Get Started

You can’t go wrong using tropical fruits to make purees, juices, and concentrates and then selling them to make money. You may supply offices and canteens or rent a stall to sell them if you have the money for it. “Selling fruit juice is a profitable business because the markup is 100 to 150 percent and the market is big,” says Myra Rose Menor, fruit juice lecturer at the Ultima Entrepinoy Forum Center in Quezon City. “The demand never goes out and if you pick a good location, you may recover your investment in just one day.”

 

Interested? You’ll need P3,000 to P 5,000 initially to buy ingredients, packaging, and equipment like a blender, strainer, sealer, and measuring spoons and cups that you may buy from any supermarket if you don’t already have them in your kitchen.

 

Tools and materials:

• blender
• strainer
• sealer
• measuring spoons and cups
• packaging (plastic pouch) 

 

Ingredients for artificial fruit juice:

• 500ml water
• 1 cup sugar (P32.50 per kilo)
• 1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum (P60 per 60 grams)
• 1/8 teaspoon sodium benzoate (P16 per 100 grams)
• 1/2 teaspoon citric acid (P66 per kilo)
• 1/8 teaspoon flavoring

*You may buy the ingredients from Spices and Food Mix House on E. Rodriguez Sr. Boulevard in Quezon City, or from other chemical stores in Divisoria and Quiapo.

Ingredients for fruit puree:

 

To make artificial fruit juice, prepare 500 ml of water, 1 cup of sugar (P32.50 per kilo), 1/4 teaspoon of xantham gum (P60 per 60 grams), 1/8 teaspoon of sodium benzoate (P16 per 100 grams), 1/2 teaspoon of citric acid (P66 per kilo), and 1/8 teaspoon of flavoring (P710 per liter) that you may buy from Spices and Food Mix House on E. Rodriguez Sr. Boulevard in Quezon City or from other chemical stores in Divisoria and Quiapo.

 

Now mix the sugar and xantham gum in a pan and then slowly add the water, stirring constantly to make sure the mixture is even and lump-free. Heat the mixture in 80- to 85-degree Celsius temperature, stirring once in a while to even the heating. Then remove the pan from the heat and add sodium benzoate and citric acid—stirring constantly until they dissolve. Now pour 250 ml of the mixture into the measuring cup then add droplets of flavoring (you may use a medicine dropper).

 

Mix the juice well and then pour into a pouch and use a sealer to close it, making sure your remove bubbles from the juice because trapped air increases the number of pathogens in the mixture and shortens the product’s shelf life. Now immerse the product in water until the temperature goes down to about 40 degrees Celsius.

 

To make puree you may use fresh and ripe fruits with pulp like mangoes, apples, pineapples, and oranges. If you prefer mangoes, you’ll need 1.5 kilograms of the fruit and 0.5 gram of citric acid per kilogram of mangoes. Using gloves to ensure cleanliness, wash the fruits thoroughly, peel the skin, and then scrape off all the pulp.

 

Weigh the pulp—the average weight of pulp you get from 1.5 kilograms of mangoes is about 900 grams—and then put it in the blender to reduce it into puree form. Now pasteurize the puree by heating it in its container for three to five minutes in the stove. You may add sugar to enhance the puree’s sweetness or add more mangoes if you find it too luscious. Add 0.05 percent citric acid (1/4 teaspoon per liter) and mix it slowly until the citric acid dissolves. Pour into a dry bottle, cool, and then label.

 

You may also concentrate any fruit of your choice, though this is normally done to fruits without pulp like kalamansi. To start, you’ll need two cups of fresh kalamansi, 3.5 cups of sugar, 1/8 teaspoon of sodium benzoate, and 1/4 teaspoon of citric acid. You’ll also need a knife, stirrer, basin, and bottle for packaging. First, wash the fruits and then cut them in half before squeezing the juice out and using a strainer to separate the seeds. Add sugar and then heat the juice at 85 degrees Celsius until the liquid is reduced. Pour into a bottle while still warm to kill off microorganisms, and then seal the bottle.

 

TO COMPUTE the production cost for your artificial fruit juice, add the cost of the various ingredients: a cup of sugar (P5), 1/4 teaspoon of xantham gum (P1.25), 1/8 teaspoon of sodium benzoate (P0.10), 1/2 teaspoon of citric acid (P0.16), and 2 ml of flavoring (P1.40) and the sum would be P7.91—enough to make two packs of fruit juices. Divide the sum by two to get your price per pack—which would be P3.95—and then add your packaging cost (P1.5 per pack) to get your production cost of P5.50 per pack.

 

For the mango puree, add the following costs: 1.5 kilos of mango (P112.50), 7.5 grams of citric acid (P0.50), and a cup of sugar (P5) for a total of P118. This sum is enough to make 1,000 ml of puree or four 250-ml bottles. Divide the sum by four to get the price per bottle (P29.50) before adding the price of packaging (P7.20 per bottle) and you get P36.7 as your production cost.

 

To compute your production cost for making concentrate, add the cost of your ingredients and packaging:  2 cups of kalamansi (P30), 3.5 cups of sugar (P20), 1/8 teaspoon of sodium benzoate (P0.10), 1/4 teaspoon of citric acid (P.08), and plastic bottle (P7.20). Assuming your ingredients are just enough to make one bottle, your production cost would be P57.38.

 

 

HANDLE WITH CARE
Tips on making and selling fruit juices, concentrates and purees:
• Watch your inventory. Buy only from reliable suppliers to get fresh fruit. You may freeze fruits before making puree to preserve their flavor, and if you must use artificial flavors, make sure they taste like the real thing and are safe.
• Invest in good packaging. Customers get their first impression of your product through your packaging, so make it attractive.
• Keep your workplace clean. You don’t want to sell beverages full of bacteria and pathogens. When storing your products, know that minus 18 degrees Celsius is the ideal temperature for storing fruit juices and extending their shelf life. Keep the Ph level at 3.6 and the total soluble solids—the product’s sweetness as measured by a refractometer—average to avoid food poisoning.
• Fortify it. You may add vitamins or other products that will enhance the quality of your juices, purees, and concentrates. You may mix fruits with vegetables, but make sure they have the same characteristics and chemical properties and their taste complement each other.
• Study your market. Understand what your customers prefer in juices, concentrates, and purees so you can give them what they want.

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