The beverage manufacturing process explained – Tan Do Beverage

Many start-up beverage companies fail because they lack knowledge and expertise. The beverage manufacturing industry is full of complexity and trade secrets. Thus, young companies often don’t know how to optimize their manufacturing process.

At Tan Do Beverage, our goal is to help beverage brands launch successfully. So in this article, we’ll dive into all details of the beverage manufacturing process. Read this article to access our knowledge library on beverage manufacturing.

What is beverage manufacturing?

Beverage manufacturing is the process of turning raw materials into ready-to-drink beverages. These drinks must be shelf-stable, free of bacteria, and have long shelf-life. To achieve this, beverage manufacturing companies use modern packaging and pasteurization methods.

Ready-to-drink beverages, the result of beverage manufacturing

Modern beverage manufacturing practices led to a boom in ready-to-drink beverages. These shelf-stable drinks can be transported long distances and sold cheaply. As a result, they made beverage products easily accessible across the globe.

Thanks to beverage manufacturing, our beverage choices are so much more diverse, stimulating and exotic.

What is a beverage manufacturer?

Beverage manufacturers work with all steps of beverage product development. They have (1) manufacturing facilities to produce beverages, (2) research and development teams to develop new drinks, and (3) marketing, distribution and logistics system to sell their products.

Thus, many established beverage brands, like PepsiCo, are also beverage manufacturers. Companies that only have manufacturing facilities, with no retail marketing or brands, are often called private label beverage manufacturers.

What is the beverage manufacturing process in factories?

The beverage manufacturing process is very nuanced. Each beverage manufacturer has their own unique processes and methods. This distinctiveness allows them to optimize the beverage’s quality and protect their trade secrets.

However, there are still some crucial stages that all manufacturers have to adopt. These are the 6 essential production steps that every beverage manufacturer must adopt.

Overview of the beverage manufacturing process – by Tan Do Manufacturer

1. Water treatment

Water is vital to beverage manufacturing. You need water to clean the factory, pasteurize, and mix your liquid drink formulation. It is expensive to buy water elsewhere and ship it to your factory. So, most manufacturers will use the water from their own factory. It can be from either the public water supply, or an underground aquifer (but only with large investments).

Both these supplies must be further treated at the factory before use. This step has 2 purposes: (1) ensure that the water is safe for human consumption; and (2) maintain the flavor consistency of the beverages (believe it or not, plain water also has flavors).

Here is the common process of water treatment inside a beverage factory:

• Clarification and filtration: The first step is to remove dirt particles, algae and any contaminants from the water.
• Disinfecting: Factories will either use chemicals (chlorine, Fluoride) or activated carbon filters to eliminate bacterias and pathogens.
• RO filtration: RO (or reverse osmosis) filtration will remove the remaining contaminants and chemicals after the first 2 stages. After this, the water is finally ready for use.

This water will then be used to mix the beverage contents, wash the equipment and for many other purposes.

2. Prepare the commercial formula

To manufacture any type of beverage, you have to prepare its commercial formula. A commercial formula will follow an exact recipe with precise ratios for ingredients (water, flavorings, colorings, minerals, fresh ingredients and other additives).

This step makes sure that all batches will have the same taste and quality. In addition, the commercial formula must also regulate factors like: flavor, taste, color, texture, nutritional values, sweetness, shelf-stability and drinking experience.

You can read more about beverage formulation here.

3. Homogenization

Achieving consistency and homogeneity in beverage manufacturing is incredibly difficult. Liquids are very unpredictable, and there is a high risk of clumping and sediments.

Clumps can appear when powders aren’t mixed thoroughly, or when solid ingredients like fruits aren’t blended up small enough. These clumps can clog up the filling machines’ nozzle and pump. Repair cost and delayed manufacturing would be damaging to the business.

Fortunately, manufacturers can employ many safety checks to avoid this. Centrifugal and blending machines will create a smooth, consistent liquid. Mixing tanks will thoroughly heat up, mix and dissolve granular ingredients (sugar, vitamins, etc.). And, filters are installed in the pipelines to remove oversized particles.

