Typical processing for passion fruit juice and concentrate is designed to retain the fresh, wholesome, and unique qualities of the fruit. Time is of the essence as is strict adherence to quality standards.

Collected daily, fresh passion fruit is transported to the processing plant where it is screened, inspected, and washed vigorously with high pressure water jets designed to remove extraneous matter and any leaves or dirt that have adhered to the fruit. Once cleaned, the fruit passed to a final selection table where it is inspected and cleared for the extraction process.

Specially designed extractors break down the fruit making it ready for processing and concentration. Seed fragments, peel and other unwanted solids are screened out leaving only clean juice.

The juice is then centrifuged, deaerated and pasteurized in a sterilized circuit. If the resulting product meets all of the quality standards, it is concentrated to the desired brix level. In the concentration step, water is removed from the juice in a low-temperature process and the volatile aroma is recovered by a state-of the-art system that homogenizes the captured aroma with the concentrated juice and restores the important sensory profile typical of fresh passion fruit.

Ready for packing, concentrate is piped to the filling room where it is placed into plastic bags and drums which have been sterilized by irradiation with ultraviolet light. The bags then drums are sealed, labeled and moved to freezers where they are quick frozen. The entire process is meticulously surveyed by a quality control team who conduct various tests at different stages of the process. Samples from each batch are procured for bacteriological analysis and kept in storage as control samples.

The yield for processing one metric ton (2204 lbs.) of 50 brix concentrate is 12:1. In other words, it takes 12 kg of fruit to make 1 kg of concentrate. About two thirds of the bulk is refuse of which 90% is rind and 10% is seeds.