Megatrends in the beverage industry

In January 2012, France introduced a ‘cola tax’ for all drinks containing added sugar or sweetener. Hungary has had its own ‘chips tax’ - targeting excessively sweet drinks among other things - since September 2011. In Australia, too, a levy of this kind is under discussion. These and other new developments are forcing the drinks industry into rethinking the ingredients and manufacturing processes used in products.

Four worldwide megatrends are currently dominating consumer beverage purchase behaviour. Drinks consumers are becoming more concerned about ‘naturalness’, preferring products made from natural ingredients.

They are also on the lookout for products that confer health benefits - functional beverages are regarded at present as a main driver of innovation.

But naturalness and functional value alone are not enough to keep the consumer happy. Drinking is supposed to be an enjoyable experience, and that means first-rate taste, aroma and mouthfeel. And finally, in the highly mobile society of today, sheer convenience remains a big factor.

These trends are affecting all drinks - water, traditional soft drinks, juices and nectars, energy drinks, sports drinks and even instant coffees and teas.

Don’t let your bits disintegrate

Juice products are a growth market worldwide, with notable demand for new lines. This in turn means process technology must rise to new challenges. Where in the past producers’ main concern has been to maximise output, today’s priority in terms of performance is optimal product quality. It is now more vital than ever that products are not only processed rapidly but also without impairing quality, and under oxygen-free conditions.

When it comes to expensive, premium-segment juices, the prime requirements are high quality and constant consistency. Processing methods highly protective of fruit quality have now been introduced for the production of juices containing whole fruit pieces. Careful handling of the fruit bits to prevent disintegration involves keeping them separate from the juice throughout processing - for instance, the fruit bits are pasteurised in their own separate tube heat exchangers.

Consumer preferences governing vegetable juice production are much the same as for fruit juices. The key requirement is that the juice-extraction process must not impair the product’s natural properties.

Speed, continuity and minimal oxidation are the watchwords here: all three are essential to the production of high-grade juices with high yield.

In the narrower soft drinks field, too, the trend to higher fruit content and use of natural ingredients means there have to be fresh approaches in process technology. These new products are frequently more susceptible to microbiological contamination so it is even more imperative that process components can be efficiently and sustainably cleaned.

For individual syrup bases, life begins in the syrup room. Raw materials go through dissolving, blending, heating and filtration stages on their way to becoming the individual syrup variants, and then move on to the mixing process. New equipment entering the market can assist users to achieve the requisite high levels of precision, reliability, economy and flexibility.

A further important element in the process chain is a modern water preparation plant. The homogeneity of the premix is of key importance when it comes to the blending in of the further ingredients. High product quality and elimination of product wastage are also key factors.

Supplement your water

In the water sector, too, constant innovation keeps paring costs and delivering improvements in microbiological quality. Still table water, carbonated, flavoured - whatever the water type, production involves ever more sophisticated process technology, for requirements ranging from degasification to precision carbonation to hygienic filtration.

Instant and ready-to-drink products made with cereals, blossoms or plant roots may come in future to be used for gently beneficial effects on human health, with the potential for a considerably increased future role as diet supplements. With this end in view, the production process will involve the delicate operation of extracting the valuable active ingredients from plant cells for subsequent blending into the drink. In the view of Euromonitor International, the strongest future growth rates can be expected in ready-to-drink tea and specialty drinks from Asia, because of the associated health benefits. The producers’ ideal is process technology that will ensure meticulous - and hence benefit-conserving - treatment of the tea extract while also maximising product yield. Riding high in the instant coffee markets at present, meanwhile, are the aromatised specialty lines, flavoured for example with vanilla or chocolate.

Research and development have moved into some entirely new areas, such as the DCD process (dynamic cellular disruption), which may in time supersede at least some of the processes currently used in the beverage industry. Improvement of the keeping qualities of smoothies by application of pulsed electric fields is a further exceptionally interesting research field.

Minimising your environmental footprint

Recent decades have seen all branches of beverage technology achieve major advances in reducing consumption of resources. In the brewing industry, for instance, primary energy consumption levels in the mash-house - the industry’s heaviest user - have been cut by well over half. A similar reduction has been achieved in brewery water consumption, now down from what was often two-digit figures to about five litres or less per litre of beer produced.

But there is still more to come: nearly all brewing groups with global reach have issued environmental policy statements that go much further. Consumption of fresh water has a target reduction to three litres per litre of beer by 2015 if possible; or failing that, by 2020 at latest. More ambitious still are the major international manufacturers of soft drinks with their declared target of the ‘closed loop’, meaning a water-in to beverage-out ratio of 1:1.

Alternative and renewable power sources

In most places the sun can provide at least 50% of the thermal energy required by a brewery. The other 50% of the energy can came from combined heat and power (CHP), or cogeneration, fuelled by biogas from anaerobic waste water digestion. This heat reservoir can also be used, with the help of adsorption refrigeration systems, to supply a brewery’s refrigeration requirements. Although ‘cold from heat’ sounds quite innovative, it is in fact established technology. A bonus feature is that the biogas produced can be burnt off to provide back-up heat in the boiler-house.

Depending on location, renewable energy forms such as wind and water can be fed into the power mix at any time. An attractive solution for SMEs can be the use of solar. Also of interest, though not yet quite ready for the market, is the use of wind turbines to produce compressed air which is easily stored for conversion into electrical power on a demand basis by means of a generator. Breweries and other beverage production plants can also be envisaged as well suited to the direct - and hence maximally efficient - physical use of the stored compressed air.

Renewables-based beverage manufacture

By rethinking processes and technologies, beverage manufacturers are finding new ways to ‘close the circle’. For example: biogas consists of about 60% methane and 40% CO₂. Separating off this CO₂ by means of a new membrane technique produces biomethane; and biomethane, with its high and standardised calorific value, can be fed into the natural gas distribution grid. Businesses not in a position to use the biogas-derived thermal energy directly are enabled in this way to convert it into additional profit instead.

The captured CO₂, moreover, is a recyclable substance in its own right. In one vision of the future, renewable energy will be used to produce hydrogen and combine it with CO₂ to synthesise an analogue to natural gas. This end product can then be stored in gas tanks pending return into the system or disposal on the market.

‘Green’ CO₂ from fermentation processes

Across the world’s major growth regions, beverage manufacturers often have no direct access to CO₂ in a usable form. This means costs are high and CO₂ footprints are very significant, because of the distances over which the gas has to be transported and the consequent expense. One alternative used hitherto takes the form of so-called production facilities burning mineral oil or natural gas at deliberately low efficiency in order to retrieve CO₂ from the flue gas. But that cannot be called a genuine solution.

A true source of high-purity ‘green’ CO₂ is to be found rather in fermentation processes such as beer brewing. Modelling to date has indicated that brewery and soft drinks groups will, in future, make a practice of setting up production premises on a combined site, enabling them to harvest, process and use the green CO₂ to best advantage.

But for a production method to be sustainable it takes more than the grand vision alone. The process itself still has to be optimised in every detail. Thus, reliable inline measurement, for example, is no less crucial as a link in the optimised production chain than are the right valves, heat exchangers or sterilisation strategies.

The latest changes and innovations in beverage processing technology will be on view at drinktec 2013, which will take place at Messe München in Munich, Germany, from 16 to 20 September 2013. At this event, around 1500 manufacturers will present the latest technology for production, filling and packaging of all kinds of beverages and liquid food to approximately 60,000 visitors from more than 170 countries. Also encompassing raw materials and logistics solutions, the themes of beverages marketing and packaging design will round off the portfolio.

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