PLANT BASED DAIRY ALTERNATIVES 2021
Serac
Cup decontamination using pulsed light
Serac has made pulsed light decontamination solution
available for cup filling lines. This technology offers an
intermediate level of performance between HO2 and
2UV decontamination, already part of Serac’s offering.
Pulsed light enables to address new applications, such
as the packaging of yogurts and desserts without additives
or based on plant milks, which are growing fast.
Specifically designed for each application and extremely
compact, Serac's pulsed light decontamination modules for
cups, lids and covers can be originally installed on the line or
added later as part of an upgrade. Manufacturers can thus
progressively adapt their production tool to market change.
Reinforced decontamination for plant-based
or additive-free desserts and yogurts
The microbiological quality of core ingredients, combined
with the addition of sugar and a lower acidity of the final
product, make plant-based desserts and yoghurts more
sensitive to the development of bacteria and molds. The
same applies to the reduction or elimination of additives in
milk-based yoghurts and desserts.
The conventional cleaning of cups and lids with ionized air is
often insufficient to guarantee an adequate shelf life. Further
decontamination is necessary to ensure sufficient reduction of
the microbiological load. Intended for health and environment
sensitive targets, these products naturally call for dry, chemicalfree
decontamination solutions, such as UV and pulsed light.
A chemical-free solution, efficient and fast
Pulsed light decontamination enables manufacturers to
guarantee the absence of chemical residues in cups and to
significantly reduce the environmental impact of their packaging
process, linked to water consumption and the generation
of toxic effluents.
Pulsed light exposes cups, lids and covers to very intense
flashes (50,000 times the intensity of the sun's rays
on earth), which destroy the cell membrane and break the
DNA chains of microorganisms. This results in a bacteriological
reduction superior to that of a UV treatment, which
only affects the DNA chains.
Reproducibility of the results is obtained through the
customized design of the reflectors and the monitoring of
the energy delivered, which ensure that light homogeneously
reaches the entire surface to be treated. Also, the
exposure time required by pulsed light, less than one millisecond,
is perfectly compatible with high throughput rates.
Available for rotary and linear fillers
of the Serac range
Serac’s pulsed light decontamination modules can be combined
with the Neo rotary fillers (with outputs from 1,500 to
6,000 cups/hour and 3 dosing stations) as well as with the Linea
linear fillers (outputs ranging from 6,000 to 40,000 cups/
hour and up to 5 dosing stations working simultaneously).
They can be used to decontaminate all types of materials:
PE, PS, PP, PET, PLA, cardboard, aluminum and even glass.
Serac's pulsed light offer thus covers all needs in terms of packaging
materials, production volume and recipe complexity.
Serac offers dry and chemical-free decontamination
solutions for ultra-clean packaging with pulsed light (3 log
reduction) as well as for aseptic packaging with e-beam (up
to 6 log reduction). The integration of pulsed light is in line
with Serac's commitment to support all customers in reducing
their environmental impact.
Cup treatment by pulsed light in a Neo cup filler Alu foil treatment by pulsed light in
a Linea filler
January/February 2021 ¦ international-dairy.com · 29
/international-dairy.com
