• Distilled Spirit Specialty

  Natural Pectin Removal

  Posted by salishseaorganicliqueurs on February 14, 2014 at 2:53 am

  Hi everybody,

  I’m looking into making certain berry based liqueurs and have run into the problem of removing the pectin present in these berries. All my products are USDA certified organic and I have been told by the USDA that I cannot use inorganic chemicals and enzymes to remove this pectin without risking the loss of my certification on the product. Does anyone know of any organic ways to remove said pectin?

  salishseaorganicliqueurs replied 10 years, 10 months ago 3 Members · 6 Replies
• 6 Replies

• 

  natrat

  Member

  February 14, 2014 at 9:24 pm

  Most enzymes are sourced from fungal cultures. Talk to the enzyme reps. They may be able to help you with a certified product.

• 

  salishseaorganicliqueurs

  Member

  February 14, 2014 at 9:42 pm

  Most enzymes are sourced from fungal cultures. Talk to the enzyme reps. They may be able to help you with a certified product.

  Thanks, Natrat, I will look into it. Do you have any specific companies that you would recommend?

• 

  natrat

  Member

  February 14, 2014 at 11:54 pm

  First one that comes to mind is Specialty Enzymes and Biotech. Also Affymatrix can tailor specific ‘zymes in a lot of cases, but that can be pricey.

  Also I think I got my SEBAmyl GL from MDI, and I think they carry Cellus and other SEB products. I’ve used SEBAmyl L and GL in beers that had USDA Organic certification and Oregon Tilth as well. The vendor should be able to help you out with documentation. The enzyme is made from Aspergillus oryzae, which is a natural bacteria used to make sake koji, among other things.

  Good luck!

• 

  salishseaorganicliqueurs

  Member

  February 15, 2014 at 1:16 am

  Perfect! thank you so much!

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  specialtyenzymes

  Member

  March 4, 2014 at 12:20 am

  Hey OP,

  Enzymes sourced from enzyme companies can be used in 95% organic certified products, and anything else below, provided you do not already exceed the 5% exception. You can ask for the enzymes to be suspended in an organic carrier to make it easier on the organic certification, but that will be pricier. Powder would be organic malto (probably) and liquid would have to be organic glycerin (probably). Otherwise the carrier would be non-organic and could present problems.

  Enzymes cannot be used in 100% organic certified spirits, to date there are not organic enzymes that I know of on the market. For that matter are there even organic yeasts that could comply with that specification?

  Anyways enzymes could work in this application to remove pectin haze. You might have to adjust your process, as the pectin breakdown could settle out and you would need to rack off the top, but that is hypothetical, testing is always advised.

  Good luck!

  SpecZyme

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  salishseaorganicliqueurs

  Member

  March 4, 2014 at 1:43 am

  Thank you so much! My products will be certified 100% organic so I guess I won’t be making any berry based liqueurs at this time.

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