The term soft drinks covers a wide range of beverages, usually carbonated, taking in things like colas and lemonades but also flavoured waters and sports drinks. It’s important that when they’re manufactured steps are taken to prevent soft drinks from becoming contaminated and to ensure that they reach the customer in peak condition.
The high sugar content makes this type of drink prone to mould or yeast, which means that their microbiology needs to be carefully managed during the production process. This applies whether making bottled, canned or draught soft drinks.
Production process
Soft drinks are popular, selling millions of litres each year, so the process used to make them is big business. The biggest portion of soft drinks is water and this is mixed with a syrup to form the finished drink.
The syrup is a mixture of essences, flavours and sugar, which goes through a clarification process to remove any crystals and other particles. This is added to the water, which itself will have gone through a comprehensive filtration process to remove microorganisms, yeast and mould to ensure it’s free of contaminants.
The next step is to carbonate the drink. This involves adding carbon dioxide gas to give it its fizz. Again the CO2 needs to be checked to ensure it’s free from contaminants. Obviously, non-carbonated drinks don’t receive this step. Similar are carbonated and have water added as they’re dispensed, not in the factory.
Packaging
Once the drink is made, it needs to be packed for shipping. Again this process needs to ensure cleanliness at each stage. Draught drinks are usually supplied as syrup to which water and gas are added in the dispensing process. They’re packed in bags within a box to protect them in transit.
Bottled and canned drinks are mixed in the factory, then undergo a filling process. Modern plastic bottles are supplied in a compressed form that is blown into shape before filling. Some places how ever will have pre made plastic bottles all ready to go that probably were made with a Plastic Moulding machine. Several products can be made with these so to see if it would benefit your company you might look at https://www.meadex.co.uk/materials/plastic/#moulding and ask any questions to enable them to do the best for you. Once again, attention to cleanliness is needed at all stages of the process in order to ensure the quality and purity of the finished product. This plus a reliable, stable and properly sealed container is essential to ensure that the final consumer receives the drink in the best possible condition.
