Now that “sugar reduction” has become a global consensus, stevia extract (the main active ingredient of which is steviol glycosides) is often labeled in the ingredient lists of beverages, dairy products, and baked goods, but few people know the story behind it.
What is Stevia Extract？
Stevia extract is a generic term for a range of naturally sweet ingredients extracted from the leaves of Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni, a plant in the Asteraceae family. Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni is an herb in the Asteraceae family native to Paraguay, South America, and has been chewed by locals for centuries as a “sweet herb”. What really makes it sweet is the steviol glycosides in the leaves.
The challenge of traditional process: why the need for upgrading?
The initial extract of stevia is a complex mixture that contains, in addition to the steviol glycosides we need:
1. Plant fiber, gums: affect the clarity of the liquid.
2. Protein, starch: easy to denaturation, corruption in the subsequent process, affecting the stability of the product.
3. pigments, polyphenols: leading to dark color of the extract, with a bitter aftertaste.
4. Suspended matter and microorganisms: affect product safety and shelf life.
Traditional filtration methods are often not accurate enough to effectively remove these macromolecular impurities and colloidal substances, resulting in the subsequent refining step heavy burden, low efficiency, and ultimately affect the yield and purity of the product, and increase production costs.
1. Plant fiber, gums: affect the clarity of the liquid.
2. Protein, starch: easy to denaturation, corruption in the subsequent process, affecting the stability of the product.
3. pigments, polyphenols: leading to dark color of the extract, with a bitter aftertaste.
4. Suspended matter and microorganisms: affect product safety and shelf life.
Traditional filtration methods are often not accurate enough to effectively remove these macromolecular impurities and colloidal substances, resulting in the subsequent refining step heavy burden, low efficiency, and ultimately affect the yield and purity of the product, and increase production costs.
About CM filtration
Ceramic membrane filtration is a precision separation technology made of inorganic ceramic materials. Its core lies in the numerous nanometer-sized micropores distributed on the membrane wall, which is like an extremely fine “sieve”.
When treating stevia extract, a ceramic membrane with a specific pore size is selected, and under a certain pressure, the extract is allowed to flow across the membrane surface:
1. Permeate liquid: water molecules, stevioside target molecules and other small molecules can pass through the membrane pores smoothly, becoming a clear and transparent transmission liquid.
2. Retention liquid: Proteins, colloids, starch, suspended solids, microorganisms and some large molecules such as pigments are accurately intercepted by the membrane and discharged with the concentrated liquid.
And ceramic membrane filtration has several advantages:
1. Extreme purification, quality improvement
Ceramic membrane can effectively remove most of the macromolecule impurities and colloids, which greatly reduces the contamination and burden of the subsequent ion exchange resin. The processing efficiency and service life of the resin are significantly improved, and the steviol glycosides obtained in the end are of higher purity, lighter color, and the bitterness and astringency are greatly reduced, so the quality of the product is upgraded by leaps and bounds.
2. High yield, reduce cost and increase efficiency
Membrane separation process is purely physical separation, the target ingredient steviol glycosides almost 100% through the membrane, the loss is very low. Compared with the traditional way, the active ingredient yield is strongly guaranteed, which directly improves the economic benefits.
3. Physical and chemical stability
High temperature resistance: It can withstand high temperature above 100℃, which is convenient for hot water or steam sterilization and eliminates microbial contamination.
Acid and alkali resistance, organic solvent resistance: can adapt to a variety of harsh cleaning conditions, the membrane flux is easy to restore, the service life of up to 3-5 years or even longer.
4. Green environmental protection, process streamlining
The whole process is operated at room temperature, which avoids the destruction of heat-sensitive substances and saves energy and reduces consumption. At the same time, it reduces the use of chemicals and wastewater discharge in the subsequent process, which is more in line with the modern industrial concept of green and sustainable development.
1. Permeate liquid: water molecules, stevioside target molecules and other small molecules can pass through the membrane pores smoothly, becoming a clear and transparent transmission liquid.
2. Retention liquid: Proteins, colloids, starch, suspended solids, microorganisms and some large molecules such as pigments are accurately intercepted by the membrane and discharged with the concentrated liquid.
And ceramic membrane filtration has several advantages:
1. Extreme purification, quality improvement
Ceramic membrane can effectively remove most of the macromolecule impurities and colloids, which greatly reduces the contamination and burden of the subsequent ion exchange resin. The processing efficiency and service life of the resin are significantly improved, and the steviol glycosides obtained in the end are of higher purity, lighter color, and the bitterness and astringency are greatly reduced, so the quality of the product is upgraded by leaps and bounds.
2. High yield, reduce cost and increase efficiency
Membrane separation process is purely physical separation, the target ingredient steviol glycosides almost 100% through the membrane, the loss is very low. Compared with the traditional way, the active ingredient yield is strongly guaranteed, which directly improves the economic benefits.
3. Physical and chemical stability
High temperature resistance: It can withstand high temperature above 100℃, which is convenient for hot water or steam sterilization and eliminates microbial contamination.
Acid and alkali resistance, organic solvent resistance: can adapt to a variety of harsh cleaning conditions, the membrane flux is easy to restore, the service life of up to 3-5 years or even longer.
4. Green environmental protection, process streamlining
The whole process is operated at room temperature, which avoids the destruction of heat-sensitive substances and saves energy and reduces consumption. At the same time, it reduces the use of chemicals and wastewater discharge in the subsequent process, which is more in line with the modern industrial concept of green and sustainable development.
Ceramic membrane filtration technology replaces chemical filtration with physical methods, and replaces “large amount of sugar loss” with “high efficiency sugar retention”, bringing a real green upgrade to the stevia extract industry.
