Why do tea drinks need hot filling?

Hot filling is relative to traditional beverage processing technology. For non-carbonated drinks, the traditional production process is to put the preheated or cold products into bottles (cans), cover them, pasteurize or sterilize them at high temperature according to a certain sterilization formula, and then cool and dry them to make the products. During hot filling, the product is sterilized by ultra-high temperature or HTST, and then filled at 80℃ ~ 95℃. After sealing, the inner wall of the packaging container and the bottle cap are sterilized by the temperature of the product itself. This technology was widely used in foreign soft drink industry in 1980s, and the output of hot-filled beverages in Japan exceeded that of 1987 cold-filled products.

Hot filling technology has the effect of high efficiency and energy saving. Because all operations in the hot filling process are completed on the assembly line, it can effectively improve production efficiency and reduce energy consumption and manual operation. Hot-filling technology can retain the flavor and nutrients of the product to the maximum extent, because hot-filled drinks must be sterilized by HTST or UHT at the same time, and the temperature rises and falls quickly, and there is no need for secondary sterilization after sealing, so the heating time of the product can be reduced and the thermal damage to the flavor and nutrients can be reduced.