MA C H I N E R Y
ASSISTING PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
WITH NEW MINI ASEPTIC SOLUTION
In today’s fast-moving food and drink industry
innovation is king. Everyone is looking for the
next product to give their business the edge
and food fashions and trends come and go
with increasing speed.
Food manufacturers
often need to use
seasonal ingredients,
potentially offering
limited edition flavours
or varieties of key products: from
herbal ice creams and summer
berry drinks, to fruity condiments
and vegetable smoothies.
As a result, the life of innovative
products is often shorter than
has been seen previously and
it can be hard for new product
developers and marketers to
pick which will survive in the
market and which will fall away.
All of these factors create
challenges for operational factories
and production lines. No business
wants to invest in a fully scaled line
for a product that may have limited
(albeit still successful) sales.
The new HRS Asepticblock Mini
Series allows manufacturers
to produce new trial products
with the minimum amount of
product in a short time, reducing
the unnecessary expense or
wastage that can accompany
full scale trials, and alleviating
the need to suspend or interfere
with the routine production of
regular products. It allows the
reproduction of a full-scale
final pack, but from as little
as 20 to 50 kg of product.
Matt Hale, international sales
and marketing director at HRS,
explains the driver behind this
concept: “The Aseptic Mini
Block Series was born from the
need of many of our small and
medium sized customers to
produce relatively small quantities
of aseptic products, but who
are prevented from doing so by
high upfront capital costs and
low return on investment.
“Traditional aseptic processing
lines consist of two sections;
one section is the steriliser or
pasteuriser (based on a suitable
heat exchanger according to
the product type), and the
other is the aseptic filler.
The HRS Asepticblock Mini Series
is designed for such producers
working with a range of high
value products including fruit and
vegetable purees, fruit-based
products, condiments, sauces,
soups, prepared foods and many
others. The design combines
both the steriliser/pasteuriser
and aseptic filler in one package,
mounted on a single frame with
a single control panel. As well as
resulting in a compact and flexible
unit which requires less space, the
material and manufacturing costs
are significantly reduced, meaning
that prices for the Asepticblock
Mini are up to half of those
associated with conventional units.
One of the first customers is a
multi-national food and beverage
company, specialising in the
production of own label fruit
products, juices, smoothies,
drinks and ice cream. “With
just 20 to 50kg of product, the
company can replicate their full
industrial process, producing
the end product in the same
aseptic format as they would
with the full industrial scale
system,” explains HRS Heat
Exchangers’ technical manager
The new HRS Asepticblock mini
provides a compact and complete
solution for producing small
volumes of aseptic products.
Francisco Hernández Ortiz.
“The Asepticblock Mini was
installed in their Spanish
production plant and linked to
other equipment, such as blending
tanks and homogenisers, so that
they are now able to process a
wide range of different products
on site without the need for any
external processes. This has
greatly increased the agility of
their R&D process and facilitated
new product development.”
The HRS Asepticblock mini
includes both the steriliser
and aseptic filler in a single
package with a single control.
"The new HRS Asepticblock Mini Series allows manufacturers to produce new
trial products with the minimum amount of product in a short time, reducing
the unnecessary expense or wastage that can accompany full scale trials"
32 APRIL 2019