Peach Juice Powder Processing
The species is Prunus persica (L.) Stokes, the peach, a deciduous tree of the rose family (Rosaceae) native to China and grown in every temperate region. The nectarine is the same species without the skin fuzz, and the apricot, Prunus armeniaca, and plum are separate species of the same genus. The part used is the ripe fruit flesh. The kernel, which holds a small seed with its own chemistry, is excluded from the juice.
The raw material is peach juice concentrate prepared from the pulp of ripe fruit. Pitted flesh is pulped, strained and concentrated, the concentrate is blended with maltodextrin, and the mixture is atomized in a spray dryer. The carrier gives the powder its solubility and flow, and it lightens the color of the golden juice toward a light yellow.
Cling and freestone peaches differ in how the flesh holds to the pit, and processors favor types that separate cleanly. Yellow-fleshed cultivars carry more carotenoid and a deeper flavor, while white-fleshed ones are sweeter and more floral. The concentrate used here is described by taste, not by flesh type.
Peach flesh browns within minutes of cutting, because phenolic compounds react with oxygen under the enzyme polyphenol oxidase. Heat during processing inactivates the enzyme, and that is why a spray-dried peach powder is a stable pale yellow and not a dull brown.












