At Food Ingredients Asia 2019, specialty chemicals company Lanxess presented its Velcorin technology, a cold sterilisation agent that offers microbiological stability for beverages.
Added to drinks such as juice, flavoured water, iced tea and wine immediately before bottling, Velcorin is compatible with packaging materials such as PET or glass bottles, cans, cartons, pouches or bag-in-box applications.
Florian Wellmann, regional manager SEA/ANZ, Business Line Beverage Technology, Lanxess, explained how the technology removes microorganisms such as yeasts, moulds and bacteria from beverages.
“Velcorin stops the metabolism of these microorganisms, so basically they die, they starve to death, so that in the end you have a completely microbio-free product (with) no yeast, no mould, no bacteria inside.
“So in that moment when a consumer goes into a supermarket and buys a juice, you can be sure that this product is free from any sort of contamination.”
Last year, Lanxess opened a new Velcorin hub in Bangkok in a move to strengthen its position in Asia and boost cooperation with clients in the region.
The company is responding to an increase in beverage innovation in Asia alongside consumer demands for minimally processed products.
“One of the nice things in the beverage industry is that you see many new things coming up and the innovation never stops in beverage,” said Dr Erasmus Vogl, head of technical marketing, Business Line Beverage Technology, Lanxess.
“We have seen carbonated coffee, which sounds not that exciting, to peanut-flavoured beer types, which sounds more innovative. All these people developing new beverages come to us at some stage, or may come to us, and ask us, ‘Can we bottle that with Velcorin?’.”
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