The Hindu Business Line : What’s aseptic packaging?

Packaging makes it possible for us to buy food produced in different parts of the world. Using aseptic technology, sensitive products are packed in a safe way. If cartons are used, which protect the products from light and oxygen, they can be stored for several months without refrigeration and without any deterioration in product quality. Milk, which is extremely perishable, can thus be transported and made available to millions of children and adults in areas far from the nearest dairy and with a tropical climate and poor infrastructure.

Aseptic product treatment in combination with aseptic packaging means that all micro-organisms which could start a destructive process in the product are removed. It’s a tested and reliable technique for giving food a long shelf-life without adding preservatives. Milk, juice, soups, sauces, water, olive oil, wine, tea and soy drinks are just a few examples of food that can be packed under extremely hygienic conditions in safe and convenient aseptic carton packages. A Swiss company, Ursina, had developed a new technique for sterilising milk. By injecting steam it was possible to produce commercially sterile milk without the loss of taste and nutritional value. Tetra Pak and Ursina combined their knowledge in joint research and development, and after several years the Swiss UHT process could be combined with Swedish packaging technology. In 1961 Tetra Pak presented the world’s first aseptic packaging machine for “bacteria-free” milk at a press conference in Thun, Switzerland.

Aseptic technology totally changed the distribution and sales of milk products and later on the whole industry for liquid food. It became a new way to sell milk – in a carton package, direct from the shelf to the consumer, without refrigerated storage.

Milk no longer needed to be transported to shops and consumers every day, and the light, safe, disposable packages had major advantages compared with heavy, fragile glass bottles. Expensive refrigeration space at the dairy and the shop could be radica

(Source: Tetra Pak)

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