Technical Notes
Long-term Sustainability for Wheat
04-12-2011
Wheat needs technological investments to ensure long-term sustainability.
China Biotech on the Rise
17-08-2011
China accounts for 22% of the global population but has only 10% of the world's farmland, making it easy to understand why the country is urgently looking for new ways to use every inch of the arable land.
Bag-in-Box Systems are Booming [2011-06-09]
Many sectors of industry are now changing over to bag-in-box systems as an efficient and productive method for packing food, beverages, chemicals and even varnishes. While the bag-in-box concept is already a well introduced retail packaging format on the wine market it is still only slow to gain ground in the beverage field - both for direct sales to consumers and for food and beverage processing operations and the catering business. Bag-in-box systems have become an innovative packaging solution.
Clear Advantages
The benefits are apparent: by excluding oxygen longer shelf lives can be achieved. This system also has a small footprint for delivery and storage and offers ideal display possibilities thanks to a large printable surface and high-quality finishing options in offset and flexo-printing. Add to this marked weight savings: a 3 litre bag-in-box for wine is about 38% lighter than four glass bottles containing 0.75 litres. Furthermore, this system is compatible with both semi and fully automatic filling processes and suitable for aseptic filling.
The basic underlying idea here is that the flexible inliner collapses as the product inside is removed thereby preventing the ingress of oxygen in the form of ambient air - in contrast to bottles or cans. This means that even products in opened packaging can achieve significantly longer shelf lives. The systems deliver high convenience for end and bulk users and allow for easy recycling thanks to a separation of corrugated board packaging and liner bag. Ultimately, the completely emptied packaging can be disposed of separately, the corrugated board can be reintroduced into the cycle and the used films are increasingly eco-friendly making this type of packaging a pioneering, environment-compatible solution.
Nothing New
The bag-in-box packaging principle has been known for centuries. In the ancient world wine was already stored and transported in wineskins. Although bag-in-box beverages were frowned upon they have gained increasing ground on beverage markets around the world. Modern bag-in-box systems go back to the US chemist William R. Scholle who filled beverages into liquid containers for the first time in 1955. The principle has remained almost unchanged until this very day: beverages are filled into a sheer liner bag made of aluminium or plastic and “coated” with cardboard boxes for stabilisation. The beverage can be poured through a tap integrated into the liner bag.
Beer-in-a-Box
For a long time only non-carbonated beverages could be offered as bag-in-box solutions. Most well-known examples include wine and juices but also olive oils in a variety of sizes. The thin liners did not withstand the pressure of carbonic acid. It was not until September of this year that the German Ankerbräu Nördlingen GmbH & Co. KG launched a world innovation on the beverage market by their own accounts: beer-in-a-box.
The beer is initially brewed and stored in the conventional way. After storage a decarbonator specifically developed for this process reduces the fermentation carbonic acid in beer to one gram per litre. Subsequently, the beer is filled into aluminium bags that are sealed to be air-tight and placed in a secondary carton. Traditional stainless steel barrels or plastic kegs are rendered superfluous. The carbonator than reintroduces the carbonic acid to the beer while being tapped. Froth quality and taste remain fresh assure the manufacturer and there is no difference here to freshly tapped beer.
Global growth
In such countries as Australia and New Zealand the bag-in-a-box concept has been accepted for a long time. Some 70% of Australian wines are offered in bag-in-box units. In the United Kingdom and Scandinavia this packaging format is also on the advance. Fast food giants such as McDonald’s and the like have used these systems for their drinks for over 20 years now. Experts forecast global growth of more than 10% annually for the bag-in-box industry.
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News Articles
Monsanto Extend Research
04-10-2011
GrassRoots Biotechnology and Monsanto Company have agreed to extend their existing three-year research collaboration for an additional two years through January 2014, according to a company statement.
U.S. Winter Wheat Projected Higher
17-08-2011
As of July 3, harvest progress in the Soft Red Winter (SRW) growing area was ahead of normal.
FACYT Formulation Plant
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HMI S.A. built for FACYT the most modern biological products formulation plant in Argentina.
