The largest producer of apple juice in Canada

We’ve been producing and selling juice made from fresh apples for almost 50 years. Every year, almost 100,000 tons of apples are received and processed into juice at our plants.

Our fruit presses are located in the heart of Eastern Canada’s major apple growing regions: Lake Erie and Georgian Bay in Ontario, the Monteregian Hills in Quebec, and the Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia.

Source and varieties

Our apple juices are made from fruit that, for purely cosmetic reasons, doesn’t qualify for the fresh market. Such imperfections could include the size, the colour, and the presence of marks or blemishes, caused by factors such as hail.

Our juice apples come from the same orchards as apples intended for fresh eating. Therefore, they’ve been subjected to the same treatments and conform to Canada Fancy Grade regulations with respect to pesticide use and other agricultural practices.

The apple varieties we use are no different from those for the fresh market; the same applies to their relative distribution, with the dominant variety being the McIntosh.

A 200-ml serving of apple juice contains the juice of two medium-size apples.

Apple season: a period of intense production

The bulk of our juice production takes place during the harvest, usually from the end of September to mid-November. Our presses work day and night so that the fruit we receive is converted to juice in the shortest possible time.

Manufacturing process

Whether apple juice is freshly squeezed at home or in the factory, its production always follows the same process. The main difference between the two methods resides in the scale of the equipment and installations.

Harvest and transport

The fruits are shipped to our plants using various means; the great majority arrive in bulk in tractor-trailers. Apple growers located near our production facilities can also arrange for the transport of their own apples in crates similar to those used for storage. Before they’re unloaded, the fruits are weighed, and each delivery is logged for tracing purposes. This allows us to identify the orchards from which the apples originate.

Inspection and cleaning

Fruit shipments are inspected by specially-trained personnel, who perform an evaluation based on various criteria. Once approved, the fruit is unloaded in the receiving areas, then quickly taken to the cleaning equipment, where foreign plant matter (i.e. leaves, branches, etc.) is removed. The following stage of brushing and water spraying ultimately completes the cleaning process.

Throughout these procedures, inspectors monitor the operations and make any necessary adjustments. What’s more, the cleaned fruit is sampled at regular intervals by the quality control team.

Crushing and pressing

The apples are then ground into small cubes and pressed to extract the juice. This process is performed using various devices: hydraulic, belt and pneumatic presses. No matter the equipment, the process remains the same: by applying pressure to the apple chunks, we force the juice through a filter that captures the peel, the pulp and the seeds. This technique can even be reproduced at home by pressing crushed apples through a cheesecloth.

Filtration

The extracted juice from the presses contains suspended solids that must be removed in order to obtain a filtered product. This matter is separated from the juice using a special technique: ultra filtration. Thanks to this process, we’re able to consistently produce a juice of uniform and optimum clarity without resorting to external filtering agents.

Quality control and operating environment

The manufacturing process for juice is carefully controlled at every stage. To obtain a product of consistently high quality, it’s important that our operations demonstrate exceptional efficiency. As a general rule, we expect a delay of five to six hours between the time the fruit is crushed and the moment when the pasteurized juice is packaged.

Other fruits

The manufacturing equipment for apple juice is also used for the production of small fruit (cranberries and blueberries) juices and concentrates.