Complete nutrition on the go
With a turnover of £14 million in 2017 and £40 million (45,687,551,97€) in 2018, Huel is one of the fastest growing companies in the UK. Revolutionising the nutrition game in less than four years, it offers customers nutritionally complete meals with a mission surrounding convenience, affordability and lessening the impact on animals and the environment. Adding to their product line of Huel Powder, Huel Bars and Huel Granola, the Huel Ready-to-drink was launched in December 2018, in a practical 500ml PET bottle developed by PET Engineering in collaboration with Gea Procomac.
The packaging design meets the brand’s two main requirements: coherency with the existing product portfolio and functionality. The first requirement was met by creating a simple shape, by choosing white to colour the preform, which is also useful to protect the bottle’s contents, and by using a full-sleeve to give the brand great visibility, as is also the case for the cardboard packaging and single packs already on the market. With regard to functionality, the large 38mm mouthpiece allows the bottle to be quickly used on-the-go in a practical way, making it perfect if time is of the essence and when there is no access to a kitchen to prepare a healthy and well-balanced meal.
A complete and affordable meal in a handy bottle, the Huel Ready-to-drink contains all 26 essential vitamins and minerals, 20g of protein, only 5g of sugar and comes in two delicious flavours, Vanilla and Berry.
Focus on the technology
The bottle is produced on an aseptic line supplied by GEA, which includes a GEA ABF 1.2 system. The GEA aseptic line – which obtained the FDA LONO certificate for producing and distributing in the USA ambient temperature shelf-stable low acid beverages – is based on an integrated aseptic blowing, filling and capping process and it is equipped with a 100% aseptic blower. The FDA clearance confirms that GEA’s ABF 1.2 technology ensures maximum sterilisation efficiency and reliability during every step of sensitive beverage bottling.
Thanks to the microbiological isolator extended also to the blower module, GEA ABF 1.2 aseptically blows preforms that have been previously sterilised with hydrogen peroxide vapor (VHP), treating simultaneously the inner and outer surfaces. The result is a single step preform sterilisation process that grants a 100% process treatment monitoring and requires no rinsing water and significantly low chemical consumption. With ABF 1.2, which features continuous monitoring of each sterilisation process parameter as fully automated operation cycles, the risk of recontamination of any sensitive drinks during bottling is erased.
