Oystar sees surge for iced coffee drinks in Japan

The German manufacturer recently installed a Flexline FL 8/8 CA cup filling machine at Bakoma, yoghurt supplier in Poland, and has received an order for its aseptic technology in China, Japan and the US.

It is also exhibiting a prototype machine which has ‘a good output versus investment ratio‘ at Interpack 2014 in Düsseldorf, Germany, in May.

Middle Classes on the rise​

Dr. Heinrich Sielemann, MD, for Oystar Hamba and Gasti, told FoodProductionDaily the number of middle class people in Asia is increasing and so is their overall income.

“This has led to a trend in adopting western style products in the ready-to-drink market, such as iced cafè latte,cappuccino and tea,​”

“It’s very popular in the spring and summer months and the coffee products are now one of the biggest markets in Asia for us but we have not seen a similar surge in Europe or the US​.

“We predict future partnerships with countries such as South Korea and Vietnam because some of our customers are global players and are moving more into this market with our machines​.

Surge in enquiries​

“In turn, these manufacturers are influencing the local dairy brands and rather than copy the machines, they want to have similar products so they contact us to enquire about our technology. This gives us a chance to have a good business model in a competitive market​.”

Sielemann added its dairy technology is suitable for yoghurt and cafè latte because they are sterile products, ready-to-drink and can have a longer shelf life.

“You can store them outside the cooing chain for a long time because of the quality of our machines​,” he said.

“We are looking at Indonesia and Thailand now to see how we can enter this market with our equipment. India is also an area of growth​.”

Bakoma bought its sixth machine from Oystar Hamba, which will fill and seal preformed cups with milk products. The filling quantities are between 90g and 400g and the Flexline FL 8/8 CA can produce of up to 38,400 cups per hour.

Dosing equipment​

The cups are cleaned by ionized air and suctioning to remove any particles then sterilized with peroxide and dried with sterile air. The machine has three different dosing devices for the products being filled. All of the dosing equipment is designed for CIP/SIP treatment.

Pre-punched cover plates also sterilized with peroxide are used to seal the cups. For continuous production, the foil lid stations are equipped with automated changeover devices.

The adjustable sealing heads seal 16 cups per cycle. A ring-shaped cylinder heater warms the sealing heads, which are controlled and monitored using special software. The tightness of the foil seal is examined before the cups are removed by an integrated packer that sets them in four stacks at a time.

Apart from three BK series cup filling and sealing machines from Oystar Hamba, the dairy has put two form, filling and sealing machines from Oystar Hassia into operation at its manufacturing plant outside Warsaw, and each of these machines is equipped with an attached final packaging system.