AboutJim Pfister Expertise Food Engineering/Manufacturing, Food Packaging/Distribution, Engineering Beverage Lines, Reducing operating cost of packaging lines while increasing efficiency. Lean Manufacturing. Incorporating new package technology into existing operations. Training staff to achieve smooth transition from "start-up" to full production. Managing complex projects across multi-disciplinary lines. Equipment PreShipment Factory Acceptance testing and Commissioning programs for new equipment.
Experience Employment history: Over thirty-five years of experience. Managed as much as $40MM in concurrent, multi-disciplinary projects, both domestic and international, and have worked with such firms as Campbell Soup, Coca-Cola, Hershey`s, and Nabisco.
Organizations: An author and speaker, as well as a member of the IoPP. Past Chairman of IoPP`s Consultant`s Council and Member of the Packaging Equipment Performance Committee.
Question Good day, We want to bottle a ready to drink range of tea lattes. We currently use a batch / vat pasteurizer with a heat exchanger to make a probiotic drinking yoghurt. We hope to introduce the latte range with as little as possible changes to our system. We plan to infuse tea in water @60C add milk powder sweetener and pasteurize @ 85C for 20 min. and manually hot fill.We will cool and store @ 4C. I would appreciate advice on how to achieve the best shelf life. What would be the expected shelf life of such product? Is there a difference between plastic and glass bottles re shelf life. I have tested on glass, inverting, resulting in vacuum. Should i try for ambient temperature or distribute refrigerated? Thank you.
Answer George,
Good Friday Morning.
First off, I have never done any design for "tea lattes", so everything I'm going to say will be more general in nature.
And, since you are already manufacturing a milk-like product, you obviously know about all of the processing parameters ( although holding for a full 20 minutes at 85 DegC seems extensive).
I would like to know how you will cool down to 4 DegC, namely, what level of agitation will the product inside the bottle see? If your latte is self-insulating like most food products, the trick will be to get the product in the center of the bottle cooled just as uniformly as that on the edge.
Re: shelf life, I know there's plenty of tea-based beverages sold un-refrigerated, but again, the "latte" part throws me a curve, so I can't say. I can say that the most overlooked aspect of extending shelf life is the need to sterilize the packaging material every bit as stringently as you do the product. Granted, inverting is the long accepted way, but I don't think that will get you the max extension on shelf life. (BTW, there's a really nice article about electron beam pasteurizing in this month's Food Engineering Magazine).
Costwise, refrigerated is far, far more costly than room temp ship/store.
You asked about glass versus plastic. I personally think both can work just fine ( although Starbucks steadfastly keeps their Frappucino drinks in glass only).
Have I addressed all of your points? If not, write me back at jimp.fgepa.com .
