⚙️ Filling line
Also known as: bottling line
Automatically packs milk into bottles and cartons.
A filling line is a chain of machines that fills cartons, bottles or cups with finished milk, seals them and prints the labelling. A large line runs almost without people. Operators and engineers watch the settings, packaging changes and cleaning.
For pasteurised milk, the key things are cleanliness and cold. The milk arrives chilled from a buffer tank and goes straight into a cold room after packing. UHT milk needs an aseptic line. Aseptic means “free of germs”: the product and the packaging are sterilised separately, then brought together and sealed in a sterile environment. Only this way can milk keep for months without a fridge.
The Swedish company Tetra Pak installed the first machine for filling cardboard tetrahedrons in 1952. The aseptic version appeared in 1961, and the rectangular “brick” carton in 1963. Packaging not only holds the milk but also protects it from light and oxygen. Light destroys vitamins and gives an off taste, so an opaque carton protects milk better than a clear bottle.
Wine
Bottling is filling bottles with wine and sealing them. It is one of the last stages of winemaking. Before bottling, the wine is usually clarified, filtered and checked, so that it is stable and clear. It is then piped to the bottling line.
The bottling line is simple. Bottles are washed and rinsed, then filled with wine. Air is removed from the bottle as far as possible, so the wine does not oxidise; often a little inert gas is used. The bottle is then sealed with a cork, a screw cap or another closure, labelled and packed in cases. Small wineries bottle by hand or on small machines, and large ones on automatic lines.
Wine is bottled much as milk is: similar bottling lines are used for wine and milk. But there is a difference: wine needs a special bottle and closure, because it may be kept for years. After bottling, wine is sometimes aged a little longer in the bottle before sale. Bottling is tied to wine in general and to its storage.
How it connects to milk
⚙️ Filling line → kind of → 🍷 Wine → linked → 🥛 Milk
Links
- Used for
- 🔄 Filling
- Who works with it
- 🧑🔧 Maintenance engineer
- Part of
- 🍷 Wine
- Wine and milk
- 🔄 Filling
Frequently asked questions
What is aseptic filling?
It is packing where the product and the packaging are each sterilised separately, then brought together and sealed in a sterile environment. UHT milk is filled this way.
Why is milk usually sold in opaque cartons?
Light destroys milk's vitamins and gives it an off taste. Cardboard protects from light better than clear glass or plastic.
Similar
Sources
- Wikipedia: Tetra Pak
- Tetra Pak Dairy Processing Handbook: Pasteurized and ESL dairy products
- Tetra Pak Dairy Processing Handbook: Long-life dairy products