PETpla.net Insider 10 / 2012

BOTTLING / FILLING 34 PET planet insider Vol. 13 No. 10/12 www.petpla.net Twin-flow hotfill process in Egypt *Based on an article by Jörg Mader, Krones AG Fruit drink with a real bite to it In the summer of 2011, Coca-Cola Bottling Egypt (CCBE) premiered a fruit juice featuring whole fruit chunks in PET bottles. The drink is being bottled using Krones’ FlexiFruit filling technology in the twin-flow hotfill process without using any preservatives. The Coca-Cola brand Cappy is familiar to Egyptians, but with “Cappy FruitBite” CCBE has broken new ground. The 300ml wide-neck PET bottle contains 4.3% of whole fruit chunks. The drink is available in four flavours so far, namely orange, mango, peach and cocktail (mango plus peach plus guava plus orange). The plant, located in the north of Cairo, houses the newly installed fruit- juice line, complementing a canning line and a non-returnable-glass line that were already operating here. On the hotfill line for non-returnable PET, CCBE is running its first fruit juice in Egypt. President & COO Salam El-Hammamy quantifies the market for still fruit juices and fruit-based beverages in Egypt at around 80 mil- lion Unit Cases (approximately 450 million l). Until August 2011, this was without any involvement on the part of CCBE: the market was served by a large number of small and medium- sized producers. Salam El-Hammamy still sees 10 to 15% of growth in this segment. Rigorous separation of juice and fruit chunks The crucial factor for gentle pro- cessing and structure retention of the fruit chunks is rigorous separation of the juice from the fruit chunks right from the start in the process section. The aseptic juice concentrate is han- dled separately from the fruit chunks themselves, which measure up to 6 x 6 x 6mm. They are delivered by fruit producers from Greece and Turkey as 10kg IQF (individually quick-frozen) blocks, and mixed with juice in two 5,000l tanks in a ratio of 40 : 60 in order to create what is called a “slurry” – without any crushing or macera- tion. The slurry is then pasteurised in a VarioFlash H shell-and-tube heat exchanger featuring interior cross-