Nestlé Waters said it was the first global water brand to use the coating technology, which delivers a weight reduction of up to 17% without changing the bottle shape or colour, and has been approved by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA).

A Nestlé Waters spokeswoman told BeverageDaily.com that the technology "allowed for a better capacity of carbonation retention and extended product shelf-life from the current 12 month period to 15 months".​

San Pellegrino had already achieved a 15-month shelf life using multilayer PET bottles beyond Europe, she said: "The new PET bottles treated with the coating guarantee a perfect carbonation of the water, despite temperature changes during transport, time elapsed from the filling of the bottles up to their consumption, and finally, weather differences between destination countries."​

The technological advance led Nestlé Waters to install two new coating machines within its 500ml bottle production lines located at the San Pellegrino Terme Plant, in Bergamo, Italy.

Radical shelf-life extension​

San Pellegrino sparkling water packaged in 500ml bottles suffered from a faster loss of carbonation than larger formats, the firm said, adding that the new coating - which involves coating the internal surface of the bottle with a thin silica film known as silica dioxide - solved the problem.

Valeria Norreri, Nestlé Waters international marketing manager, told BeverageDaily.com that the development of the coating reflected investment in R&D to improve overall water performance.

Quizzed as to why the company had finessed the technology for 500ml bottles alone, and how easy it would be to roll-out the coating across all San Pellegrino bottle sizes, he said: “It has been a huge investment to do this first step. The supplier technology is not currently able to work on bigger sizes.​

“It’s the size [500ml] that sells more… and the technology so far is designed for small sizes. It is perfect as small formats are the ones more subjected to carbonation loss. The advantages are better barrier and also less PET”.​

Beer makers already benefit​

Norreri added that Nestlé Waters’ unnamed partner – with whom it worked to develop the technology for San Pellegrino – had supplied the coating to brewers for years, and that the Swiss firm had conducted extensive tests before using it in PET water bottles.

Asked whether production costs would increase for Nestlé Waters, and if these would be passed onto consumers, Norreri said:“The product is already on the market, and sure we have had an increasing cost driven by this technology, but that allows us to lightweight the bottles, adding value also on [the] environmental side. No price increase has been charged to consumers.​

“We believe in innovation to better serve our clients, ensuring the best performance of the product, and we are confident they will recognise and appreciate our commitmentto quality.”​

Nestlé Waters said that the two new San Pellegrino coating machines would operate at a line speed of 24,000 bottles per hour to keep up with customer demand.