Water footprint analysis for fruit intermediates

Abstract

The food industry is struggling with the problem of rational water use due to water shortages resulted from climate change. If all the links in the industry do not save the water resources, they will soon be over. Water saving in all technologies is necessary, but requires prior thorough analysis of actual consumption. Hence the purpose of the research was to determine the water trace of fruit intermediates, the so-called fruit pastes. In the first step of research, the production in the plant was characterized, the measuring range was determined and the mass balance of components was analyzed in individual technological processes. The method of adding chains was used to calculate the water footprint of fruit paste technology. The water consumption measurements during the production of blueberry, cherry and strawberry paste in the actual conditions was carried out with the registration of production amounts and values of production cycles. Water footprint of fruit pastes associated only with production was determined experimentally. There is no water footprint calculation in the literature for the technology of fruit pastes. The cherry paste had the highest water footprint production and the smallest strawberry paste. The smallest water footprint was recorded for the case of more than four production cycles, ranging from 0.45 L kg−1 for cherry paste to 0.69 L kg−1 for blueberry paste. The water footprint of the blueberry paste production process depends on a large extent on the production amounts. Along with its increase, the water footprint indicator decreases, due to the lower water consumption for washing the production equipment - the smaller gray water footprint. The different tendency to change water footprint of the final product, depending on the ingredient type (blueberry, cherry, strawberry) and the used production technology was observed. The water footprint of fruit pastes, taking into the water footprint crops, ranges from 550 to 800 L kg−1. The water footprint calculator was also developed that it allows on the identification of water consumption at every process stages.