Machinery Involved in Packaging Fluid Milk

i. Machinery for single-use packaging

The machinery for single-use packaging involves a pouch-filling machine besides the normal milk handling equipments that are necessary. The available machines normally pack one litre, 500 ml and 200 ml capacity pouches. The packaging material coming out of a roll is suitably sterilized before it is shaped into a chute and sealed vertically to form a pipe. It is then sealed horizontally and a preset quantity of milk is filled from an overhead tank. The pouch is then again sealed horizontally to contain the milk before being cut and stacked manually into crates.The crates are stored in the cold room till marketing.

 

ii. Machinery for Multiple-use Packaging

Bottles, being reusable are returned to the dairy every morning and evening after the market supply and are washed and sterilized in bottle-washers before filling.The most common among bottles being glass, we shall be discussing here, the processes dealing with glass bottle-washing and filling only. The bottle washing operation takes care of pre-rinsing, washing, rinsing and sanitizing the bottles. The clean bottles are then passed onto the filling machine where they are filled to preset volumes before capping, crating, cold storage and distribution.

 

iii. Machinery for Bulk Supply

Bulk supply to hotels, cafes, hospitals and other institutions is generally done in cans in India. These are filled manually and therefore, the process does not require the elaborate machinery that is needed for retail packaging of milk. They can be filled directly from the outlet point of the pasteuriser or from a holding tank provided after the pasteurising equipment.

In the case of bag-in-box type of packages that are used in the western countries,the purchase of a filling machine depends on several factors. These include (a)whether the packing is to be retailed as per volume or weight, (b) the product needs to be aseptically packaged or not, (c) the process needs to be fully automatic or not, among others.

 

iv. Machinery for Long-life Milk

The machinery needed for filling and packaging long-life milk is very expensive.Ultra-High-Temperature (UHT) processing and packaging of milk are employed to increase its shelf life.