RTD Beverage Processing Line

1. RTD beverage is short for ready-to-drink beverage, It is a beverage that is made from fresh fruit or vegetable, fruit juice concentrate, fruit juice powder or milk powder, herbal tea, and coffee beans, and filled into small consumable containers like glass bottles, plastic bottles, metal cans, cartons. Most of the beverages we see on supermarket shelves are RTD beverages, it has the characteristics of being easy to consume, easy to carry and have a long shelf life.
2. From the perspective of soft drink classification, RTD drinks are mainly divided into juice-based drinks, milk-based drinks, coffee and tea drinks, and energy drinks, carbonated juice drinks, and alcoholic juice drinks can also be contained in the RTD drinks.
3. The RTD drinks characteristically contain water, a sweetener (usually a carbohydrate, although artificial sweeteners are increasingly important), an acid (citric or malic and phosphoric in colas are the most common), flavoring, coloring and preservatives. There is a large range of additional ingredients that can be used for various effects like vitamins, minerals, nutrition fortifiers, etc.
4. Ready–to–drink beverages can be made from a wide variety of fruits such as mango, guava, apple, citrus, pineapple, coconut, passion fruit, peach, grape, berry fruits, litchi, papaya and plum, it usually contains at least 10% fruit juice and 10% total soluble solids.
5. The RTD drinks processing machines are all made of SUS304 material, they mainly include juice preparation machines, ingredients mixing systems, carbonation systems, beverage sterilizing and filling systems, container labeling and packing systems, RO water generating systems, CIP cleaning systems.
6. The capacity of the RTD Beverage processing line is from 500LPH-10000LPH, all the machines are flexible and customizable with high configuration.

RTD juice drinks: it is made from concentrated juice or fresh fruits, the end products will be filled into bottles, cans, aseptic brick cartons or pouches.

RTD tea or coffee drinks: It is made from fresh tea leaves or tea extract concentrate, the end products will be filled into bottles or cans.

RTD carbonated drinks: Add fruit juice or nutrient fortification substance, color agent, sugar and CO2 to make it into the drinks, and the end products will be filled into bottles or cans.

RTD alcoholic drinks: this drink is a popular trend, it can add juice, alcohol, flavorings, and the end products filled into glass bottles or metal cans. Like the cocktail.

RTD beverage processing flowchart from fresh fruits:

RTD beverage processing flowchart from  juice concentrated:

In general terms, fruits are collected, sorted and washed, and then subjected to a type of mechanical compression appropriate for the fruit concerned. Although there are general fruit presses that can be used for more than one fruit type, fruits such as citrus, pineapple and stone fruits are usually processed in specially designed equipment.

Some fruit types (e.g. pome fruits, such as apples and pears) require mechanical treatment (milling), coupled with a biochemical process (involving enzymes) to break down the cellular structure and obtain the best yields. It is possible to achieve almost total liquefaction by means of an appropriate enzyme cocktail. Additionally, a diffusion or water extraction process can be used to obtain best yields from certain fruits.

This station mainly includes two systems: The powder dissolving system and the RTD drinks preparation system.

The powder and water dissolving system mainly mixes the sugar, flavorings, citric acid and other powder ingredients, after dissolving with hot water, it will be filtered and pasteurized then stored in the SUS304 tanks for use, and this system usually uses one water powder mixer or high shear mixer to finish the process.

RTD drinks mixing and preparation system can add juice, tea extracts or alcohol to make the different RTD drinks according to clients’ different requirements, the mixture is typically done in precise ratios to ensure consistent flavor and quality. After blending, some manufacturers want to make the drinks carbonated, then the mixed drinks will be pasteurized and cooled to 4 degrees and pumped into the carbonation mixer. The mixing system usually uses low-speed mixing tanks with load sensors to do the hot blending or cold blending according to different blending processes.

If the RTD beverage does not contain CO2 or the alcohol content is less than 10%, then the RTD drinks need to be pasteurized or sterilized after formulation and ingredients mixing. The sterilization process depends on the specific situation. The sterilization temperature and time are related to whether the RTD beverage contains fruit juice or other nutrients and whether the later packaging style is aseptic packaging or hot filling. Here are some typical scenarios for RTD beverage sterilizing:

RTD coffee, tea and milk beverages: These types of beverages belong to the neutral beverage, so they need more intensive heat treatment to make the beverage have a longer shelf life. If they are filled into aseptic cartons or bottles, then before filling, they need to use the UHT sterilizing(135-137℃ for 3-5S); If the end products are hot-filled into bottles or cans, then beverage pasteurization(85-95℃ holding for 15-30S) before filling and secondary container autoclave sterilizing(121℃ for 20minutes) will be used.

RTD juice-based beverage: The juice-based beverage is an acid beverage, so when we do the heat treatment, the sterilization temperature can be lower.  If the beverage pH is below 4.2, then the juice can be pasteurized at 90-95℃, then after pasteurization, the juice can be filled into cartons, bottles, pouches, or other containers.

RTD carbonated drinks or alcoholic beverages: These two types of beverages do not need to do heat treatment before filling, as CO2 and alcohol can inhibit the bacteria.

Some other non-thermal sterilizing methods are also used for RTD drinks processing such as high-pressure processing system(HPP system), and membrane bacteria filtration system.

The RTD beverage can be filled into consumable bottles, cans, pouches, and cartons based on different packaging requirements to ensure the end products have a long and stable shelf life. Different packages need different filling machines and filling temperatures, so the filling machines are highly customized according to customers’ requirements.

Traditionally, most beverages were packed in glass. Glass has many attractive features – not least that it is an excellent protective medium – but its overriding disadvantages are its weight and its brittleness. Despite this, high volumes of soft drinks and juices are still packaged in glass,

Some of it is multi‐trip packaging, the development of the board-polymer-aluminum package used to form in‐line boxes, which are packed aseptically, has been perhaps the outstanding packaging development for beverages. The pack provides an almost ideal combination of protection, minimal weight and economic size.

Another important packaging development area is plastic. Various plastics have been, and continue to be, used: for example, high‐ and low‐density polyethylene (HDPE, LDPE), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polystyrene (PS) and various barrier plastics. These can be formed into bottles of conventional shape, or fed into machines producing form‐fill‐seal packages, typically cups. By far the most important plastic is polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Bottles of this material are formed in a two‐stage process. So‐called pre‐forms are made by injection moulding and, in a second process, are then stretch‐blow‐moulded to produce a bottle. PET has properties surprisingly like those of glass, but it does not have the same disadvantages of weight and brittleness. Processing systems that pack small PET containers aseptically are now in regular use.