Manufacturers can also install homogenization machines. These machines will blend up all the ingredients to get a small enough size.

4. Filling the liquid into its packaging

Filling is the most important step of the manufacturing process. This is where your beverage product is packaged into its container. Beverage filling machineries will load up the packaging, pump the liquid into containers then hermetically seal it.

The most common beverage packaging are aluminum can, plastic bottle, glass bottle, aseptic carton box, and aseptic pouch. Each type will use a different filling machine. Read below for the most common types of beverage filling machines.

Beverage filling machines are the most important equipment in the factory

Another important aspect of filling is the technology used. Beverage processing and filling technology is crucial to preserving flavor and food safety. Below are the 3 most common processing methods in the beverage filling stage:

• Hot filling: The beverages are pasteurized using high heat, and pumped directly into the container. The heat from the liquid will also kill pathogens inside the container. Filling temperature will depend on the container’s material (aluminum can, plastic bottle, etc.) and the beverage’s heat tolerance.
• Cold filling (or aseptic filling): The liquid drink is pasteurized by many methods (heat, pressure, etc.). Then, it’ll be cooled down to around 5oC to preserve the flavor. The cold drink will be filled into an aseptic packaging (pouch, box, etc.), in an aseptic room in the factory.
• Retort processing: The retort process only applies to beverages in aluminum cans. It combines hot filling and retort pasteurization. The canned beverage will be pasteurized twice: ONCE with the hot filling of liquid into the cans, and TWICE when the cans are cooked inside a retort machine.

Different types of beverage product, packaging and filling machines will use different processing/filling technology.

5. Pasteurization

Pasteurization is crucial to ensure food safety in beverage manufacturing. This marvelous breakthrough allows beverages to be shelf-stable and safe for mass consumption. Pasteurized beverages ensure the safety of consumers and can be sold at better prices.

Most pasteurization methods in beverage manufacturing use heat and steam to destroy pathogens. Here are a few examples of common beverage pasteurization methods.

• UHT (Ultra-High Temperature): Ultra-High-Temperature Processing heats the liquid beverage up to 140oC in 5-6 seconds. The beverage is heated up in a system of holding tubes before cooling down and filling.
• HTST (High Temperature – Short Time): Also known as Flash Pasteurization. This pasteurization method heats up the liquid to around 72oC in ~20 seconds. The beverage is heated up in a system of holding tubes before cooling down and filling.
• Tunnel pasteurization: This pasteurization method is most commonly used in retort processing. The canned beverages, after filling, will go through a steam tunnel, to be heated at around 60oC in 8 minutes.
• Retort pasteurization: Instead of a tunnel, retort pasteurization uses a retort machine. This is another method used for retort processing. It uses steam and pressure to cook the canned beverages inside a sealed tank. There are many types of retort machines.
• HPP (High Pressure Pasteurization): High pressure pasteurization uses ultra high temperature to break down the cells of harmful microorganisms. It is a new pasteurization method that does not require heat.

You can read more about pasteurization for beverage manufacturing here.

6. Labeling and packing

This final stage is like a beauty salon for the beverages. This is where your label and brand designs are applied.

There are many types of labels that can be used for beverage products: heat-transfer labels, plastic shrink labels, paper labels, or sticker labels. Traditionally, these labels are applied by hand. But now, automation has created many types of machines to replace manual labels. And they usually can apply the labels better than humans, with fewer flaws .

Afterwards, it’s only the matter of combining them into packs (of whichever number you need), put them in carton boxes and ship them out to the retail outlets.

What are the most manufactured beverages in the world?

Manufactured beverages (or ready-to-drink beverages) are pasteurized and packaged in containers, like cans or bottles. These containers protect the drinks from spoilage. Here is the list of 4 most manufactured types of drinks in the world:

1. Soft drinks

Soft drink is the most widely manufactured beverage in the world. In 2023, the world produced and consumed over $250 billion USD of soft drink products.

