Sterile products placed in sterile packages greatly enhance the length of time they can be safely stored. This is especially true for plastics used in the food processing industry. Ensuring that a PET bottle is sterile is normally done through a flash heat or chemical step in a long process of manufacturing or recycling. Now, AEB (Advanced Electron Beams) has come up with a compact electron beam emitter that is small enough to be able to quickly enter and exit a plastic bottle. This means that electron beam sterilization for aseptic PET bottles is now a viable alternative to traditional methods for guaranteed sanitization.
This new procedure is done at room temperature in a matter of seconds per bottle. There is no problem with chemical or water residue. Electron beam sterilization is performed quickly and can be a final step immediately before containers are filled and sealed. This creates a great deal of confidence that reused plastic bottles are, in fact, aseptic.
The main advantage of electron beam technology is that it is faster and more efficient than traditional sterilization methods. AEB has overcome past physical barriers for its technology to become the preferred sterilization process for many industries. New equipment designs have addressed space and power usage concerns. The sterilization step can be completed swiftly with the bottle being immediately ready for the next step in the assembly line.
A Short History Of Aseptic Plastic Bottles
Many food companies have found that they can increase their product’s shelf life by as much as 4 times by simply using aseptic plastic containers. Orange juice, for example, used to have a 15 – 28 day shelf life (depending on subjective criteria). Now it can last 60 – 90 days by being packaged aseptically at 4 degrees Celsius. While the advantage of using original aseptic packaging was clear from its early development, this has not been so obvious for recycled bottles.
One complication is the use of multiple materials for aseptic packaging. This makes it very difficult to recycle because separation of material types is paramount for a simple reclamation process. For a long time, aseptic PET bottles were rarely recycled. Too many possible impurities tended to rule out confidence in an easy solution.
The recycling industry used to operate upon the assumption that “Whatever the eye cannot see will not hurt the customer.” This was a significant physical barrier to direct reclamation of aseptic containers. This is why most plastic was not recycled for decades in the U.S., even though the basic technology was available to do so. In 1990, the state of Maine outlawed recycling of PET aseptic bottles – giving the industry one more reason to procrastinate in the development of a viable program that could be implemented.
The confusion surrounding this issue lingered for years; but today recycling this type of plastic is rapidly becoming the norm. Innovative ideas have driven the cost of reclamation down considerably. In many instances it makes sense to take advantage of these cost savings. The key is confidence in the sterility of reusable containers. AEB’s new sterilization process is just one additional inventive idea that can make the operation more efficient without sacrificing safety.
Regardless of your specific sterilization or autoclave needs, you should take a peek at this free report before you purchase. It could save you a lot of headaches.