PETpla.net Insider 05 / 2021

BOTTLING / FILLING PETplanet Insider Vol. 22 No. 05/21 www.petpla.net 25 India’s RJ Corp implements Sidel solution for aspetic filling One line for juice and dairy Varun Beverages Ltd, part of Indian company RJ Corp group, one of PepsiCo Inc’s larg- est franchises, has installed Sidel’s Aseptic Combi Predis in its new plant in Punjab, India. This project aims to expand PET bottling capacity and provide production flexibility for the Cream Bell private label milk brand, as well as Pepsi’s Tropicana juice range. This is RJ Corp’s first commercial release in India of liquid dairy products (LDP) in PET. Privately-owned RJ Corp has, since the early 1990s, established itself with strong business presences in beverages, fast food restaurants, retail, ice cream, dairy products, healthcare and education. Through Varun Bev- erages Ltd., the group is one of the largest bottling partners for PepsiCo in the world. It currently operates 36 plants on the Indian subcontinent and in Africa, producing CSD, water and hot-fill juices as well as LDP. Production flexibility Responding to Indian consumers’ trend towards nutritional beverages, RJ Corp decided to diversify its port- folio and put more emphasis on 100% juices with pulp and ultra-high tem- perature (UHT) LDP and to seek to produce both on the same production line. The only way this could be done, while meeting PepsiCo’s high stand- ards for food safety and hygiene, was with aseptic technology, according to Mr. R.J.S. Bagga, Director Technical & Operations at RJ Corp. After visiting a French copacker that has used and trusted the tech- nology to handle both juices and milk for more than 10 years the company decided to install Sidel’s Aseptic Combi Predis, including dry preform sterilisation. The Sidel technology, which has been approved by the FDA for low- acid production since 2017, allows the producer to switch easily and safely between four UHT milk flavours (white UHT milk, coffee, chocolate and mango) and various kinds of juice recipes (eg, orange delight & 100% orange juice with pulp, mixed fruit delight and 100% mixed fruit juice, guava, apple delight and 100% apple juice, and lychee delight) on the same