Beverage safety is primarily essential. Not only for those who manufacture but also for those who consume. Once the exact composition of the beverage is obtained, it becomes possible to warn about precautions and other precautions.
In other words, the tests regarding beverage safety are important not only for quality but also for care and inspection.
Thus, this week’s top story is about beverage testing and how it works in the production flow. This article will give you simple guidance as the first step to divide into the beverage world.
What is beverage testing?
For all beverage products, the compositional quality and safety need to keep track of contamination, product consistency and certify regulatory compliance from raw ingredients (water, additives, and fruits) to the final product.
Beverage testing is an essential part of the efficient production of harmless, valuable drinking products. Today’s beverage industry demands an inspection, and testing ensures good quality and protects public health. As adulteration prevails in the beverage industry. Hence the test requirement has a significant role.
The goal of the tests is to obtain accurate nutritional information so that businesses and their customers can make decisions based on actual nutrient data.
The importance of beverage testing
Often, creative beverage entrepreneurs work with new and innovative ingredients that may not be in a database yet. And in other words, some beverages contain so many components that it can be challenging to gather nutritional information from manufacturers. Beverage testing can help brands get accurate information without deeply digging into the documentation and complex calculations involved in using databases.
Products like functional drinks, fruit juice, and probiotic drinks that use fermentation will have different content depending on the base and fermentation process. Testing is the ultimate way to get accurate ingredients for those products.
Beverage product testing provides information about various characteristics of the products, including the structure, composition, and physicochemical properties. Beverage product testing is important because of other reasons:
- To test the quality of the product. This is to verify claims made by the manufacturer of the product on specific issues, for instance, the ingredients used.
- For quality control, the tests are done through the manufacturing process to analyze the quality of the beverage ingredients and the finished product.
- Beverage inspection and grading are performed regularly to ensure the manufacturers meet the set laws and standards.
- Drinks must have a standardized nutritional label; therefore, the product must be analyzed to verify the claims.
- Research and development are necessary for manufacturers to improve and provide high-quality drinks, healthy and affordable drinks; this requires studying and analyzing the products already in the market.
- To protect a manufacturer from rumors and infamous. The business has probably seen many products in the market being labeled unhealthy by their competitors or other rumor mongers; with beverage testing, such words can not spread out.
4 standard types of beverage testing
Beverage testing includes several qualified testing methods, all of which are highly advanced, to provide accurate information about the nutritional ingredients and safety of the products. The most common types of beverage testing are:
1. Analytical Chemistry Testing:
Chemistry testing is a vital part of beverage safety testing because it tests various additives, allergens, contaminants, minerals, and heavy metals. While some allowable amounts of certain compounds, minerals, and so on, limitations depend on the product and its intended use.
For instance, if a product is labeled as allergen-free, it must be tested to ensure no known allergens are present. The same can be said of metals in the product, as some consumables include supplemental metals, such as iron. However, the presence of heavy metals, such as mercury needs to be monitored carefully.
This testing can also be used to search for properties that may increase the chances of a product spoiling or going rancid – ensuring the quality of products being sent to consumers.
2. Sensory Testing:
Sensory testing is a scientific method to test how the human senses evaluate consumer products. It involves using the human senses to describe how a beverage looks, smells, tastes, sounds, and feels, to objectively measuring, quantifying, and analyzing its qualities.
Beverage creators can implement sensory analysis at various stages in developing and scaling their product to improve decision-making and increase the probability of success.
Therefore, it is worth noting that this test can be performed with the final products and their raw ingredients and intermediate stages of production.
3. Nutrition Analysis:
Involves finding out the nutrition composition of the beverage; the information gathered is used on the product’s label.
4. Microbiology Testing:
Microbiology test is specifically testing for living organisms and pathogens that could be not good for consumers. The test looks not only for pathogens known to make consumers ill but those that can affect the overall quality of the drink being sent out to grocery stores and other businesses. Testing for spoilage organisms and indicators is crucial to ensure that only the best beverage products make it to consumers.
