Refining fruit juice clarity: Integrating metal-organic frameworks and enzymatic strategies for sustainable solutions

In the fruit juice industry, achieving optimal clarity is crucial for marketability, with the presence of polysaccharides often causing a cloudy appearance. This study explores the use of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) for fruit juice clarification. Xylanase-immobilized MOFs significantly improved the clarity of apple, pineapple, tomato, plum, and watermelon juices by 7.3 %, 47.16 %, 22.37 %, 13.6 %, and 1.6 %, respectively. The MOFs, particularly effective in pineapples and tomatoes due to their hemicellulose content, enhanced the visual appeal of the juices. Furthermore, the MOFs demonstrated stability over multiple cycles, retaining 98.8 % activity in the second cycle. However, with each subsequent cycle, there was a slight decrease in activity, reaching 67.5 % in the fifteenth cycle. While enzymatic treatment increased both glucose and xylose content substantially, MOF treatment exhibited a more selective impact on sugar content, indicating its preference for specific components within the fruit substrates. These findings highlight the potential of MOFs as a sustainable and specific tool for enhancing fruit juice clarity and quality. Future investigations can focus on refining MOF formulations and investigating wider uses in the food sector, but the study's findings highlight the significance of customized methods for various fruits.