ascorbic acid is usually employed as an antioxidant rather
than as a direct acidulant.

22. Preservatives
• Sulphur dioxide remains a key preservative in dilutables containing
fruit components, where it is permitted at a rate of 250 mg/l.
• This preservative, which is a gas in solution in the product, will
diffuse into the product headspace and help to minimize microbial
development.
• It is normal to use additionally a mixture of both benzoic and sorbic
acids, added as their sodium and potassium salts respectively.

23. Preservative levels

24. Flavourings
• Flavourings are widely used in dilutable soft drinks to boost
or substitute those occurring naturally.
• There are other publications that deal with this topic in more
detail, but, in brief, it is necessary to ensure that appropriate
beverage flavours are selected to produce adequate
solubility.
• Most manufacturers of dilutables will use either natural or
nature-identical flavours.

25. Colourings
• The available natural colourings offer a limited range of
yellow through orange to red/purple colours for products.
• The most common natural colours used in dilutables include
-carotene, apocarotenal, curcumin and anthocyanins.
• To obtain maximum colour stability a careful balance must
be achieved between sulphur dioxide and ascorbic acid
contents to avoid bleaching the colours.

26. Remaining additives
• Various other additives are employed in dilutable soft drinks
manufacture including antioxidants, acidity regulators, emulsifiers
and stabilisers.
• Stabilisers are particularly important for ensuring physicochemical
stability of the product to avoid unsightly oil ring formation or
undue sedimentation of fruit components.
• Cloudy agents are often used to boost the turbidity of natural fruit
components.
• These ingredients can also be made to incorporate citrus oils and
colourings by creating an oil-in-water emulsion using a mixture of
permitted emulsifiers and final emulsification of cloud to a low
particle size (10 m).

27. Squash
• Squash is the product, which is prepared by mixing of calculated
quantity of fruit juice or pulp, with sugar, acid and other ingredients.
• As per FSSA specifications, squash should contain not less than 25 per
cent fruit content in finished product and the total soluble solids
content should not be less than 40� Brix.
• The acidity of the squash should not be more than 3.5 per cent as
anhydrous citric acid.
• Mango, orange, lemon, pineapples, grape and litchi are used for
making squash commercially.
• Squash can also be prepared from lemon, bael, guava, pear, apricot,
muskmelon, papaya, passion fruit, peach, plum, mulberry, raspberry,
strawberry, grapefruit, etc.
• The maximum permissible limit of preservative in squash is
350 ppm of sulphur dioxide or 600 ppm of benzoic acid.
• Potassium metabisulphite is not added in dark coloured fruits as it
may bleach the anthocyanin pigments. In such beverages sodium
benzoate is used.

28. • Commercially available squash contain 40 to 50 percent
sugar and around 1.0 percent acid.
• They are diluted in the ratio of 1:4 before
consumption. There is another category
of dilutable beverage called crush.
• As per FSSA guidelines, crush must contain not less than 25
percent fruit content and 55 percent TSS.
• Mostly, the comminutes of citrus fruits and pineapple are
used for crush manufacture.
• Syrup is a type of fruit beverage that contains at least 25
percent fruit juice or pulp and not less than 65 percent TSS.
• It also contains 1.25-1.5 percent acid and diluted before
consumption.
• The syrups from rose petals, almond, mint, khus, sandal
and kewra are quite popular.

31. Ready-to-serve (RTS)
• his is a type of fruit beverage which contains at least 10 per cent fruit
juice and 10 per cent total soluble solids besides about 0.3 per cent
acid.
• It is not diluted before serving, hence it is known as ready-to-serve
(RTS).

33. Cordial
• It is a sparkling, clear, sweetened fruit juice from which pulp and
other insoluble substances have been completely removed.
• It contains at least 25 per cent juice and 30 per cent TSS. It also
contains about 1.5 per cent acid and 350 ppm of sulphur dioxide.
• This is very suitable for blending with wines. Lime and lemon are
suitable for making cordial.
• As per FSSA specification, cordial should contain not less than 25
percent fruit content and the TSS content should not be less than
30� Brix .
• The acidity of the cordial should not be more than 3.5 per cent as
anhydrous citric acid.
• The maximum permissible limit of preservative in cordial is
50 ppm of sulphur dioxide or 600 ppm of benzoic acid.
• The citrus juices such as lime and lemon are preferred for making
cordial.
• The cordial are generally consumed by mixing with alcoholic
beverages like gin.

36. Nectar
• This type of fruit beverage contains at least 20 per cent fruit juice /
pulp and 15 per cent total soluble solids and also about 0.3 per cent
acid.
• It is not diluted before serving.

37. • Nectar is prepared from the tropical fruits pulp such as
mango, litchi, guava, papaya, citrus fruits and pineapple by
adding sugar, acid and other ingredients.
• As per FSSA specifications nectar should contain TSS not less
than 15o Brix and not less than 20 per cent fruit content,
except for pineapple and citrus fruits where fruit content
should not be less than 40 percent.
• Fruit pulp or puree or juice or concentrate may be used as
starting material. The acidity of the nectar should not be
more than 3.5 per cent as anhydrous citric acid.
• The maximum permissible limit of preservative in nectar
is sorbic acid at 50 ppm.
• The sorbic acid is added as sodium or potassium salt
of sorbic acid.
• Nectar is also not diluted before consumption. Nectar is also
characterized by cloudy appearance and thick mouthfeel.

38. • The cloudiness in nectar and other beverages is because of
the presence of polysaccharides such as pectin,
cellulose, hemicellulose and starch.
• The loss of cloudiness specially in citrus juices is due to the
activity of pectin methyl esterase (PME), which cause de-
esterification of pectin molecule resulting in settling down of
pectin and loss of cloudiness.
• Therefore, citrus juices or comminutes must be thermally
treated to inactive the PME.
• Sometime hydrocolloids are added to stabilize the
cloudiness. Preservation of nectar is achieved in similar way
as mentioned for RTS beverages.

39. Ready-to-drink non-carbonated products

40. Thank you