PETpla.net Insider 03 / 2019

BOTTLING / FILLING PET planet Insider Vol. 20 No. 03/19 www.petpla.net 30 Drinkable yoghurt in Indonesia comes in PET From farm to customer in a single source ABC Group is a major food and beverage company in Indonesia. The company has been in business since the 1970s and, in 2011 it decided to diversify to produce drinking milk, flavoured milks and drinkable yoghurt to meet a growing Indonesian market. In such a geographically expansive nation as Indonesia this was never going to be easy. What’s more, ABC Group decided to provide a product from farm to consumer from a single source. The aseptic technology has been provided by GEA. Warren Choo, CEO, ABC Group explained that he had wanted to enter the dairy business because of the market potential in Indonesia. “The first step was to find the land for the dairy farm and the milking parlour,” he said. The site chosen is in Bandung West Java. This achieved, Choo found a green field site close by at Garut, on which to build his milk processing factory. Construction began in 2015. But Choo knew that to make a real impact on the market in Indo- nesia he would need to do things differently. Indonesia is a nation of islands, more than 17,000 of them: the world’s largest archipelago, over 5,000 km from east to west. Moving goods to some of the more remote areas can take months by which time the shelf life of any normal fresh product would be compro- mised. However, Choo wanted to find a way to bring fresh, nutritious, great-tasting products to the coun- try’s population. “We chose to use aseptic technology in PET bottles as the standard Tetra cartons can easily become damaged during transport and doesn’t offer the same flexibil- ity as PET,” said Choo. “We wanted our product not only to taste great but look good as well. We have had experience before with PET and the new technologies available made us decide to go that route.” The technology in question is aseptic filling in which the PET bottle is sterilised, filled and capped in an aseptic environment. This, combined with utilising the latest developments in light barrier materials, allows ABC Group to create fresh dairy milks and drinkable yoghurt that have a shelf life of up to nine months giving ample time for the distribution pro- cess to take place, even in a country such as Indonesia. Aseptic filling technology In choosing his technology suppliers, Choo travelled to China for inspiration. “I went to China to research all the lines in several fac- tories to see how the development of aseptic filling is going especially in the dairy segment. We also had our dairy consultants from Japan help us to make the decision.” After fully researching the market, ABC Group The line for Kin Bulgarian yoghurt at the ABC factory in Bandung West Java. ABC chose a GEA EcoSpin2 sterilising line fitted with a GEA Fillstar FX-C filler. (Photo: ABC Group) Filling Special