Soft drinks are made by combining water, sweeteners, flavorings and other ingredients (like juices, caffeine, etc.). Manufacturers can also add CO2 to make a carbonated soft drink. The result is a refreshing, flavorful beverage to quench thirst and satisfy sweet cravings.

These soft drinks are usually packaged in aluminum cans or plastic bottles. They have longer shelf life than other types of beverages, and can be widely sold in stores. Thanks to these traits, soft drinks can easily.

Soft drinks are the most manufactured beverage in the world

2. Bottled water

We can’t survive without water. That’s why bottled water is the second most popular type of manufactured beverage. All major beverage companies (Coca cola, Pepsi, Nestle,…) have their own brand of bottled water products (Lavie, Dasani, Evian, etc.).

Bottled water is great for a quick drink on the go. It is also a good alternative to tap water in regions with poor water quality or disaster areas with damaged public water systems.

3. Tea and coffee

Manufactured tea and coffee are also called Ready-To-Drink tea and coffee. These RTD products offer a convenient, on-the-go alternative to traditional tea and coffee drinks. Instead of spending hours boiling and brewing, you can just open a bottle of tea drink and sip away.

4. Juice

Pre-packaged and manufactured juices are another big beverage manufacturing segment. Juice brands such as Tropicana, Ocean Spray, Simply offer convenient and instant juice products that can be consumed right out of the bottle.

Manufactured juices make many exotic fruit juices more accessible across the world. Their convenience is also a big selling point. As many of us know, it’s such a hassle to make fresh juices at home.

Which materials are used in the beverage manufacturing process?

Key ingredients make up the formula and signature taste of the beverage. All manufacturers have their own secret combination to win customers.

Raw ingredients and material is crucial to the beverage manufacturing process

But in general, there’s a mix of ingredients that appear in almost every manufactured drink. Below is the list of common ingredients and materials used in beverage manufacturing:

• Water: You can’t make a beverage without this. Water used to make the formulation must be filtered and treated to ensure food safety standards.
• Fresh fruits and plant-based ingredients: They are used in many exotic or health-boosting beverages. The fresh ingredients will back up the health claims, or create unique flavors. These can be fruits, vegetables, medicinal plants (aloe vera, ginseng, agave) and other superfoods (chia seeds, basil seeds). These ingredients are sourced fresh, and will be processed at the factory.
• Sweeteners: Sweetness is the most basic taste of beverages. The most common types of sweeteners are high fructose corn syrup, natural cane sugar, table sugar (sucrose/saccharose) and alternative sweeteners (stevia, aspartame, etc.). These usually come in syrup or powdered form.
• Flavorings: Flavoring compounds create a more intense and attractive flavor for the drinks. They can create all sorts of flavor, such as fresh fruits, flowers, nuts, herbs, coffee and tea leaves. These food grade flavorings can be powder, liquid or extracts.
• Colorings: Food colorings create a more attractive and iconic color of beverages (think Coca Cola’s iconic dark caramel color). These coloring additives can be either natural (dragon fruit power) or artificial.
• Preservatives: Food grade preservatives prevent spoilage and protect consumers’ health. Despite the negative perception, these preservatives kill all the disease-causing fungi and bacteria. This is why manufacturers now use natural preservatives (like ascorbic acid).

Read more: How to develop a unique beverage formulation?

What are the tools and equipment in the beverage manufacturing process?

Each process in the beverage manufacturing process requires different sets of machines. They serve a very specific but crucial purpose. Without these machines, products might be contaminated and become unsafe for consumption.

Below is an overview of the most common machineries in a beverage production factory.

Table 1: The most common machineries in a beverage factory

Conclusion

The beverage manufacturing industry is very diverse, with many complexities and closely guarded trade secrets. As a result, emerging companies often must acquire knowledge to optimize their process and create success.

That’s why we’ve created this free guide—to equip you with the knowledge you need. We hope you find it helpful in navigating the complexities of beverage manufacturing.