PETpla.net Insider 11 / 2016

BOTTLING / FILLING 22 PET planet Insider Vol. 17 No. 11/16 www.petpla.net F.l.t.r.: Michael Chen, Managing Director of Bericap China and Alexander Büchler, PET- planet Insider in front of the Editourmobil Aseptic Dual Fill technology From beverages to liquid food Technology for the aseptic dosing of fruit or cereal pieces into beverages offers new opportunities for manufacturers to capitalise on developing trends. Technology can actually drive trends; it can provide the means for manufacturers and suppliers to make advances in processing that then enable the creation of genuinely new products. Gea Group, the process technology company headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany, claims that its new Dual Fill equipment, which features its recently-developed Piston Doser, is this kind of innovative tech- nology. Beverage to liquid food Recent developments in the food and beverage markets have blurred the distinction between ‘drinks’ and ‘food’. In the Far East especially, a trend has developed for beverages to have ‘solid’ pieces included, such as fruit, fibres, and cereals, which turn a drink into a meal in itself. The concept of the “liquid breakfast”, for example, is now widely familiar. Milk and fruit drinks can be dosed with fruit, coco- nut, nuts, aloe vera pieces, even ber- ries and cereals, to make foods that are perceived as being of higher qual- ity than liquids alone. The inclusion of fruit pulps and fibres enable fruit beverages to mimic freshly-squeezed juice more closely. Process Gea has run extensive tests for the filling and dosing of drinks bot- tles using products such as peaches, chestnuts and even walnut kernels. It has experimented with different carrier liquids of various viscosities for both processing and filling elements. The process of preparation and thermal treatment is a critical phase in terms of sterilisation and handling. The pro- portion of particles, their dimensions, the density and viscosity of the liquid carrier, all contribute to the product’s final taste. Two-stream process lines are needed for some applications, in order to optimise quality. One is dedi- cated to the thermal treatment of the pieces and the other to the thermal treatment of the liquid. Aseptic dual filling Gea’s Aseptic Dual Filling system provides a means of filling drinks that include solid pieces of up 10x10x10mm. The system uses two different fillers: the Aseptic Piston Doser PX for solid particles and the well-established Fillstar FX volumetric electronic filler. The cam-driven piston draws the prescribed volume of solid particles into a cylinder, then injects it into a waiting PET bottle. It then moves to the Fillstar FX, which adds juice and completes the aseptic filling process. Aseptic integrity is maintained by a hygienic seal around the piston, which prevents product leaking through to the non-aseptic side. There is no con- tact between the filling nozzle and the bottle neck, so filling is ‘clean’. Dosing volume can be regulated from 30ml to 150ml by changing the dosing value on the HMI (Human Machine Inter- face) system. This technology is suitable for HA (high acid) or LA (low acid) products and conforms to the most demand- ing microbiological validation proto- col specifications. All sanitation and sterilisation cycles are automatically controlled in all critical locations. The system has a small footprint and can maintain a production level of 800bpm (48,000bph). Filling accuracy is +/-5% of dosed volume. Gea says that it has run exten- sive tests using a range of products with different carrier liquids of vari- ous viscosities in both the processing and filling phases. Validation of the sterilisation and cleaning-cycle of the machine has been performed under the scrutiny of the US Process Author- ity that is overseeing the FDA valida- tion path. Four aseptic filling lines equipped with the Piston Doser for HA drinks with fruit chunks have been in opera- tion in SE Asia since 2013, and two lines have recently been installed in North America, for both HA and LA drinks. Two more lines are soon to be installed for customers in the Middle East. www.gea.com