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Temporary plugs aid aseptic filling

Aseptic filling of PET containers in Japan includes the unusual step of temporarily plugging bottles so that H2O2 sprayed inside will more effectively sterilize bottle interiors.

Kirin markets both 500-mL and 1?-L bottles of teas, milk teas and milk coffees, but Nihon Canpack fills only the 500-mL bottles
Kirin markets both 500-mL and 1?-L bottles of teas, milk teas and milk coffees, but Nihon Canpack fills only the 500-mL bottles

Aseptic filling of teas, milk teas and milk coffees into polyethylene terephthalate bottles takes an unusual twist at Nihon Canpack Co., Ltd., one of Japan’s largest beverage bottlers. Its process is unusual in that a machine inserts a temporary plug into the mouth of each bottle right after the sterilant, hydrogen peroxide mist, is sprayed inside.

Bottles then go through a first-in/first-out accumulator that heats them to 45° to 50°C (122°F). This allows the hydrogen peroxide to fully sterilize the interior of the bottle and then decompose. Nihon Canpak, which installed two of these cold-fill aseptic systems in 1997, is plenty convinced about the sterilizing process.

“We have produced in excess of 600ꯠꯠ aseptically filled 500-mL bottles on the two filling lines installed at the Akagi plant,” says Katsuo Takamura of Nihon Canpack. “To the present date, no spoiled bottle has ever been reported from either the marketplace or from the incubated samples taken from the line.”

Equally confident is Kirin Beverage Corp., one of Nihon Canpack’s major customers.

“We selected Nihon Canpack as our co-packer because they had the capacity on this system, which we believe to be superior to any other system available,” says a senior Kirin spokesman. “We have proven its microbiological reliability ourselves.”

Two misting stations

Developed jointly by Shibuya Kogyo and Dai Nippon Printing, both of Japan, this method of sterilizing is claimed by Shibuya Intl. (Modesto, CA) to be extraordinarily effective. Bottles reach the sterilizing chamber by way of an air conveyor from NTS (Fayetteville, GA). In an enclosed area, bottles pass between two misting stations that direct hydrogen peroxide into and around the mouth of the bottle. Then a temporary plug is inserted into each bottle mouth to seal the bottle interior from the external atmosphere.

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