RED APPLE JUICE - DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW, INNOVATIVE PRODUCT

Because of low prices and saturated demand on the apple-juice market, there is need for the German fruit drink industry to insure its commercial effectiveness by creating a new, innovative product. That product has to combine new attractiveness for the consumer with higher effectiveness in production. A new option would be to introduce a natural breed of an apple "McIntosh" from Canada which gives its consumer attractiveness by its red juice with high nutritional value. Its potential to increase the effectiveness in production is given by its shape, called "Wijcik" and shows the so called columnar growth, meaning the trunk has only a few side branches, so that the resulting fruits will grow close to the trunk. The plant has only 50 cm in diameter at a final height of 3 - 4 meters. The advantage of this kind of tree is that tree-cut is mostly unnecessary, agent reducing tunnel-spraying equipment can be used and harvesting maybe fully mechanised. To prove the suitability of that new cultivar system, different types of harvester and tunnel-spraying equipment, adapted for these special apple trees, has been and will be tested. Furthermore, the mechanization of all work procedures in the fruit juice production combined with GPS- and RFID transponder supporting systems opens the possibility to establish a chain oriented quality management system which fulfils the standards of legal regulations and trade partners. This and the possibility to get the Carbon-footprint of the product is an additional part of that future oriented production system. INTRODUCTION The German fruit drink industry insures its commercial effectiveness by creating new, innovative products. For apple juice, however, there is still room for improvement for new, interesting products with a high nutritional value. The big companies creating apple juice stand in front of a big dilemma when it comes to creating