Packaging beverages is one of the most important aspects of the food industry. This is Because Beverages are an important part of our life. And we need to distribute beverages all around the world while ensuring their safety and quality. Therefore selecting the right packaging is very important. The role of Packaging companies is to produce different advanced packaging solutions for beverages T to increase their shelf life.
Different packaging materials produced in packaging companies
Well, there are about a few types of packaging materials that the packaging companies produce. They are given below.
- Plastic containers
- Glass containers
- Metal containers
- Paperboard
- Rigid containers
- Aseptic packages
Clearly You should know that plastic is not a single material. But a range of different polymers. The polymers belong to this category are,[1] [2]
- High-density polyethylene (HDPE)
- Low-density polyethylene (LDPE)
- Polyethylene terephthalate (PET)
In this chapter, you will get an understanding of the above packaging materials. And also you will know how to use them in different beverages.
First of all, we should know about the types of beverages available. Then we can choose the most suitable materials that packaging companies deliver us with. After going through the above details we will update you with the possible companies you can buy them.
Classification of beverages
Non alcoholic Beverages
Clearly carbonated and non carbonated drinks belong to this category.
- Non-carbonated drinks – Obviously fruit juices, fruit nectar and drinks like tea and coffee comes under this category
- Carbonated drinks – carbonated soft drinks, as well as tonic water and soda, comes under this.[2][5]
Alcoholic beverages
Well, here you have two categories as fruit sap drinks and grain-based drinks. You can divide both categories into two sections clearly as distilled and Non distilled.
So the further classification is as follows.
- Fruit or sap based – wine and brandy
- Grain-based – Whisky and beer[2]
Beverage packaging materials produced by packaging companies
1. Glass
Obviously glass is a very preferred packing material for beverages. Although there are novel packages, Packaging companies still focus on manufacturing them. Because It ensures the quality of the product in different ways.[6]
But It is important to perform the thermal treatments in a careful manner in order to maintain the glass with maximum quality.[2]
However, nowadays packaging companies have improved the properties of glasses for modern packaging requirements.
- They are light in weight for more convenience
- And also there are Containers of caps- with easy opening techniques
- surely there are coatings too to prevent abrasion
What are the beverages that you can package??
Surely this includes,
1. Non- carbonated beverages
- Obviously fruit juices, nectar and coffee include to glass packaging
2. Carbonated beverages
- In terms of carbonated ones, you pack soft drinks, soda and tonic water in glass jars with the crown cork sealing it.[2]
3. Alcoholic beverages
- Now it’s obvious that you can use glass for many of the beverages we drink. Surely for alcoholic drinks like beer, whiskey, brandy, and wine, it is the most common package.
- For wine, you can use the glass bottle with natural cork sealing it. And for the beer, you can use the glass bottles with crown cork sealing it.[2]
What are the advantages and disadvantages??
Advantages
- Easily recyclable and reusable
- More importantly, they are chemically inactive
- Excellent impermeability to vapors and gases
- obviously, they are very useful for sterilization because of good heat stability
- Proper insulation properties and rigidity
- You can produce them transparent or either colorful.
- Surely Packaging companies use different colors on glass for light protection[3]
Disadvantages
- Surely there can be high transportation costs for glass
- This is a result of brittleness
- Obviously the breakage also can be there due to pressure, thermal shock, etc. [3]
Packaging companies that offer glass packaging
Surely this includes,
- Beatson Clark
- Gerresheimer
- Vetropack Group(Switzerland)
- Pattesons Glass Ltd
- Coorstek Inc
- Owens-Illinois
- Imperial Packaging
- Ardagh (Ireland)
- Caroxson
- Neville and More
- P. Wilkinson Containers Ltd
2. Metal containers
Mostly the packaging companies produce metal containers as tinplate cans. Clearly They consist of mild steel. And they coat them with tin or either chromium. Usually, these containers are 2 piece or 3 piece cans.
However, as an advancement, now packaging companies produce aluminum cans too. It’s better to apply lacquer to avoid corrosion. [7]
What are the beverages that you can package??
Obviously most packaging companies produce different metal containers that you can pack beverages. They are as follows:
1. Non carbonated beverages
- Clearly fruit beverages like fruit juices, drinks as well as coffee come under this.
Surely For fruit drinks and coffee, you can use tinplate cans consisting of steel. They can be either two-piece containers or three-piece containers[2]
2. Carbonated beverages
- Surely For carbonated drinks like soft drinks(Coca-cola, soda, Fanta, Sprite, etc.), you can use either three-piece tin plate cans or two-piece aluminum cans.[7]
3.Alcoholic beverages
- In addition, you can buy metal cans from packaging companies For some alcoholic drinks like beer.
