The Concept of Food&Beverage Cold Chain Technology
- The food cold chain is a supply chain system with the purpose of ensuring the quality of perishable food and maintaining a low-temperature environment as its core requirement.
- It is always under the specified low-temperature environment in all links of beverage production, storage, transportation, sales, and before consumption.
Application of Cold Chain Technology in Beverage Production
Nutrient-rich or heat-sensitive beverages
Beverages rich in vitamin C: It can maintain the nutritional content and flavor of the product to the greatest extent. Like NFC orange juice, After NFC orange juice is pasteurized, it is cooled to about 4℃and filled into PET or glass bottles. The later process including warehousing, transportation and sales distribution needs to keep 0-5℃ environment with the cold chain technology. The shelf life can reach 7 days to 30 days according to products PH value and packing style.
Microbial sensitive beverage
Pasteurized pure milk, soybean milk or yogurt: Dairy products are rich in nutrients, sensitive to temperature, and bacteria are easy to multiply. Cold chain technology is used widely in pasteurized milk production, Cold chain milk products can also be called ESL pasteurized milk, with this technology, the shelf life is greatly extended to 21 days.
Cold Chain NFC Juice or ESL Milk Filling Process Comparison
| Item | Sterilization Flowchart | Filling Temperature | Storage Condition | Filler Configuration | Beveerage Quality |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hot Filling Technology | 115℃-121℃ for3-10S | 85-89℃ hot filling | 35-35℃ Ambient Temperature | Filling machine structure is simple | Poor taste, loss of nutrients with 1 Year Shelf Life |
| Aseptic Filling | 121-140℃ for 3-10S | 25-30℃ Normal Temperature Filling | 25-35℃ Storage | Filling machine equips with SIP,CIP,SOP, COP system, filling room with hundred-level purification | Good taste, retain nutrients with 12 months shelf life |
| Cold Chain Filling | 85℃-95℃ for 10-30S | 5℃ cold filling | 5℃ Cold Chain Storage And Sales | SIP, CIP, COP,SOP with Filling Room Thousand -level Purification | Good Taste, Retain Nutrients With Shelf Life 30 days. |
Cold Chain NFC Juice or ESL Milk Production and Storage Process
NFC Juice: Fresh fruits or vegetables after juice extracting, then adding the necessary ingredients and mixing evenly, then after pasteurizing and cooling to 5°C, filling into bottles. The bottled juice is stored in cold storage, and then transported by the refrigerated truck to the supermarket freezer (2-6°C), and finally sold to the consumer (0-10°C)
ESL milk: Fresh milk after receiving, checking, purification, then pasteurizing and cooling to 4℃ filling into gable-top cartons or bottles. Then the milk in containers storage, transporting and sales are in cold environments.
Cold Chain NFC Juice or ESL Milk Filling Machine Key Points
The NFC juice or pasteurized ESL milk has strict requirements for bottle filling machine, here list the bottle filling machine key points when filling such heat-sensitive products:
- Disinfectant preparation system
- Aseptic air conveyor system
- Bottle disinfectant unit
- Cap disinfectant system
- Pasteurization system for product
- Sterilize product storage and balance tank
- UHT system for sterile water
- Sterile air&(or) nitrogen preparation system
- CIP system and SIP system.
- Isolator system for sterile zone
- NASA 1000 class cleaning room
- COP/SOP system for sterile room
- Exhaust gas treatment system
- Bottle sealing system
- Pure steam generator system(food grade)
- Cold filling system(5-in-1, two disinfectant bottle rising process, sterilize water flushing, filling and capping process)
- Technical parameter inspect and recording system
- FFU system
- HEPA and ULPA filter
