Juice aseptic packaging process

Aseptic packaging technology is a kind of packaging technology that fills and seals in a sterile environment under the condition that the packaging, packaged goods, and packaging auxiliary equipment are all sterile.

Aseptic packaging technology makes the packaged product without preservatives. It can be stored for six months or more without deterioration under normal temperature conditions without deterioration. It also has low energy consumption, less material consumption, low manufacturing cost, and high packaging efficiency. , Good economic benefits and light weight, and waste packaging can be recycled and other advantages, suitable for long-distance transportation.

Aseptic packaging is used more and more widely, from packaging liquids to fluids, semifluids, and pastes; from general juices to milk, tea, vegetable juices, soups, alcohol, water, and liquid medicines. Here mainly introduces the application of juice aseptic packaging.

Juice aseptic packaging is a packaging system in which aseptic juices, packaging containers and packaging auxiliary materials are placed in a sterile environment and filled and sealed with an aseptic filling machine. Juice foods are sterilized at high temperatures and then the temperature is reduced to 20°C to 30°C, which is to achieve asepsis requirements.

Juice aseptic packaging process can be roughly divided into three parts: pre-work, sterilization and packaging.

1 Juice Aseptic Packaging Early Work

The preliminary work of the aseptic packaging of juice includes the selection of composite materials, the design of brick carton and box blank structure drawings, and the design of decoration, and then the delivery of packaging materials to the professional factory according to the design of the decoration design, text, color printing, in accordance with the structural design Indentation cutting, and finally into the packaging plant with web material.

1) Select materials

The packing containers used for aseptic packaging of juices are cups, boxes, bags, buckets, etc. The brick type packaging containers are mainly introduced here.

Juice aseptic packaging materials mainly use composite film. Composite film consists of six layers of material, namely polyethylene/paper/polyethylene/aluminum foil/polyethylene/polyethylene composite material. The weight of the packaging carton made of composite film is only 8% of that of the glass bottle with the same volume, which is not only less costly, but also produces less waste and is conducive to environmental protection.

2) Design brick carton

The common brick sterile packaging carton on the market has a capacity of 250 ml. In the structural design, the solid line indicates the outline cutting line, the dotted line indicates the inner folding indentation line, and the dotted line indicates the outer folding indentation line. The reel diameter of the packaging material shipped to the packaging factory is 0.8m, and approximately 5000 pieces of 250-ton brick aseptic packaging cartons can be manufactured.

3) Decor design

When decorating and designing, we must first consider the requirements for the packaging of goods and choose the right style. Second, we must consider the correct and appropriate use of patterns, words and colors. We must follow the principles of “scientific, beautiful, applicable, economical, and promotional” and strive to design beautifully and have The sense of the times, decoration and nationality.

At the same time, in order to achieve the above design goals, we must adopt advanced technology, such as CAD (computer-aided design), CAM (computer-aided manufacturing), professional software such as packaging carton structural design professional software - Flunder-Pack.

4) Printing

Paper containers can be printed using traditional analog printing and new digital printing. Most of the current use of analog printing.

In the conventional four printing methods, lithography is the most commonly used, and the FP is mainly used in lithography. Because the PS plate is simple and fast, the plate is light and inexpensive, and with the application of new light sources, new photosensitive materials, and new types of equipment, the quality of platemaking continues to increase. Among them, flexographic printing has also been widely used for packaging printing.

5) Composite

The compounding process is the most important in the entire process because it plays a decisive role in the packaging function of the entire container. For example, the semi-finished product after the printing of the paper container Tetra Pak is placed on the compounded unwinding rack, and after four times of lamination, the aluminum foil (aluminum foil can be protected against ultraviolet light to ensure the quality of the contents) is adhered and finally collected. The roll is wound into a roll. Tetra Pak's four-layer plastic is made from outer layer, composite layer, inner layer 1 and inner layer 2 with different thicknesses of polyethylene or modified polyethylene resin and is extruded through four extruders and is about 1300mm wide. The film is bonded to paper and aluminum foil. It is then finished by professional manufacturers through cutting and indentation, and finally transported to the packaging factory in a roll shape.

2 Sterilization of juice aseptic packaging

Juices are made from different fruits and their ingredients and properties vary. The main factors related to the packaging are the acidity of the juice, enzymes, vitamin C, color and aroma, and the deterioration of juice is mainly caused by yeast and mold.

The sterilization process controls the microbial content of the product through high temperatures. The commonly used sterilization methods are HTST and UHT sterilization. The selection should be based on the characteristics of the product. Improper handling can cause incomplete destruction of microorganisms or product color, loss of fragrance, and destroy the nutrients.

At the same time, the environment of the operation workshop must be sterilized before and after packaging, and the pressure in the environment of the workshop should be kept slightly higher than the outside atmospheric pressure to prevent outside air from entering the workshop and reduce the invasion of bacteria and dirt.

The ground, walls, consoles, tools, etc. of the production workshop should also be regularly sterilized. At the same time, the circulation of the material circulation pipes and reservoirs should be carried out in a timely manner.