Food & Beverage News: F&B Specials - Innovative Tools and Technologies in the Processing and Quality Management of F&B in India

Food & Beverage (F&B) manufacturers are witnessing the emergence of a new health conscious and 'Internationally aware' consumer. With the increasing choices of indigenous and international brands, the Indian consumer is getting more evolved and discerning on aspects like food safety, quality, flavours, taste and aromas.

This evolution of the Indian Consumer is presenting a whole new world of opportunities to Indian manufacturers. It is also presenting new challenges in safeguarding emerging food safety and health norms such as the HACCP for the industry.

Bottled water, carbonated drinks, wine, beer and fruit juices are some categories where laxity in the manufacturing process, storage and transportation can adversely affect the quality of the end product or its organoleptic experience. For example, wine is susceptible to yeast and mold contamination, which may cause off-taste and odour. Microbial management can reduce these risks, by ensuring biological and physicochemical stability as well as organoleptic properties. Detecting these contaminations earlier in the process can significantly reduce the risk of spoiled product released to the market.

In the case of bottled water the challenge is to produce a product that is free of pathogenic organisms and protozoa and safe for customers.

Major F&B companies in India are seeking the solutions and expertise of filtration and purification experts like Millipore India to partner them for safe and reliable production. In addition to product safety, manufacturers are also looking at Millipore expertise to optimize their process efficiencies, yields and economies in a market that is getting increasingly competitive and cost conscious.

Millipore has the process filters and the monitoring tools to control and identify potential contamination from the earliest point of the process until the release of the final product.

The solutions from Millipore are validated and conform to International Standards and HACCP to give manufacturers the assurance they need.

Production processes differ by the type of product and the markets they serve. Millipore's solutions span the entire range from lab to pilot to process scale. From air and water monitoring to sample testing, product QC to final fill and finish applications including the RAPID detection techniques.

The products and services offered by Millipore include applications such as Clarification / Prefiltration, Final Filtration, Tank Venting and Gas Filtration, Housings, Integrity Testing solutions and Process Monitoring tools.

Millipore's Process monitoring Tools quickly and accurately identify presence of airborne and liquid microbial contaminants in raw materials, in-process samples and final product samples as well as within the manufacturing environment.

In-Line Sampling Solutions like MicropreSure Samplers, Monitors and Sampling Valves allow for in-process testing to build quality into the beverage by monitoring microbiological conditions throughout your process, in a few simple steps. This is safer than sampling only the final product.

Water is the main component in most products and processes. Monitoring water quality is therefore critical. Millipore products are designed to aid you in the detection of microbial contamination in water. F&B manufacturers have traditionally relied on wide range of EZ-Pak Membranes, Membrane Dispenser, Microfil, Microfil-V and Milliflex Testing Systems for the analysis of varied samples for various micro-organisms.

With the production environment being one of the main potential sources of contamination, air monitoring solutions such as M Air T Testers, earlier used predominantly by pharmaceutical manufacturers, are now gaining popularity in the manufacture of food and beverages.

Surface contamination monitoring solutions from Millipore include Swabs, samplers and culture media.

Rapid Microbiology Detection is a new emerging area where Millipore is taking the lead. Rapid detection methods allow the identification of microbial contamination earlier, which significantly improves product quality management including the ability to anticipate product failure earlier as well as release products to market sooner.

(The writer Ramesh Raju is Manager- Technical Services, Bioprocess, Millipore India and can be contacted at email: ramesh_raju@milliporeindia.com.)