Packaging companies produce different kinds of metal cans according to consumer specifications. Now let’s see what are their pros and cons.[2]
Advantages
- Metal cans give better physical protection
- Surely their barrier properties are better
- And also they are recyclable
- Most importantly, unlike glass, most of them are not brittle[3][7]
Disadvantages
- Clearly, if you use aluminum cans there are high costly
- Unlike glass, these metal cans can react with the substances in beverages [3]
Packaging companies that offer metal packaging
Surely this includes,
- Amcor Limited (Australia)[18]
- Crown Holdings (U.S)
- Ball Corporation (U.S)
- Ardagh (Ireland)
- Silgan Containers LLC (U.S)
3. Plastics
You may think that plastic is a kind of single substance prepared in different ways. But it’s not. Plastics are a range of materials made of different polymers.
Especially for beverages, the main types of plastics you can use are HDPE, PET, and LDPE. Surely they have many special characteristics that make them more efficient than other packaging materials.[8]
Clearly those characteristics include low electric conductivity, comparatively low density, toughness, and non-brittle properties. There’s no doubt that Most of the packaging companies produce a high fraction of plastics. This is because most consumers like you mainly prefer plastic.
What are the beverages you can package ??
For Fruit beverages
Surely some fruit beverages like fruit drinks, juices you can use PET bottles. Most of the fruits are more prone to microbial contamination. Therefore hot filling is necessary to increase the shelf life.[9]
As packaging companies manufacture PET bottles in a thermoset manner, there’s no doubt that you can use them for hot filling of juices. Usually, packaging companies manufacture hot filling bottles heavier than cold filling bottles.
For coffee
Clearly for beverages like coffee you should choose the packaging design based on several factors. Well, those factors include,
- Ingress of water vapor (Entering)
- Ingress of carbon dioxide and volatiles
- permeability to oxygen
Obviously, for tea packaging, the packaging companies introduce several plastic types. In case of increasing the performance, companies add laminates for the plastic pouches.[4]
Surely those laminates include,
- laminates made of MET-PET/LDPE (MET PET – metalized PET)
- Laminates made of LDPE/ PET/Al foil
It is obvious why packaging companies more trend to produce laminated plastic pouches. Because they have high performance.
For tea
Surely for tea also you can use plastic packaging materials. Packaging companies manufacture plastic pouches, envelops, and jars for that.
Moreover, you can package them in paperboard lined with PP( polypropylene). Clearly it can be one of the most common packages
For carbonated drinks
Clearly PET is the best plastic material for packaging soft drinks. By increasing the thickness of the package you can prevent the carbon dioxide loss.
As PET satisfies most of the packaging requirements of soft drinks, you can consider it as the best package for carbonated drinks.[9]
what are the Advantages you can get by using plastic??
- Surely they are chemically inert
- Flexibility is high
- No doubt they have good heat-sealing properties
- Very low transportation costs because they are Light in weight and inexpensive
- Easy to mold
- You can print them attractively[3]
what are the disadvantages you can get by using plastic??
- Although some plastics are recyclable, there can be issues with regard to plastics due to complex nature.
- And also the permeability can be varied for different gases, light, etc.[3]
Packaging companies that offer plastic packaging for beverages
Surely this includes,
- Swiss pack (U.K)
- Beverage Plastics
- Ambro (U.K)
- RPC Group (U.K)
- Rosti
- Berry M&H
- P. Wilkinson Containers Ltd
- Sri Gayathri packaging industries
4. Rigid containers
Well, these are not the primary packages that have direct contact with the beverage. Surely Packaging companies manufacture them for holding the bag type packages during transportation as well as storage.[10]
Most of these bags are difficult to transport as they are made of flexible films. However, the term rigid containers apply directly to fibreboard cartons(corrugated) when there are small capacities like 50-liter bulks.
what beverages you can package ??
Obviously it includes,
- Fruit drinks in bags
- Dairy drinks
Packaging companies that offer rigid packaging materials
Surely this includes,
- DS SMITH PLC (London)
- Packaging Corporation of America
- WestRock (Georgia)
5. Aseptic packages
Obviously these packages are made of plastic, paperboard, and aluminum foils. The effect of multilayers has a significant effect on protecting beverages from spoilage. Clearly aluminum foil layer act as a barrier for light and oxygen.
Beverages that can package
- Fruit juices
- Fruit pulps or concentrates
