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Low-acid aseptics 101

To fully appreciate the significance of the Aseptic Solutions installation, it helps to review the nature of today’s aseptic beverage packaging scene.

ISOLATOR CHAMBER. Sterilization, rinsing, filling, and capping are all conducted inside this microbiological isolator chamber.
ISOLATOR CHAMBER. Sterilization, rinsing, filling, and capping are all conducted inside this microbiological isolator chamber.

Because it’s aimed at producing a shelf-stable beverage, an aseptic packaging system must eliminate a certain amount of bacteria from product and container. It does this by high-temperature/short-time thermal processing of the product combined with sterilization of the container to be filled, typically with hydrogen peroxide. All that remains is marrying the sterile product with the sterile container in a sterile environment. Because the amount of time during which the beverage is exposed to heat is minimized, flavor and nutrient profile are better than if the two alternative methods for shelf-stable beverages—hot-fill and retort—are used. The other advantage aseptic filling has over hot-fill PET is that it reduces container costs since it’s a cold-fill process that doesn’t require the heavy bottle needed for hot-fill.

High-acid products filled aseptically into plastic bottles, fruit juices in particular, are widespread in the U.S. But the FDA views low-acid products as inherently more difficult to pack aseptically because potentially deadly bacteria that won’t grow in high-acid products will grow in an unrefrigerated low-acid environment if either processing or packaging fails to kill enough of these potentially deadly bacteria.

Some brick-packs of low-acid products filled aseptically have passed muster with the FDA. These are less technically challenging from a consumer-safety standpoint because, unlike a plastic bottle, the material to be sterilized is a flat blank or flat rollstock at the point where sterilization occurs. Also, no cap is involved.

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