Tetra Pak Unveils New Processing Line for Drinks

Tetra Pak has launched a new low- energy processing line for juice, nectar and still drinks (JNSD), designed to take beverage processing to a new level of efficiency.

The technology uses a unique combination of pasteurization, filtration and UV light technology to treat beverages in two separate streams, which are aseptically blended together into the final beverage.

Instead of pasteurizing the whole volume of the product, the new production line separates out water and pasteurizes only the concentrate. Water is treated separately with filtration and UV light, which requires a lot less energy.

In the new JNSD line, customers reduce energy consumption up to 67 per cent and water consumption used for cleaning-in-place, sterilisation and product change-over is cut up to 50 per cent.

Subcategory Manager, JNSD and amp; Other Beverages, at Tetra Pak, Maria Norlin, said: “We realised that we needed to rethink JNSD processing and find a more sustainable solution, that at the same time still provides a high level of food safety & quality assurance for our customers. The launch of our new low-energy JNSD processing line, ‘Best Practice Line for JNSD with Aseptic Blending,’ illustrates how we are innovating with traditional processing methods in pursuit of more sustainable and efficient solutions. Our decision to split the existing JNSD line into two separate processing streams for treatment allows us to offer our customers processing options that can help them achieve their climate goals, and enables the industry to contribute towards global sustainability efforts.”

According to Norlin, “After many years of low growth, we see new opportunities for our customers on the horizon, as people increasingly search for ways to lead a healthier lifestyle, and this trend has accelerated during the spread of Covid-19. We hope this new production line can help customers capture the growth opportunities in a more cost-efficient way.”

Tetra Pak food and drink scientists and processing engineers set ambitious goals for rethinking and redesigning the JNSD processing line. In 2019 a white paper was released outlining the production concept, which was presented at the International Fruit and Vegetable Juice Association Technical Workshop in March 2019.

In October 2019 at the Juice Summit, the presentation of the new production concept was recognised with the IFU 2019 Innovation Award.