Hello!
Surely many of us love oranges.
Today we will tell you how these citrus fruits are grown, as well as how orange juice is
produced.
Citrus fruits, including oranges, have been grown for the past 4,000 years in southern
China and Southeast Asia.
One variety, the citron, was introduced to the Middle East sometime between 400 and 600
BC.
Arab traders brought oranges to East Africa and the Middle East sometime between 100 and
700 AD, and during the Arab occupation of Spain, citrus fruits first made their way
to southern Europe.
From there they were carried by explorers to the New World, where by the sixteenth century
they had spread to Florida and Brazil.
By the 1800s, citrus fruits had gained worldwide distribution.
Oranges belong to the rue family, while citrus fruits belong to the genus Citrus.
Oranges, like all citrus fruits, are a special type of berry that botanists refer to as hesperidia.
Popular types of oranges include: ordinary (oval), umbilical, king and others.
The orange production process starts from the nursery.
Here, thousands of seedlings will be cared for for three months.
After that, they will be transferred to citrus farms.
So, in the state of Florida, orange plantations occupy more than 200 thousand hectares.
From planting seedlings to harvesting the first crop of oranges, it will take three
to five years.
The grown trees are cut with the help of special machines.
This pruning must be done every year to control the height of the trees.
In late January - early February, orange trees begin to bloom and it will take about six
months before the first harvest is obtained.
While the flowers are just starting to bloom, the plants are pollinated with a probiotic
to protect the plants from attack by aphids and other pests.
Oranges are grown in different countries.
Few people know that Brazil is not only a country of carnival, but also a country of
oranges.
It turns out that most of the popular citrus fruits in our supermarkets actually come from
Brazil.
Most oranges are harvested in the Brazilian state of São Paulo.
The local climate is ideal for growing orange trees.
One such plantation has about 40,000 orange trees.
Harvesting takes place from July to December.
A good collector can collect up to 2 tons per day.
Plantation work during the harvest brings 17,000 seasonal workers from all over Brazil.
They come to pick oranges to earn money.
In hot countries, oranges are often green, but that doesn't matter.
Looking at these oranges, it is impossible to tell which orange is ripe and ready to
eat.
The thing is, skin color means nothing when it comes to taste.
All 3 fruits are ripe!
The color of the peel depends only on temperature.
A cool night turns fruits from green to orange, and heat can turn fruits green again!
This is how the natural dye, chlorophyll, works.
For example, in Thailand, green oranges are sold as fully ripe fruits.
We consume more oranges than any other fruit, including orange juice.
Hands should be protected with gloves as orange trees have sharp thorns.
The legs also need protection to protect themselves from snakes.
And although they are rare, it will help.
You have to be careful, this is the first commandment, because in hot climates rattlesnakes
feel very comfortable.
Morning is the best time to pick fruit because it is not so hot.
If in the morning the heat is still tolerable, then in the afternoon it intensifies to 40
degrees.
The most important tool for work is a bag.
It holds about 25 kg of oranges.
With such a bag, a worker collects up to two tons of oranges per day.
The assembler will also need a ladder as the trees are up to five meters high.
Picking oranges is hard work and is done by hand.
These guys work fast and hard under the hot sun.
They swing their ladders on the trees, relying on them for support.
They reach deep inside the tree, wading through sharp, scratchy branches to find the fruit.
Therefore, protective sleeves are indispensable here.
They reliably protect hands from scratches.
When wearing gloves, it is easier to rotate an orange when removing it from a tree.
There is an incredibly pleasant smell of oranges in the garden.
But one should not rejoice too soon, because it is not only rickety stairs, thorns and
hot climate that make the work of the assemblers difficult.
As the oranges are harvested, the physical strain increases from the weight of the fruits
harvested.
With each orange collected, the bag becomes heavier and heavier.
And here you need to be extremely careful, as you can easily lose balance and fall off
the stairs.
The workers prepare a large bag for oranges, it can fit about 20 small bags.
The harvested oranges are sent to packing centers where they are checked, cleaned and
sorted.
Washing is necessary to prevent rapid rotting of oranges.
Here they are packaged for sale as whole fruits or sent to factories for processing into juice.
No one knows for sure who first came up with the idea of squeezing oranges to make juice
out of them.
Today, many people start their day by drinking a glass of orange juice.
More than 80% of the harvested oranges are used to produce orange juice.
Its two main producers are Florida in the US and São Paulo in Brazil.
Orange juice production in these two countries accounts for approximately 85% of the global
market.
Real freshly squeezed juice is difficult to sell on the market because it requires special
processing to preserve it.
Orange juice is commonly sold in three forms: as a frozen concentrate that is diluted with
water after purchase; as a reconstituted liquid that has been concentrated and then diluted
before sale; or as a non-concentrated one-strength drink called NFC or Not From Concentrate.
