Tunnel and flash pasteurizers: what are they and how do they work?
The pasteurization phase, carried out with a tunnel or flash pasteurizer, based on the requirements, is a crucial stage in the treatment of beverages to ensure maximum safety and quality. Find out the features of Comac pasteurizers.
In this article:
- What is pasteurization
- Features and advantages of a tunnel pasteurizer
- Features and advantages of a flash pasteurizer
What is pasteurization
Pasteurization is the thermal process, involving a combination of temperature and time, through which potentially pathogenic micro-organisms in a product are inactivated, thus safely increasing the product’s shelf life.
The process of pasteurization can be applied to different types of beverages:
- Beer
- Non-alcoholic beverages
- Fruit juices
- Energy drinks
- Isotonic/sports drinks
- Iced tea
When it comes of beer, pasteurization is not always necessary. While craft beers, which by their nature have limited territorial distribution and shorter product consumption times, generally do not require pasteurization to keep the product “alive”, beers from industrial processes almost always undergo a thermal treatment. However, this treatment should be as minimally invasive as possible to preserve the organoleptic and nutritional features.
Comac offers two highly efficient and versatile solutions for optimal beverage pasteurization: the tunnel pasteurizer and the flash pasteurizer.
Features and advantages of a tunnel pasteurizer
Designed for bottling and canning lines, tunnel pasteurizer from Comac allows the pasteurization of a pre-packaged product, thus applying thermal action to both the container and the cap or lid.
Here’s how it works:
The container moves inside the tunnel on a conveyor belt and is subjected to showers of water at increasingly higher temperatures, bringing it to the pasteurization temperature. For beer, this temperature is around 62°C, with a cycle time of approximately 8 minutes.
The container’s temperature is maintained at the pasteurization temperature for the specified duration and then gradually lowered with showers of decreasing-temperature water.
By relying on Comac for your tunnel pasteurizer, you not only get excellent performance and great versatility in treating different types of products but also enjoy many other advantages, including:
- Control and automation function
- Customization and configuration of the system
- Presence of an operator panel that sets the feeding frequency of bottles and cans and defines the production cycle duration
Learn more about our tunnel pasteurizer
Features and advantages of a flash pasteurizer
With the aim of eliminating spoilage microorganisms from beverages and ensuring their complete safety for extended periods of time, Comac also offers its flash pasteurizer which, unlike the previously described model, performs the pasteurization of the product before it is packaged into bottles, cans, or kegs.
For beer, the cycle time is very short, around 20 seconds, and the pasteurization temperature is approximately 71/72°C.
Once the product has been pasteurized, it is cooled and sent to a pressurized storage tank before being transferred to the filling machine.
Some of the key features that make this machine highly reliable for the treatment of beer and other beverages include:
- AISI 304 stainless steel structure
- Fully automatic operation
- Complete and constant control of work cycles
- Excellent hygiene and safety standards
- An operator panel that allows verification and adjustment of all machine control parameters
- An electronic graphic recorder that stores the values of all variables controlling the pasteurization phases.
- In standard versions for small-to-medium productions, the machine takes up minimal space.
At Comac, you will find the best solutions for the pasteurization of your products! Contact us to learn more.