Membrane Separation Technology for Instant Tea Powder Production Process
Background Introduction
The common preparation process of instant tea powder includes material selection, crushing, extraction, filtration, concentration and drying. The processing of instant tea is not a simple process of filtering, concentrating and drying tea soup. It must adopt high-tech means to overcome the defects of poor solubility, easy deliquescence and lack of tea aroma. Incomplete filtration of tea soup will easily lead to poor solubility of finished products or residual impurities after dissolution. High-temperature concentration and drying of tea soup will cause the finished products to have dark color and insignificant tea aroma.
Application of Membrane Separation Technology in Instant Tea Production
Process Flow and Description
Extraction: Tea extraction generally adopts water extraction technology. The crushed tea leaves are mixed with purified water in a certain proportion. Under specific temperature, time and stirring conditions, tea polyphenols in tea leaves are effectively extracted.
Centrifugal Filtration: The extracted tea soup is turbid and contains a large number of impurities such as insoluble colloids, starch, fibers, proteins and tannins. After the tea soup is cooled properly, a high-speed rotating disc separator is used to remove most insoluble substances in the tea soup, making the treated tea soup basically clear and transparent.
Membrane Filtration: Instant tea produced by centrifugal treatment could basically meet market demands in the past. However, with consumers pursuing perfect product quality nowadays, market requirements have been upgraded, and consumers pay more attention to the dissolution speed and solubility of instant tea. Therefore, thoroughly solving separation problems to achieve ideal purification effects has become a key technical concern for manufacturers.
To further improve product quality, membrane filtration impurity removal technology is applied to the filtration section of instant tea production. Relying on the precise interception function of membranes, insoluble substances in tea soup are completely separated, which effectively improves the dissolution speed and solubility of end products.
Membrane Concentration: In the preparation of instant tea powder, most enterprises adopt vacuum concentration or freeze concentration to treat filtered tea soup. Vacuum concentration requires heating and vacuumizing, which features high energy consumption and high production cost, and easily volatilizes and loses tea aroma during processing. Although freeze concentration can effectively retain tea aroma, it comes with high costs and is only applicable to high-margin products.
To solve the above problems, membrane concentration technology is introduced into the concentration section of instant tea production. Adopting low-temperature membrane concentration to treat tea soup at room temperature, it fully retains the original flavor of tea. Compared with traditional concentration processes, it greatly reduces energy consumption. In addition, the filtrate generated during membrane concentration can be recycled to the extraction stage, effectively solving the problems of aroma loss, high energy consumption and three-waste pollution caused by traditional concentration technologies.
Drying: Spray drying and vacuum freeze drying are the common drying methods for instant tea. Vacuum freeze drying can better retain the color and aroma of tea powder than spray drying, but it has a higher cost. Manufacturers can select the drying method according to actual production needs.
Advantages of Membrane Separation Technology for Instant Tea
① The combination of membrane separation technology and low-temperature extraction and separation technology avoids oxidative loss of active ingredients and improves product yield;
② Advanced membrane separation technology realizes separation, purification and low-temperature concentration through the precise interception function of membrane elements;
③ Pure physical operation at room temperature without chemical reactions, which protects heat-sensitive components and maintains the overall flavor of tea products;
④ Adopts advanced modular design with convenient filter material replacement and simple operation;
⑤ Equipped with online regeneration cleaning and sewage discharge devices to reduce labor intensity and production costs and improve production efficiency;
⑥ All equipment is made of sanitary-grade materials and complies with GMP certification standards;
⑦ Low pollutant emission, with significant technical and economic advantages.
Typical Applications
Instant white tea powder, instant dark tea powder, instant green tea powder, instant black tea powder, instant ripe tea powder, instant scented tea powder, instant green brick tea powder, instant raw tea powder.
Sample Effect Comparison Pictures