Other microbiology testing services may include:
- Bacterial and fungal speciation/subtyping
- Environmental monitoring assessments
- Foreign material identification
- Hormone testing
- Spoilage investigations
How to have the best beverage testing process
Avoid some of the most common testing errors
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In Hard seltzers drinks
One of the biggest mistakes we see is treating hard seltzers like beer when it comes to calculating carbs. It’s hard to measure carbs directly. It is a method done by measuring protein ash in the natural extract in beverage products. There is no way to set seltzer measurements based on the standard factors for beer because seltzers differ in protein and ash compared to beer. The business has to make sure that it’s tested every time to ensure it’s getting the correct carbs.
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In probiotic beverages
Probiotic beverages can also be more complex when it comes to nutritional analysis. Like hard seltzer, probiotic drinks are fermented. Fermentation can vary, so it’s critical to understand that your nutritional content will change as well.
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In light beverages
One more thing to keep in mind is that all these light beverages and high gravity brewing were diluting afterward. It is not as easy to change nutrition information as most people might think. Nutrition testing can guarantee a more accurate nutrition facts panel for diluted beverages as many nutrients do not have a linear relationship that can simply be adjusted with a calculator.
Take advice from experienced experts
Working in the testing of beverages, it’s totally impossible for a business that does not specify lab work to deal with a wide range of testings. Even hire a testing facility to solve the problems. It would help if you still took some pieces of advice for your good.
Ask for help from someone who has experienced working in a laboratory workplace or has a long-standing career measuring food and beverage quality. Only valuable experience can handle the unexpected problems that can occur anytime in your testing process.
Use third-party testing facilities
Beverage testing companies offer extensive testing and quality control for all categories of beverages, helping brands and retailers preserve product quality from factory to shelf.
Beverage safety testing organizations can utilize several different tests to ensure the quality of goods intended for consumer consumption.
They also offer certification under many internationally recognized schemes to guarantee the quality and safety of the products.
3 Most promising beverage testing companies
Thermo Fisher
Thermo Fisher Scientific is a recognized leading company in providing analytical solutions. From carbohydrates and sugar substitutes to vitamins and additives, the company is unique in its commitment to provide fast, accurate testing and labeling information for all applications in this industry.
Beverage Testing Institute (BTI)
Beverage Testing Institute (BTI) was launched in 1981 as the first international wine competition in the United States. With adding beer, spirits, cider, sake, mead and more to the wide repertoire in 1994, using industry-leading qualified methodology co-developed with Cornell University and a one-of-a-kind approach to trade focus groups.
BTI’s evaluations are so much more than the international competition. Beverage Testing Institute has become the most professional and reliable source for alcohol beverage product testing and critical reviews globally.
The Institute is the research, advisory and engagement company that helps alcohol brands be better. Their value to the trade depends on their unique position as advocates for the alcohol beverage industry, an independent publication, long-standing history and consumer-trusted brand. On this foundation, they develop, refine, recognize, and launch the world’s best beverages.
With 39 years, BTI clients and partners have accelerated their development processes, improved the quality of their products, and amplified their brands’ reputation and worth through quality-centric messages and marketing strategies that they have developed with them.
Hach
Hach was founded in 1933. The company has led the industry in developing innovative solutions to help beverage businesses manage their water more efficiently and accurately.
Nowadays, Hach products can be found worldwide and serve industries ranging from multiple drinking and food and every other category related to water. Hach’s broad line of instrumentation and chemistries has been strongly developed for more than 80 years to ensure water analysis be better – faster, simpler and more informative.
As a wholly-owned subsidiary of Danaher Corporation (NYSE: DHR), Hach is equipped with the complete support and resources to provide everyone with the breakthrough products and expert guidance you’ve come to expect.
Hach’s water testing solutions and expertise have grown, so has their global footprint. Today, more than ever, they are acting upon their mission of ensuring water quality for people around the world.
Conclusion
In short, reading this article, you seem to have a complete understanding of what beverage testing is, how it controls the production process, its impacts on consumers’ safety, and some trusted testing companies you should know.
This blog post belongs to the Tan Do beverage blog service, which is a helpful way for us to communicate with our dear customers and people interested in the beverage industry. Don’t hesitate to contact us to explore more fascinating topics.
Tan Do is a global beverage ODM/OEM manufacturer and supplier located in Vietnam. Since 1996, we have built trust and credibility not only throughout Vietnam but also in many parts of the world. Leveraging state-of-the-art technology, we have crafted thousands of products that align with ISO, HACCP, HALAL, FDA, and many other standards.
