Jam means the product prepared from sound, ripe, fresh, dehydrated, frozen or previously packed fruits including fruit juices, fruit pulp, fruit juice concentrate or dry fruit by boiling its pieces or pulp or puree with nutritive sweeteners namely sugar, dextrose, invert sugar or liquid glucose to a suitable consistency. It may also contain fruit pieces and any other ingredients suitable to the products. It may be prepared from any of the suitable fruits, singly or in combination. It shall have the flavour of the original fruit(s) and shall be free from burnt or objectionable flavours and crystallization.
Fruit Jam Production Flow Chart
| Fruit |
 |
| Washing |
|
| Cutting into Slices |
|
| Boiling With Water |
|
| Addition of Citric Acid During Boiling |
|
| Straining of Extract |
|
| Pectin Test |
|
| Addition of Sugar |
|
| Boiling |
|
| Judging of End Point |
|
| Removal of SCU or Foam |
|
| Color and Remaining Citric Acid Added |
|
| Filling Hot into Clean & Sterilized Bottles |
|
| Waxing |
|
| Capping |
|
| Storage at Ambient Temperature |
Industrial Fruit Jam Production Video
1. Inspection
Ripe firm fruits received for jam production are sorted and graded according to their color, sensory appeal. spoiled fruits are removed from the lot.This can be done using hand picking, color sorters.
2. Washing
for effective washing of fruits, 200 ppm of chlorine can be used in water. pH and temperature should be maintained, to prevent fruits from getting damaged or bruised. Dump and spray washers can be used in industries.
3. Peeling
fruits can be hand peeled as in case of citrus and apple, mechanical peelers and automated peeling machines containing blades are generally used in industries. Some fruits don’t require peeling. Pitting is stone in fruits containing hard inner stones.
4. Pulping
Pulping is done to remove seed and core part. Various pulping machines are available in market for fruits such as mangoes, peaches, tomatoes, bananas, draw berries and celeries etc.
The gap between the sieve and rotor can be adjusted to suit different type of size and qualities of materials to be pulped.
5. Addition of sugar
Required amount of sugar and pectin is added to the fruit pulp/juice. Water can be added ,if needed. sugar, binds to the water molecules and frees up the pectin chains to form their network. Adding more pectin results in harder jam and using more sugar can make it sticky.
6. Boiling
Boiling is the most important step in jam making, which require a lot more patience. After keeping the above prepared mixture on heat, we need to wait till the sugar dissolves. Slowly, whole room will get filled by the fruity smell and a network like pectin. A foamy scum may form on the surface of the jam; this is normal and can be removed by adding a little butter (about 20 g) to break the surface tension or by skimming it off with a spoon while your mixture is cooling.
7. Addition of citric acid
Specified amount of citric acid is added while boiling itself. We heat the mixture up to 105 C or 68-70% TSS to ensure proper setting of jam. Sheet test can also be performed to check jam.
Sheet test – small portion of jam is taken in spoon and cooked a bit, and allowed to drop, if product drops as sheet or flakes, jam is made perfect, otherwise boiling is continued.
8. Filling into bottles
Jam is poured hot into the sterilized bottles , and it is allowed to cool down by putting into water bath, waxing by paraffin wax or other waxes can be done, and finally metal caps are vacuum capped on the jars.
9. Storage
Canned jam should be kept in cool, dry places away from sunlight. Shelf life of canned jam is around one year.
Note:
Specifications for jam production:
1). Fruit Pulp = 45%
2). TSS (Total Soluble Solids) = 65%
