Cranberry jelly and cranberry sauce

About 80% of the cranberry crop is processed. Some of the processed berries are made directly into cranberry juice drinks and traditional types of cranberries sauces.

In manufacturing cranberries jelly, the clear juice from the boiled fruit that has been passed through a pulper, is nixed with sugar, about 0.35% of dispersed pectin is added and no water used.

The mixture is heated briefly to bring the soluble solid content to 65% and citric solution is added to regulate the pH 3.0 to 3.2.

Cranberry sauce production starts with frozen fruit. After the frozen fruit is dumped into warm water for defrosting the slurry passes through scavenger and rock trap prior dewatering and cooking.

For whole cranberry sauce carefully hand-sorted berries are added to the puree after the first cooking. No additional pectin is needed to set the jellied sauce because the berries have an abundance of natural pectin.

Both cranberry sauce and cranberry jelly are preserved by heat processing. If the products are heated to about 190 F (87.8 C) prior to filling into containers further heating is not necessary to attain commercial after sealing the containers.

If packed at lower temperatures, the containers should be sealed and heated in a water bath or with spray of water at 185 – 200 F (85-93.3 C) prior to cooling.
Cranberries jelly and cranberry sauce

Blueberry Products

Blueberries are processed into traditional products such as jams and jelly juice, puree, canned and dried. Others are preserves, compotes, sauces, pies, cobblers, and pastries.

Unlike some seasonal fruits, blueberries are preserved in various ways the people can buy them year around. Traditional jams, and jellies, frozen berries and can pie filling have been joined on grocery store shelves by other products such as blueberry juice and dried blueberry.

Blueberry juice is generally marketed as a blend with other jucies. The basic making steps are similar to strawberries. Single-strength blueberry juice is about 8-12 degree Brix.

Frozen blueberry juice concentrates of 45-65 degree Brix are made by concentrating single-strength blueberry juice and freezing to less than -18 degree Celsius.

Canned blueberries can be light or heavy syrup packed or water packed. For this, fresh or frozen blueberries are placed in cans, light syrup or water is added to cover the head specie, and cans are sealed and heat processed at about 93-95 degree Celsius with 25-30 minutes holding time.

Blueberry bakery fillings can be made from fresh/frozen blueberries and/or blueberry or concentrates by adding sweeteners and stabilizer according to requirements, heat processing and packaging.

The bakery trade has always been primary market for blueberries, but the popularity of blueberry in the preparation of muffins in coffee shops and home baking since World War II created an even larger market.

A great snack or cereal toping, dried blueberries are made with fresh or frozen fruit infused with a sugar solution to keep the dried berry soft, then dehydrated with hot air, reducing their moisture content to around 20 percent.

Other product is freeze-dried blueberries. Freeze-dried blueberries are light, crispy, of low density (about 0.10) and their water activity is slightly above 0.20. These products have found increasing used in ready-to-eat cereals because of their light texture, low bulk density, and water activity.
Blueberry Products