This technique uses ultraviolet (UV) light to cut the microbial count in packaging such as closures and cups. French specialist Claranor recently extended this capability for lidding materials used on dairy or dessert lines.
"We haven't yet reached the decontamination level required for aseptic filling," said marketing manager Morgane Busnel. "We've reached a germ reduction capability of log 4.5 on closures, and that would need to be log 6 for aseptic filling. We have achieved log 6 in the lab, but not yet in production."
Disposables
Over recent years, beverage filling equipment companies such as GEA Procomac, Krones, Sidel and Serac have offered alternatives to the traditional wet peracetic acid or hydrogen peroxide sterilisation for bottles. This is partly in order to cut the cost of disposables, but also to reduce the waste management burden.
Most now offer vapour-phase hydrogen peroxide sterilisation. Where polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles are blown and filled in a single machine block, the preform rather than the bottle can be sterilised. But many would like to totally remove the use of chemicals.
UV light
Busnel said: "We have proposed solutions to sterilise the neck of the bottle preform, but not the interior." The idea is that the heat of the blowing process would be sufficient. "We're working on systems to spread the UV light inside the preform, but we're not ready for that yet."
Serac and GEA Procomac filling equipment shown at last year's Interpack exhibition in Germany combined the use of chemical sterilants with pulsed light technology for closures. In at least one case, this is understood to have been using Claranor technology.