Liquid foodstuffs

As is only natural, the packaging and filling of liquid foods will present special cases that depart from typical patterns.

Economic requirements, under the pretext of satisfying consumer demand, have led to the emergence of packaging made from new materials, such as multi-layer composite materials designed primarily for milk and fruit juices. For these, each layer of the material has its own function within the packaging, and the advertising argument is to provide the best possible protection for the liquid foodstuff from light, but also to offer the packaging :

• a rectangular cross-section ideal for grouping ;

• a large communication surface ;

• remarkable machinability in a form fill and seal process involving aseptic or related filling.

The fact that, long before this type of packaging, an opaque bottle existed for milk and fruit juices shows that the carton is not the only packaging to benefit from the above-mentioned advantages linked to product quality, and that while for the packer, the carton offers ease of arrangement in secondary packaging and a reduction in packaging machine footprint, there is nothing in this for the consumer.

The packaging of champagne wine, or other wines made using the so-called "traditional" method, calls for very special packaging, for which a bottle will undergo :

• filling ;

• crown corking ;

• followed by unclogging and removal of a portion of the "liquid + deposit" product;

• level filling after introduction of another liquid (shipping liquor);

• a definitive cork and wire cork.

Between the first filling and the final capping, several months (or years) will pass, and in the meantime, the container will have undergone position changes that are part of the process.

Large containers (tanks or cisterns) appear to be much simpler to pack than small containers, as they require no major machinery for either filling or cleaning. However, they appear to be sensitive to pressure and, above all, to the vacuum that can develop after steam sterilization and alkaline washing when they have contained a carbonated liquid. On the other hand, they are difficult to inert with high gas purity in the substitution atmosphere.

The pressurized keg for carbonated beverages is the culmination of research which, going back to the wooden barrels of our ancestors, has attempted, without succeeding in any elegant way, to offer a tamper-proof packaging that...