Liquid Milk Package Introduction

Tetra Pak bricks, Combiblocs and Tetra Pak pillows are used for UHT milk packing; Gable top cartons, aseptic Prepak Cartons are used for packing pasteurized milk; PE bottles or glass bottles are mainly used for pasteurized milk, flavored milk, and yogurt packaging. PP and PS cups are the main package for yogurt.

Here is a brief introduction to these common dairy product package:

The aseptic brick carton gets its name because the packaging is like a brick. It is composed of 6-7 layers of composite film, which includes paper, aluminum foil and plastic, the carton structure is PE/paper/polyethylene adhesive layer/aluminum foil/polyethylene adhesive layer/PE, and each of the layers has different functions. The outer layer of PE can prevent moisture, the second layer of paper can stabilize and strengthen the packaging, the fourth layer of aluminum foil can block oxygen, sunlight and prevent product taste loss, and the sixth layer of PE can maintain liquid quality. Aseptic brick carton milk has a long shelf life, safe and hygienic, and has relatively low costs. They are suitable for household consumption and do not require refrigeration. The distribution process saves transportation costs. The pack is suitable for packaging UHT milk, vegetable protein drinks and NFC juice. The process of filling Tetra Pak is in a closed environment, that is, the milk is poured into the paper tube first, and then cut and closed. Under such circumstances, there is no air in the Tetra Pak cartons, and the composite packaging itself can effectively isolate the milk from the air, bacteria, and light. The shelf life can reach 6-9 months or even one year. Typical packages are Tetra Pak brick cartons, diamond cartons and Combibloc cartons.

Aseptic pillow packaging gets its name because the packaging looks like a pillow. This kind of packaging is also composed of three materials: paper, aluminum and plastic. However, the composite material of aseptic pillows generally has 5 layers, so UHT milk in the aseptic pillow has a shorter shelf life than aseptic bricks, which is about 45 days. From the perspective of packaging material cost, aseptic pillow pouches are cheaper than aseptic bricks cartons, which is why sterile pillows are popular in packaging.

Gable top cartons packaging gets its name because the packaging looks like a roof. There are two kinds of packaging materials for gable-top cartons packages, one is a composite film composed of six-layer cardboard, aluminum foil and PE similar to aseptic brick cartons, and the other is a fresh layer of PE/paperboard/PE three-layer structure, the common packing of gable top is a three-layer composite film packaging. The unique design, material and structure of the gable top cartons can prevent the entry and exit of oxygen and moisture, have good barrier properties to light, and can maintain the freshness of the milk in the box. It is usually used to fill pasteurized milk, fresh milk, yogurt and other high-end products. The products of the gable top cartons need to be sold in the cold chain, and the product shelf life is about 7-10 days.

The main characteristics of the glass bottle packaging container are non-toxic, tasteless, transparent, beautiful, good barrier properties, airtight, abundant raw materials, low price, and can be used in multiple cycles. It has the advantages of heat resistance, pressure resistance, and cleaning resistance. It can be sterilized at high temperature or stored at low temperature. However, glass bottle packaging also has the disadvantages of being difficult to carry, easy to break, packaging products have a short shelf life, and higher requirements for filling machine. Glass bottles can be used to fill pasteurized fresh milk, NFC juices, etc. The products need to be stored under refrigeration at 4-6°C. To extent the shelf life of the products in bottles, we usually adopt to vacuum sealing bottles.

Plastic bottles are the most popular packaging form for liquid beverage packaging. They can not only be used for packaging NFC juice, fruit juice drinks, mineral water, etc., and can also be used for packaging of pasteurized fresh milk, UHT sterilized milk, yogurt, and flavored milk, according to the material, it can be divided into HDPE and PET bottles. Among them, PE bottles are suitable for packaging neutral dairy beverages with high nutritional value, and PET bottles are suitable for packaging juice, tea drinks, mineral water and other beverages. It has good light barrier properties, oxygen barrier properties, easy portability, easy storage, and long shelf life. When the plastic bottle is used for milk packaging, in order to ensure the product shelf life, it can be double-sealed. After the first aluminum foil is sealed, the screw cap is used to seal to ensure the sealing performance.

Prepak Cartons is a kind of aseptic packaging produced by the French Baili company. Its structure is multi-layer sterile composite film, including three-layer black and white film, high-barrier 5-layer, 7-layer co-extrusion film and aluminum-plastic composite film. The product’s shelf life spans from 30 days to 180 days according to different material. Prepak Cartons is safe, hygienic, convenient, and affordable, and occupies a large consumer market. The milk packaging composite film is mainly a three-layer or multi-layer co-extrusion method, using LDPE, LLDPE, EVOH, mLLDPE and other resins, and a high-performance composite film co-extrusion blown with a black and white masterbatch. Co-extrusion packaging for three-layer packaging Composite film, its material composition is PE+ black masterbatch /PE+ white masterbatch/PE+ white masterbatch, the inner layer is a heat-sealing layer, and the outer layer is a printing layer. The black masterbatch in the heat-sealing inner layer plays a role in blocking light. . This kind of packaging adopts UHT sterilization to the product and the packaging material hydrogen peroxide sterilization method, and the shelf life can reach 30 days at room temperature.

Plastic cups is suitable for packing yogurt or juice, according to the material, it can be divided into PP or PS cups. The yogurt in the plastic cups can reach to 15-21 days in cold chain storage and sales distribution.

—Single cup is a prefabricated cup made of thermoplastic material, which is often used to package yogurt, ice cream and other products;
—PS, PET, PP and other thermoplastic sheets are automatically completed on the equipment for plastic cup forming, quantitative filling and sealing and cutting. The common ones are 8,6 and 4 mutli-cups.

The package is usually three-piece cans, used to fill pasteurized milk, sweetened condensed milk and evaporated milk. Filled products are sterilized by autoclave/retort sterilizer to achieve long-term preservation.