PETpla.net Insider 04 / 2012

TRADE SHOW REVIEW 32 PET planet insider Vol. 13 No. 04/12 www.petpla.net Hot filling and aseptic filling with original pulp at Anuga Foodtec The whole fruit inside The sixth Anuga FoodTec 2012 closed its doors after four intensive trade fair days in Cologne. Anuga FoodTec’s visitor numbers grew by around 25, totalling more than 42,000 trade visitors from 131 countries. PETplanet was on site and identified a major trend towards beverages containing “bits” of various kinds. This trend is becoming established in the juice and dairy segments in particular. As far as the bottling technology side is con- cerned, three companies at Anuga FoodTec have provided a response as regards the bot- tling of beverages containing “bits” in PET. The following is a brief introduction to the con- cepts and technologies used by Krones, Sidel and Procomacin Cologne. Krones: Twin-flow concept Krones presented a twin-flow concept for the hot filling of juices and milk-based mixed drinks which integrates both process and filling technology for producing and bottling beverages containing fruit chunks and fruit fibres. In order to preserve the structure of the fruit chunks and avoid costly product losses, there has to be stringent separation between the juice or milk-based mixed drink and the fruit chunks in the process technology as well. This means the juice or the milk-based mixed drink is treated in its own dedicated process, while the fruit chunks, measuring up to 10x10x10mm, are pasteurised in a separate shell-and-tube heat exchanger with interior cross-corru- gated tubes. Rigorous separation and gentle product treatment are continued in the filling process, featuring Krones’ new FlexiFruit pre-dosing equipment for fruit chunks or pulp. In the pre- dosing system, the fruit chunks are inserted into the bottles, and then the juice or the milk-based mixed drink is added in the main filler. The filling process is to run hot pre-dosing into the containers of a fruit-fibre or fruit- chunk mixture with a fruit content of around 50% in chunks measuring up to 10x10x10mm in size into the con- tainer plus 50% juice, before the actual free-jet hot-filler is reached. Krones has developed a simple, hygienic system that is easy to clean, featur- ing diaphragm valves. The dosing filler itself does not possess an additional measuring instrument. The entire fill quantity is measured in the down- stream weighing-cell filler, where the juice without any fruit cells is bottled. High priority was also given to ensuring operator-friendly maintenance. The juice can be pasteurised in the conventional way using plate heat exchangers (on request, of course, also with shell-and-tube heat exchang- ers, with concomitantly reduced wear and tear). The crucial factor claimed here is that in the juice flow more affordable standard components can be used, like centrifugal pumps, valves with a standard stroke, etc. The fruit flow, by contrast, mixed with a small quantity of juice, is treated in specially dimensioned shell-and- tube heat exchangers, which enables the cost-intensive fruit preparation to be very gently pasteurised. Product losses and damage to the valuable fruit chunks are significantly reduced. In its concept, Krones deploys de-aeration only for the juice, but not for the fruit preparation. The thermally treated fruit preparation is then first pre-dosed into the containers using a pre-filler, after which the main filler adds the flash- pasteurised juice at the same tempera- ture. Krones has in addition already developed a single-stream aseptic fill- ing process for beverages with chunks in cartons. www.krones.com Sidel: Hot-fill and aseptic Sidel presented its new solutions which are based on the Veloce ISD (see PETplanet issue 9/2011, page 47) and Sensofill FMa. The new fillers are suited for both hot-fill and aseptic. The Veloce ISD is suited for hot-fill production, while Sensofill FMa fillers are used for aseptic particle filling. The new Veloce ISD filler can dose parti- cles up to 10x10x10mm in size. The in- Krones’ Flexi-fruit pre-dosing system for fruit chunk or pulp