Hot beverage filling vs. sterile cold filling-2

■ 8 ■ Outstanding advantages of PET sterile cold filling compared to hot filling.
Adopting ultra-high temperature instantaneous sterilization technology (UHT), the heat treatment time of the material does not exceed 30 seconds, ensuring the taste and color of the product to the greatest extent possible, and preserving the content of vitamins (thermosensitive nutrients) in the material to the greatest extent possible.
The filling operation is carried out in a sterile and normal temperature environment, and no preservatives are added to the product to ensure its safety.
Improved production capacity saved raw materials, reduced energy consumption, and reduced product manufacturing costs.
The progressiveness technology can be widely used for filling various products.

■ 9 ■ Aseptic filling technology environment
At room temperature (≤ 30 ℃), sterile products are filled into sterile packaging containers in a sterile environment and then sealed.
Aseptic environment: The filling and sealing of the entire product are completed in a sterile environment, so the hygiene requirements for the filling environment are high. Filling is generally completed in a closed filling equipment, and all media and packaging materials entering the filling equipment must undergo sterile treatment. At the same time, the surface of the filling equipment must also undergo sterile treatment to ensure the sterility of the entire filling environment. The media entering the filling equipment include air, water, and material liquid; The packaging materials include bottles and caps.
Air treatment: It is completed using an air filtration system, which generally consists of primary efficiency filters, medium efficiency filters, and high-efficiency filters. The primary filter mainly filters dust particles in the air; The medium efficiency filter mainly filters out larger bacteria and some dust particles in the air, with a filtration efficiency of over 85%; Efficient filters can almost filter out all bacteria in the air, including the smallest ones, with a filtration efficiency of over 99.97%. The processed air is called sterile air, and the production process requires regular validation of the sterility of sterile air to ensure product quality.
Water treatment: There are currently two methods: the first method is to use UHT equipment to sterilize the water entering the filling environment; The second method is to use a sterile filtration system for pure water, and the treated water is called sterile water. The water mentioned here is not the water we use to mix drinks. Aseptic water mainly rinses sterilized bottle caps and bottles in the filling environment and rinses the surface of the filling environment after disinfection.
Treatment of packaging materials: packaging materials refer to bottle caps and bottles. Bottle caps and bottles are sterilized through disinfectant. Due to different sterilization methods of production equipment, Tetra Pak, Tetra Pak pillow, black and white film and other packaging methods in the dairy industry generally use immersion sterilization, while PET bottled drinks generally use infusion or spray sterilization. The main disinfectants used for disinfecting packaging materials are peracetic acid and hydrogen peroxide.
Material liquid treatment: UHT equipment is used to sterilize the material liquid, and the water entering the filling environment is sterilized.