BOTTLING / FILLING PETplanet Insider Vol. 25 No. 09/24 www.petpla.net 24 Aseptic filling system with non-heated water sterilisation Water is the main ingredient in soft drinks. To achieve decarbonisation in soft drink production process, Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd. (DNP) has developed a new generation of Green Aseptic, a processing system for non-heat sterilisation of water. DNP’s PET bottle aseptic filling solution for low-acid beverages using non-heat sterilisation was installed at a major beverage producers’ factory in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, with production starting in April 2024. Due to increased demand the new factory was built in March 2024 to produce soft drinks and provide warehousing facilities. With the DNP system, the product concentrate is heat sterilised in a small UHT steriliser and diluted with non-heat sterilised, but sterile water. After being mixed in an aseptic blender, the product is filled with an aseptic filler. Compared to the conventional method of sterilising product liquids using UHT sterilisers alone, this new aseptic processing achieves approximately 80% decarbonisation and energy savings, said DNP. This new sustainable system is called Green Aseptic. Green Aseptic Mount Fuji’s underground water is naturally filtered over a long period of time. The company uses this water as a raw material to produce clear, fullflavoured tea and mineral water. To make the tea, carefully selected tea leaves from Japan are steeped in hot water within an extractor to maximise the flavour and richness of the tea leaves. They are then sterilised in a small UHT steriliser and sent to an aseptic tank. High-temperature, shorttime sterilisation in the UHT steriliser preserves the original flavour and colour of the teas. Water is pumped up from approximately 180m below ground and, after removing foreign matter, is sterilised using powerful UV lamps and sterilisation filters. DNP focused on Atlantium’s HOD system, which uses mediumpressure UV lamps that have proven their worth as disinfection devices for raw water in beverage production. After repeated sterilisation tests in the laboratory, the lamps were modified to specifications for use in aseptic zones. The sterilisation filters are automatically subjected to ‘integrity testing’ where the pore sizes of the filters are checked before and after production to ensure that sterility is not compromised, while maintaining the precise aseptic conditions. To further extend the life of the 0.1μm sterilisation filters, DNP’s F0 solution has been installed, performing SIP on these filters, minimising the effects of thermal damage to the filters. By combining these particular Atlantium medium-pressure UV lamps and customised 0.1μm sterilisation filters, DNP produce sterile water for low-acid beverages in large quantities without heating. UHT-sterilised tea extract and virtually carbon-free sterile water are aseptically mixed at a high dilution factor. Then 500ml PET bottles are aseptically filled at 36,000bph. All conventional heat-sterilised sterile water used for rinsing bottles, closures and chambers in the aseptic filling machine has been replaced by non-heated, sterile water. Aseptic verification Aseptic verification was carried out to determine whether the Green Aseptic system was as sterile as a conventional UHT steriliser. This verification was conducted on site by Aseptic Systems Co., Ltd. (APS), DNP’s aseptic technology department. The method was to first heat sterilise a highly concentrated pH7 media broth in the small UHT steriliser.
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