Hello dear food tech community.
I am looking for a way to contract fill a ready to drink coffee into aluminum cans or plastic bottles or glass bottles.
My coffee is sweetened with oat syrup and has a sugar content of about 4% and a pH value of 6.0. It should be able to be stored refrigerated for about six months, better still 12 months.
What are the technological options for bottling such a product?
Does it have to be UHT heated with subsequent aseptic filling, or are there other options?
After consultation with some smaller contract bottlers, hot filling with subsequent pasteurization is not microbiologically sufficient, as the spores cannot be controlled and chemical preservation at pH 6.0 is hardly possible. Hot filling with subsequent autoclaving of the containers is allegedly not effective as it is too expensive and the packaging is partially dented and damaged during autoclaving.
Do any of you have experience of how the ready-to-drink coffees/cappuccinos that can be found in supermarket refrigerated shelves (usually in cans) are technologically filled?
Many thanks and best regards,
Wolle