TECHNOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF PRESS EXTRACTION OF SUGARS FROM SUGAR SORGHUM STALKS

Abstract

Abstract. Current trends in the development of food technologies are aimed at expanding the range of safe and high-quality products, including through the use of alternative raw materials. Sugar sorghum in Ukraine as a technical crop is not widespread enough, which necessitates research to study the dynamics of sugar accumulation in stems. In the production of sugar-containing syrups, an important step is the extraction of the target component, namely sugars from vegetable raw materials. The purpose of our research was to further study and summarize information on the accumulation of sugars in sorghum stalks, as well as technological aspects of their extraction for the production of sugar-containing syrups. The study of technological indicators of quality of sugar sorghum stalks and their ability to pressing is presented. It is shown that along with an increase in the sugar content in the stems, an increase in the solids content is observed, which leads to a decrease in the amount of pressing juice. It is confirmed that the technological indicators of sugar sorghum depend on the variety and growing season, which is an important criterion for the selection of the most promising varieties for obtaining edible sugar-containing syrups. The material balance of the pressing process for the extraction of sugars from sugar sorghum stalks is analyzed. Theoretical calculations of the yield of pressed juice, pressed pulp and sugar content in it are presented, depending on the initial content of solids and sugars in the stems, the degree of pressing. It is confirmed that the pressing method does not provide sufficient mechanical opening of stem tissue cells, which determines the expediency of additional use of the extraction method for desugaring pulp from pressed stems. On the basis of theoretical calculations, graphical dependences were obtained that allow predicting the amount of pressing juice and pulp, as well as the sugar content in the pulp after pressing. The above results of the study are of scientific and practical interest for the production and further research of technology of sugar-containing syrups from sugar sorghum.