What's In Your Beverage? How to Ensure Quality Control with CO2
Analytical Support
Calibration standards, performance audits, and the FDA's
never-ending safety, labeling, and inspection requirements are
just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to dealing with the
increasingly stringent quality control standards of the beverage
industry. As these quality standards become stricter, beverage
producers are increasingly called upon to get products to market
faster using fewer resources, while simultaneously managing
ingredient quality, and ultimately, risk.
Mix rigorous regulations and mounting market challenges with
exploding competition and the opportunity for enormous economic
reward, and it becomes obvious that products must be perfect the
first time around to fulfill production requirements, comply
with distribution standards, and ultimately provide each
consumer with the exact same exceptional product every time.
All of which makes quality control more necessary than ever.
Quality Assurance in the beverage industry starts by ensuring
that top quality gases are used to perform the carbonation
process and continues through the bottling and distributing
process with a high-tech quality control examination.
On the top of the list of gases regulated in the world of drink
is carbon dioxide (CO2), one of the main components of many of
the beverages produced today, including soda, beer, sparkling
water, and sports drinks. CO2 has also become a major
constituent of orange juice through supercritical CO2 processing
during pasteurization and has even entered the world of dairy
with the addition of "Refreshing Power Milk," a new carbonated
milk hybrid, to the refreshments market.
Leading beverage manufacturers in this $700 billion industry are
taking the critical step to ensure purity of beverage-grade CO2
by using analytical support gases and quality assurance
services. Since ensuring purity of CO2 is such a crucial factor
in the beverage production process, choosing a specialty gas company
to provide purification, calibration, and cross-reference
services for your products should be a priority.
Keep in mind that specialty gas companies outside of the
beverage industry hold a uniquely favorable position as
authoritative and neutral third-party qualifiers. These
companies provide experience in developing trace contaminant
calibration standards as well as independence from the supply
and certification of beverage grade CO2, which helps to ensure
unbiased statistical and graphical reporting.
Regardless of the industry from which the service company
originates, it is vital that it provides specialized service in
the CO2 industry and adheres to industry standards on commercial
quality with regard to CO2.
Some more guidelines to consider when choosing a Quality Control
Specialty Gas Service: * Your CO2 supplier should provide
certification and analysis indicating compliance with commercial
quality standards, such as ISBT, the International Society of
Beverage Technologists
* Your quality assurance service company should have the
resources available to create custom gas mixtures for CO2
ingredient quality control. Typical components include (but are
not limited to) the following:
Methane Ethane Ethanol Dimethyl Ether Ethyl Acetate Methanol
Ammonia Nitric Oxide Nitrogen Dioxide Carbonyl Sulfide
Acetaldehyde Benzene Cyclohexane Ethylbenzene Diethyl Ether
Toluene m-Xylene p-Xylene o-Xylene
* Preparing two sets of gas mixtures should be standard
procedure for your chosen service company, with double analysis
of each set to check for minor component stability, and
guarantee a shelf life for the components.
* To further assure accurate results, your service company
should identify inaccuracies and verify analytical processes by
having participant labs analyze blind internal audit standards.
* Your service company should furnish a report to your company's
quality control department detailing analytical results,
including a statistical representation of the performance of
each participant laboratory.
* Membership in the International Society of Beverage
Technologists (ISBT) Quality Committee, Carbon Dioxide
Subcommittee, should be maintained in order to keep abreast of
emerging analytical methods and technologies within the beverage
industry.
* Top of the line service companies will provide CO2
Cross-Referencing Services to confirm the accuracy of critical
analytical processes. These programs provide beverage
manufacturers with a reliable and objective method of monitoring
the performance of multiple laboratories who qualify carbon
dioxide used in carbonated beverages as well as confirm
ingredient quality. Cross-Referencing Service should be
considered in order to:
o Achieve the highest degree of confidence in the accuracy of
analyses; o Confidentially identify inconsistencies or other
problems in analytical processes; and o Maintain reliable and
accurate intra-company quality assurance.
* Most importantly, make sure the service company has top rate
Internal CO2 Audit Standards to meet the most demanding accuracy
requirements for virtually any type of customized mixture and
that a Certificate of Accuracy is provided for each cylinder.
By choosing a Quality Control Specialty Gas Service
carefully, your company can be sure to keep pace with the
ever-expanding list of regulations -- and quite possibly gain an
even larger piece of this multi-billion dollar pie.
This article is copyrighted by Scott Gases. It may not be
reproduced in whole or in part and may not be posted on other
websites, without the express written permission of the author
who may be contacted via email at
scottgas@digitalbrandexpressions.com