Traditionally, citrus processing is a mechanical process, which begin with the fruit sorted, followed by squeezed, milled and juiced.
After the fruit is graded to eliminate unsound fruit, it is washed; it is sized for each extractor to obtain a maximum yield of good quality juice. The juice extraction of juice from citrus fruit is generally done in one of two ways. Even though there are other juice extractors that differ somewhat, the FMC cup extractors and the Brown reamers set the standard in juice extraction equipment.
Both extractors are widely used and are known to produce high-quality citrus juices. The extractors quipped with large reamers or cups will primarily be used for grapefruit and the smaller reamers or cups will b used for lemons or limes.
The yield and quality of the juice depend on the fruit and on the efficiency of the machinery. Cloudiness of some citrus products is related to pectin, which requires pasteurization at a high temperature to inactivate the enzyme before the juices are packed.
Modern citrus juice processing
