It is in view of the non-carbonated beverages have great prospects for the development of beverage aseptic packaging technology has arisen in our country, and will be rapidly promoted and applied. The use of aseptic packaging technology, the production of beverages can be filled at room temperature, thus preserving the nutrients and flavor characteristics of the product, and can not add food preservatives, without refrigeration conditions, to extend the shelf life of the product, very much in line with the people advocating safe, healthy drinking mentality. The use of aseptic packaging technology can also reduce the cost of product packaging. Due to sterilization, filling and other production procedures are carried out at room temperature, manufacturers can use inexpensive heat-resistant PET bottles, and can be designed according to the characteristics of the product using a variety of unique shapes of bottles to meet the needs of people's fashion. Aseptic filling from beer to beverage development
In the domestic beer industry first emerged in the aseptic filling trend, the domestic enterprises have been put into production, such as Guangzhou Light, South Light, the veteran manufacturers of beverages eyeing the rapid growth of the eye, have developed aseptic filling technology and equipment for beverages.
For filling beverages under aseptic conditions, Germany's Krones AG (Krones) with its Pet-asept system to introduce a new advanced process. The process enables containers to be effectively sterilized. A special spray system is used to spray the bottles with a disinfectant and steam. The application of this process minimizes the amount of disinfectant used. The process is highly transparent, flexible and takes up little space. This newly developed solution allows easy access to the sterile room and at the same time ensures absolutely no recontamination. The system is used for both carbon dioxide-free and carbon dioxide-containing beverages.
The Pet-asePt system is suitable for filling microbiologically sensitive beverages such as carbon dioxide-free purified water, mineral water, fruit juices, iced teas, vegetable juices, milk, tea and coffee mixes, as well as less demanding beverages such as non-alcoholic beverages containing carbon dioxide (soft drinks) in poorly heat-resistant, deformable, plain PET bottles. The system includes The system consists of: efficient handling of bottles and caps in the filler and capper, aseptic chamber system, centralized aseptic water treatment equipment, non-centralized aseptic filtration of the air, automatic cleaning and sterilizing of surfaces inside and outside the aseptic chamber area, preparation system for disinfectants and aseptic water, and a system for mixing the products. All accessories in the aseptic area are equipped as sterile accessories. In order to record all relevant operating data, production and cleaning processes, as well as parameters essential for aseptic filling, such as the state of the aseptic chamber, etc., a linear recording and archiving system is used. The bottles are transported via an air-guided conveyor to the ejector/showerhead/filler/capping unit. The star combination conveyor feeds the bottles directly to the star inlet of the injector. Filtered sterile air is supplied to the air guiding unit through HEPA filters. Conveyor air from the bottle compartment is routed through the unit to prevent stray airflow from entering the aseptic chamber. During the internal bottle treatment, the high concentration of peracetic acid and steam is directed separately to the atomizing nozzles (in front of the bottle wall treatment area), thus avoiding temperature effects that could affect the sterilization action. In this way, all the reaction energy is released at the bottle sterilization site.
Immediate Filling Adopts Italian Approach: In recent years, cold aseptic filling has been recognized as a viable alternative to hot filling, using standard lightweight bottles rather than heavier thermoformed bottles. Unlike hot filling, it is not necessary to require a hot filler to sanitize the container, but rather to control the sanitary conditions of the filling environment. However, while these aseptic measures maintain the nutritional quality of the beverage or food product, the container itself needs to be sterilized, which requires high investment and operating costs. Typical aseptic filling lines require bottle washers, connecting lanes, aseptic water rinsing machines, aseptic water generators, and equipment for removing rinsing and sterilizing agents, and costly clean rooms to contain this equipment, which can be an inconvenience to the operator. inconvenience to the operator.
The most innovative PET bottle filling technology available today is the direct combination of SIPA's integrated resin bottle manufacturing system with an aseptic filling and capping system. The integrated system (ASIS) has been developed by SIPA and Procomac***, and the DeIMonte plant in Italy was one of the first to install it, said Ziyou Jia, China marketing and sales manager at the company's Beijing representative office.
