PETpla.net Insider 06 / 2018

BOTTLING / FILLING PET planet Insider Vol. 19 No. 06/18 www.petpla.net 45 45 Development Department.“The aseptic process was the best choice for a company like us, which looks to the future. Consumers want products that are of high qual- ity and maximised purity.” Krones wasn’t the cheapest vendor but, Soares maintains, it did have the best technology. Its Contipure Asept Bloc DA aseptic blow-moulder/filler block for highly acidic beverages offers stretch blow-moulding and filling on a single machine. Until the end of 2016, Natural One was the only fruit juice producer in Brazil using this technology and thus the only one able to offer fruit juices in the cold chain with a shelf-life of eight months. The quality and support provided by Krones’ technical staff was also an important factor. Natural One today draws a distinction nowadays between products in the cold chain, where it began operations, and its ambi- ent temperature products. These newer products already account for around a quarter of total sales. The high level of the Krones technology had an effect on outsourced parts, such as preforms or labels, too. “We decided to meet the world’s most stringent requirements, of the kind taken for granted in Japan, Europe and the USA, for example”, Soares explains. This will be a help when in exporting to those coun- tries but the new line also made things easier in other ways. Its fast output meant that night shifts and Sunday working could be dis- pensed with. Its original, small line, rated at around 7,000bph needed twelve operators. The new line, which can handle 24,000 900ml bph, needs only four. The aseptic line passed its acceptance test with an efficiency level of 96%. Natural One says is can see fruit juice as a third major soft- drink segment alongside water and CSDs, and regards 100% natural purity as the basis for rising consumer demand. Natural One is now aiming to promote this feature in neighbouring South American countries, in Japan, South-East Asia, Europe and in the USA. It has set itself an ambitious target: to raise the aseptically bottled NFC juices from their present-day two per cent to around a quarter of total exports – more than a 12-fold increase – and in just one year. Product development Paola Toller is responsible for R&D at Natural One. She has developed five product lines and is pursuing the idea of using many different kinds of fruit to create new categories in the market. More new product categories are under preparation, including “spa waters”: water mixed with coconut water and with a fruit juice content of 10-20%; and smoothie-like bever- ages featuring sweet potatoes, for example. “There are thousands of fruits and combinations of them”, says Paola Toller. “The background to our efforts, of course, is the gen- eral ongoing trend: away from solid food and towards liquid food. For many consumers, it’s more con- venient to enjoy liquid foods when they’re travelling. Needless to say, healthy fruits are a preferred option here. In this context, it’s essen- tial to find the right technology for processing the fruits. It’s not easy, for instance, to make a good water- melon juice: the product’s shelf-life is very limited, and the freshness starts to decline after a few days. But I guess it’s only a matter of time before we find a solution there as well.” www.krones.com Paola Toller, responsible for R&D, has developed five product lines. Aseptic blow-moulder/filler block for highly acidic beverages BOTTLING / FILLING [email protected] Tel: +90 212 695 50 00 Fax: +90 212 694 97 24 100815dmyR .com