Complex technological process for production of apple distillates and evaluation of its quality indicators.

The research presented in the paper is related to solving an important and urgent problem in the wine industry – use of waste and by-products of production as secondary raw materials. In the course of the experimental part, generally accepted and special research methods and techniques were used; the peculiarities of the extraction and fermentation processes were studied. This is the first time when, in the technology of manufacturing apple distillates, a method was used to reduce the amount of the resulting head fraction during fractional distillation, and the prospects for the reuse of a new by-product of fractional distillation – an intermediate fraction – were scientifically substantiated, as well as diffusion juice obtained from apple pomace was involved at the fermentation stage. The uniqueness also lies in the fact that all the techniques are combined into a single integrated approach. As a result, a scientifically sound, improved and cost-effective technology for production of apple distillates with complex processing of secondary raw materials of winemaking has been developed, which makes it possible to increase the level of economic feasibility and efficiency of the industry, and is the basis for innovative economic development aimed at import substitution. The paper reflects the basic technological layout of the developed technology, describes its operations and stages, as well as studies of the main quality indicators (physical-and-chemical, organoleptic indicators and comparative analysis of the tasting test with the consumer focus group) of apple distillates obtained by integrated waste technology.