The ASIS aseptic filling integration concept is based on a specially designed direct connection between SIPA's ECS integrated bottle manufacturing system and Procomac's aseptic filling equipment, where simplicity is a key feature. PET bottles are produced in an aseptic state from the ECS integrated system, and then immediately sent to the aseptic filling equipment in the control room. The ASIS system operates in three basic steps: the production of the container on the sophisticated integrated machine, directly from the resin pellet; the delivery of the blown container to the filling machine in an aseptic environment; and the aseptic filling.
The aseptic filling of cold-filled products on an integrated machine completely eliminates the need to sterilize bottles, thus shortening the cold-filling line and reducing costs. In traditional factories, the production of containers is done outside the clean zone, so the containers must be cleaned and sterilized before filling, which requires the installation and maintenance of sterilizers, aseptic water generators and rinsing machines, which is very expensive. Large quantities of sterilizing agent will also be used. The effectiveness of sterilization depends on the initial level of container contamination, which varies with storage conditions.
The ASIS system reduces equipment space, energy consumption, and the use of sterilizing agents, thus greatly reducing waste. The system reduces costs and increases operator comfort by producing bottles from production to final capping in a controlled environment rather than in an expensive sterile room.
The current market for aseptic packaging equipment in the domestic market is promising, and in addition to applications in the production of non-carbonated beverages, it will be extended to the production of edible oils and other highly concentrated liquids. Generally speaking, aseptic filling is better than hot filling, because aseptic filling greatly reduces the time of the product under high temperature, so as to better maintain the nutrition and taste of the product. Prior to using the aseptic filling equipment, DelMonte purchased thermoformed containers for hot filling. With ASIS, it is now only necessary to purchase PET pellets.
The main requirements for food packaging are ease of storage and transportation, reduced loss of performance, no additional harm, increased sensory enjoyment, and a reasonable price. Currently, liquid food packaging methods are: ordinary packaging, secondary sterilization packaging (including cans, bottles and bags, etc.), hot filling, vacuum packaging, inflatable packaging, radiation sterilization packaging and aseptic packaging. Aseptic packaging of liquid food is a new technology developed in recent years, due to its obvious advantages, the development rate is very fast.
Domestic enterprises have invested in the production of
A complete aseptic packaging production line including material (food) sterilization system, aseptic packaging machine, packaging materials and packaging materials and the supply and sterilization system, automatic cleaning system, equipment pre-pasteurization system, aseptic environment to maintain the system and automatic control system. Material sterilization so far mainly used thermal sterilization, according to the viscosity of the material, heat-sensitive properties and production scale can be used respectively plate, tube (coil or tube), scraper type or mixed heat exchanger, in order to further shorten the material temperature and cooling time, Jiangsu Meixing Shunfeng Machinery Co., Ltd. developed and produced steam injection, steam mixed, hot water mixed and other direct heating, and recently developed the production of Ohm method of heaters. Ltd. has developed and produced direct heating methods such as steam injection, steam mixing, superheated water mixing, and recently developed and produced ohm method heaters. Sterilization of packaging materials or containers is currently the main use of chemical sterilization, but sterilization should be thoroughly cleaned and dried to minimize chemical residues; aseptic packaging system mostly using superheated steam or dry air for pre-sterilization, can also be used for sterilization of drugs.
According to experts, aseptic packaging technology was born in the late 40's, from the 60's onwards, due to the rapid development of packaging plastics, aseptic packaging provides a wide world of development, as of the 90's, more than 30 foreign **** production of a variety of aseptic packaging equipment. There are many other production sterilization systems. Packaging materials, components supporting manufacturers, the domestic development and production of aseptic packaging equipment and supporting sterilization systems, packaging materials unit is also gradually increasing. Jiangsu Meixing Shunfeng Machinery Co., Ltd. has been cooperating closely with customers since 1998, and carried out the research and development of PET bottle aseptic filling production process and equipment. At the end of 2000, the research and development of 36,000 bottles / hour of PET bottles of beverages successfully aseptic filling production line, and has been put into mass industrialized production.
At present, there are several enterprises are in the dry development stage. It is believed that in the next two to three years, as is now commonly used in draft beer aseptic filling, beverage aseptic filling technology will be widely used, the domestic demand for equipment will surge. It is expected to fill 0.5-2 liters of specifications, 5000-25000 bottles / hour aseptic filling production line, will become the future of aseptic packaging equipment in the leading products.