Technological developments in aseptic packaging are bringing substantial efficiency benefits for the food and beverage processing industry, as well as delivering food safely to consumers.

The aseptic process involves sterilising the product and package individually, filling the package with the product, and then sealing the carton under sterile conditions without the product being reinfected by micro-organisms.

According to the technical director of Tetra Pak Oceania, Quan Brown, aseptic technology opens up many different markets due to the long shelf life of products without refrigeration. “The consumption growth of aseptic packages is on average five percent per year, and in some countries it’s as much as 10 percent,” he said.

“Technical advantages and higher speed in processing and packaging are increasing the interest in aseptic technology in the industry at a time when the requirements for product safety are growing.

“Whilst pasteurisation can be used to kill the bacteria in food that causes illness, it is considerably more difficult to kill spores that can be formed by certain bacteria. Therefore, Ultra High Temperature (UHT) is required with one or more separate heat treatment stages.

“The latest aseptic processing and packaging lines provide greater efficiency to help drive down costs. Tetra Lactenso Aseptic with OneStep technology, for example, is an all-in-one customisable system that simplifies food processing to cut running costs by up to 50 percent, and eliminates the need for pasteurisation and intermediate storage.

“In addition, advances in packaging systems such as the Tetra Pak iLine can reduce running costs by up to 40 percent.”

Automation

The Tetra PlantMaster system is an advanced scalable automation solution that is applicable for production of anything from flavoured milk and juice products, to whey powder and icecream, ensuring a high level of accountability and quality control.

Problems such as blockages and bottle-necks can be detected rapidly by this technology, and by mechanising most of the process, labour is minimised, accuracy is improved, and waste is reduced.

“Faster filling machines are enabling greater volumes of production and the Tetra Pak A3/Speed iLine is the fastest line available from Tetra Pak with a maximum production capacity of 24,000 packs per hour,” Brown says.

“Customers requiring a greater degree of flexibility have the option of the Tetra Pak A3/Flex, which allows for easy switching between cartons of different shapes and sizes.

Above: A Tetra Pak A3 Flex filling machine.

“Tetra Pak is also conducting field trials of new eBeam sterilisation technology for carton packaging which is designed to lower energy use, reduce carbon emissions, and support higher line capacities. When launched, eBeam will play a significant role in operation of the new Tetra Pak A3 filling machine for super high speed packaging.”

In addition to developing innovative technologies for its manufacturing customers, Tetra Pak has a focus on the increased consumer demand for packages with better environmental performance, and on cartons that can easily be used by people on the go and older people.

“An increasingly urbanised population is driving a need for portable aseptic products, so we are making developments to carton openings and offering cartons in different shapes and sizes, as well as designing packages that are easy to open for older people,” says Charles Vorrath, marketing director of Tetra Pak Oceania.

Bag-in-box technology

In the early 1980’s a radical bag-in-box technology was developed in Australia by one of the pioneer manufacturers of the iconic ‘wine cask’. The new method used a system of sealed membranes fitted to the filling port on the bag, providing a steam sterilisable and resealable interface between the sterile product supplied to the filling machine and the pre-sterilised bag interior.

The concept quickly gained acceptance as the system of choice for many of the major producers, particularly for critical low acid products such as dairy, coconut milk, biomedical, and delicate fruit and vegetable applications.

Bags to suit this system are now produced worldwide by several major flexible packaging manufacturers and range from two litre retail juice packs with a dispensing tap through to 1300kg multilayer high barrier bulk storage units.

In 2012, Engi-O was established in Melbourne to continue the development and manufacture of the aseptic filling machines and associated equipment for the ‘membrane port’ system and also a range of conventional non-aseptic filling equipment.

Ian Anderson, who is a consultant to Engi-O, is the inventor and original developer of the membrane port aseptic bag-in-box system. He brings over 30 years of food technology and engineering experience in the flexible packaging industry to the company.

Anderson says the company has retained alliances and mutual development arrangements with machine manufacturers in Europe and USA that also operate as Engi-O agents in those markets.

“Being independent, Engi-O is free to liaise with any bag manufacturer and any of the suppliers of upstream aseptic processing plant. Seamless control and mechanical integration between the process and packaging parts of any aseptic installation is essential for its safe and reliable operation,” he told Food magazine.

“For what is a relatively simple principle, aseptic processing and packaging can pose some quite complex issues in compliance with process safety requirements and legislated standards.

“Depending on the product application and country of installation, and particularly for critical low acid products such as in dairy, vegetable, meat, and biomedical applications, an individual machine may have to comply with vigorous ISO, CE, 3A, JIS, EHEDG, and other national standards of control and construction of the equipment. The whole installation may require validation to satisfy the strict requirements of organisations such as the USFDA.

“Engi-O is well versed in these issues and can adapt its bag-in-box filling technology to comply with specific regulations, as demonstrated by such recent diverse projects relating to Australian dairy, soymilk and fruit processors, a Canadian vegetable puree operation, and a New Zealand nutriceutical supplier.

“Aseptic bag-in-box is now a well-established segment of the industrial packaging spectrum, and the industry is turning its attention to new developments in processing technology.

“These include ultra-high pressure treatment, pulsed electric field sterilisation, microwave, electron beam, pulsed light, and other interesting concepts used alone or in combination to provide high quality sterile product to the filling machine.

“Our challenge is to be ready with the appropriate packaging and filling system as these developments become viable.”

Above: Process control with Tetra PlantMaster.