Fruit juices are spray dried in order to have a long shelf life, reduces storage place requirement and lower cost of bulk packing. Fruit juice powders have many applications in food industry as additive like for sandwich cookies, instant soup, health food, jellies, puddings, biscuits, ice food mixes, breakfast cereals, confectionery, ready-to-drink mixes, bakery, milk powder mixes, flavorings in medicine, dietetic food & nutritional food etc.Fruits are important sources of vitamins and carbohydrates. They are naturally sweet and low in calories.
Nowadays, the fast economic development has changed the trend of food consumption from calories assurance to diet nutrient enrichment. The consumers today are well aware of the importance of vitamins. This scenario has increased the global market demand towards the fresh fruits. In order to handle the market demand throughout the year, the fresh fruits are preserved using different techniques. There are many drying techniques have invented such as spray drying, freeze drying, tray drying have invented to increase the productivity and achieve the better control of a process to increase the product quality. Among the drying techniques, spray drying is usually applied to produce the fruit juice powder.
In India, as a part of diet, milk and milk products are consumed by more than 80 per cent people, coffee and soft drinks by less than 60 per cent, bottled water by less than 40 per cent and fruit juices by less than 20 per cent.
Therefore there exists tremendous possibility of development of juice industry in India because the ever-growing fitness or wellness trend demands the inclusion of fruit juice products in people’s diet. The packaged juice market is valued at Rs 1,100 crore (US$200 million) and is projected to grow at a CAGR of around 15 per cent over the next three years.
The pure fruit juices (100 per cent composed of fruit content) claim to have 30 per cent market share while nectar drinks with fruit content 25-90 per cent account for only about 10 per cent of market share. The vision envisaged for next 20 years or so will be achievable only with the help of the strong technological support emanating out of the research projects for the immediate future.
“The rising number of health-conscious consumers is giving a boost to fruit juices,” It has been observed that consumers are shifting from fruit drinks to fruit juices as they consider the latter a healthier breakfast or snack option.” As a whole there is a good scope for new entrepreneur with manufacturing of good quality of product.
Few Indian Major Players are as under
• Aarkay Food Products Ltd.
• Devon Foods Ltd.
• Foods & Inns Ltd.
• Garlico Industries Ltd.
• Kamdhenu Foods Ltd.
• Mazda Ltd.
