Development of a small-scale multi-fruit juice processing line.

Abstract

Fruits are among the most important horticultural products from Uganda. Fruits are used as food which has high content of vitamin C, treat diseases most fruit juices act as antioxidants. Fruit pulp is used industrially in making juices, concentrates, flavors, yogurt yet the fruit industry byproducts find application in seed-oil extraction, garden-fertilizer manufacture. Most fruits are not consumed as a table-fruits but find market value in their processing. Processing of fruits is still a minor activity in Uganda due to lack of appropriate technology and funds despite its high economic potential in the country. Small and medium scale fruit processing industries mostly use unsafe and laborious processes that do not offer a long shelf life to the fruit juice yet time consuming, compromise product quality due to non-aseptic operations that expose products to contamination. The study is therefore intended to design a small-scale juice processing line which simultaneously separates the pulp from fruit fibers, mixes pulp with water, sugar and other required additives, pasteurizes this mixture and packages the product with minimum manual handling to address the above challenges. Implementation of the small-scale juice processing line involved putting together of different components of the line basing on the physical, mechanical and especially chemical properties of the fruits and fruit products. The components of the juice processing line include; the fruit pulper, 3 in-process tanks (i.e., the pulp receiver tank, mixing tank, and overhead tank), pasteurizer, filling machine, and bottle capping machine. From the designs, the fruit pulper operates at a speed of 0.5 tonnes per hour and the pasteurizer operates for 1 hour for 100litres in mango juice production, bottle filling machine able to fill upto 50 bottles per minute. Total maximum transmitted power requirement of 19.7HP. After fabrication and assembly, the performance and economic analysis of the juice processing line were performed in which the following results were obtained; Daily production in 8 hours = 200litres, annual power expenditure = UGX 3300000, Total cost per unit = UGX 824,000, Total cost per year = UGX 272,130,000, Total machine cost = UGX 24,680,000, Return on Investment = 24.5% and pay back-period of 4.1 years. Owing to the performance and economic analysis of the juice processing line, it achieves all its design purposes hence it is recommended for commercialization and adoption by the target groups.