Most orange juice is sold internationally in the form of frozen concentrated orange
juice to reduce the volume used, as well as lower storage and transportation costs.
The industrial production of juices began in the late 1920s.
At the time, the industry mainly relied on harvested fruits unfit for normal consumption
that were misshapen, unevenly colored, or stained.
In the 1930s, porcelain-coated cookware was created, and new advances in pasteurization
techniques led to improved juice quality.
During this time, the industry expanded significantly.
In 1944, scientists found a way to concentrate fruit juice in a vacuum and freeze it without
losing flavor or vitamin content.
Since then, the popularity of orange juice has grown significantly.
With the increase in home refrigerators, frozen concentrate has become even more popular.
In its purest form, orange juice is made by directly squeezing the fresh fruit without
the addition of preservatives or other additives.
The appeal of this juice is undeniable.
Freshly squeezed juice contains vitamin C and tastes authentic.
Oranges are delivered for processing and enter the inclined chute.
It prevents damage to oranges that are sent to the sink.
From the sprayer, soapy water pours over oranges, while rotating nylon brushes clean them and
move them forward at the same time.
Another spray sprays the oranges with clean water as the rotating brushes continue cleaning.
The oranges then fall onto a roller conveyor, over which powerful fans rotate.
The oranges emerging from the dryer are checked by the inspector for damage, as well as compliance
with the maturity requirements for processing.
The oranges keep moving through the rotating brushes.
The bristles on these drums are much softer than on the first ones.
They polish the skin of the fruit and remove any remaining impurities.
Finally, the oranges fall from the conveyor line into the hopper.
Pure oranges can now be used to make juice.
You can be sure that fruits without impurities will not be able to spoil the product.
As a last resort, the final inspection of the fruit is carried out by the juice production
operator.
If the operator is completely satisfied with the cleanliness and general condition of the
fruit, he loads the oranges into the extractor.
For this, there is no need to cut the fruit, they are fed into the machine whole.
The system feeds the oranges one at a time into the extractor, which pierces the fruit
while metal tines remove the skin.
The machine squeezes the juice and at the same time filters out the seeds and film between
the orange pulp and the peel.
Juice enters the receiving tank.
It has a filter that allows you to get the juice of the right consistency.
There may be several such filters for different juice consistency.
Juice is poured into plastic jugs.
In them, unpasteurized juice will not be fermented.
Instead of pasteurization, such freshly squeezed juice is subject to immediate cooling.
Unpasteurized orange juice does not have a long shelf life, but its difference is its
unchanging authentic taste and color.
This juice can be stored in the refrigerator for only a few days.
It is best to drink it cold.
The production technology for pasteurized orange juice is slightly different.
Pasteurization allows you to keep orange juice for a long time.
The disadvantage of this method is that oxygen is removed from the juice, due to which the
taste of the juice is significantly reduced.
Therefore, in the future, flavorings made from dried oranges have to be added to the
juice.
Such juices are obtained by adding water to the concentrate.
As in the production of ordinary juice, fruits go through all stages of purification, including
the removal of bacteria.
Remove spoiled fruits.
Quality oranges are sorted by size before pressing.
This is critical before extraction.
The quality of the finished product will depend on how this process is organized.
Thus, thick-skinned oranges contain a lot of bitter resin, which must be carefully separated
so that it cannot affect the taste of the juice.
Two methods of automated extraction are widely used in industry.
The first method is when fruit is placed between two metal cups with pointed metal tubes at
their base.
The top cup is lowered and the tubes on each cup interlock to squeeze out the juice.
The peel is collected between two plugs, and the juice
is forced out through holes in the walls of the tube.
In the second extraction method, the oranges are cut in half to extract the juice from
them.
Incoming fruit is cut as it passes through the stationary knife.
The cut pieces of fruit are captured by rubber suction cups and moved along plastic toothed
guides.
The teeth rotate and squeeze the juice from the orange halves as they move along the conveyor
line.
Modern extraction equipment of this type can cut, unfold and extract the peel in about
3 seconds.
The extracted juice is then filtered through
a stainless steel sieve.
After that, the juice will be ready for the next stage of processing.
At
this stage, the juice can be cooled or concentrated if it is intended for further recovery.
The pasteurized extract of concentrated juice is about five times more saturated than diluted
pressed juice.
Diluted with water, it is used to make frozen juices and many other ready-to-drink beverages.
Concentration is beneficial because it extends the shelf life of
the juice and makes storage and transportation more economical.
Pasteurized juice is poured into cartons or plastic bottles.
Sometimes producers mix orange juices from different regions and even harvested in other
seasons to improve the quality.
That's all.
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