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 multinational
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
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.”
INNOVATION
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