Carbonated Beverages

The market for carbonated beverages has grown dramatically overrecent years in most countries, and this growth has requiredchanges in the way factories are run. Like other food products,soft drinks are required to be produced under stringent hygieneconditions. Filling technology has progressed rapidly to meet theneeds of manufacturers and consumers alike. Packaging choices havechanged and there have been improvements in closure design. This book provides an overview of carbonated soft drinks productionin the early part of the twenty first century, presenting thelatest information on carbonation and filling methods. There arealso chapters on bottle design, can making, general packagingconsiderations, production and distribution. A final chapter dealswith quality assurance, and environmental and legislative issues.Detailed references provide opportunity for further reading in morespecialised areas. The book is aimed at graduates in food science,chemistry, microbiology and engineering who are considering acareer in the soft drinks industry, as well as technical staffalready employed within the industry and associated suppliers.

An effervescent exploration of the global history and myriad symbolic meanings of carbonated beverages. More than eighty years before the invention of Coca-Cola, sweet carbonated drinks became popular around the world, provoking arguments remarkably similar to those they prompt today. Are they medicinally, morally, culturally, or nutritionally good or bad? Seemingly since their invention, they have been loved—and hated—for being cold or sweet or fizzy or stimulating. Many of their flavors are international: lemon and ginger were more popular than cola until about 1920. Some are local: tarragon in Russia, cucumber in New York, red bean in Japan, and chinotto (exceedingly bitter orange) in Italy. This book looks not only at how something made from water, sugar, and soda became big business, but also how it became deeply important to people—for fizzy drinks’ symbolic meanings are far more complex than the water, gas, and sugar from which they are made.

This is an integrated appraisal of the production of carbonated soft drinks. It provides a basis for experienced technicians who wish to specialize further in a particular field. It is intended for personnel involved with distribution, sales, marketing and finance within the soft drink industry.

In the period of about five years since the first edition of this book appeared, many changes have occurred in the fruit juice and beverage markets. The growth of markets has continued, blunted to some extent, no doubt, by the recession that has featured prominently in the economies of the major consuming nations. But perhaps the most significant area that has affected juices in particular is the issue of authenticity. Commercial scandals of substantial proportions have been seen on both sides of the Atlantic because of fraudulent practice. Major strides have been made in the development of techniques to detect and measure adulterants in the major juices. A contri bution to Chapter 1 describes one of the more important scientific techniques to have been developed as a routine test method to detect the addition of carbohydrates to juices. Another, and perhaps more welcome, development in non-carbonated beverages during the past few years is the rapid growth of sports drinks. Beverages based on glucose syrup have been popular for many years, and in some parts of the world isotonic products have long featured in the sports arena. A combination of benefits is now available from a wide range of preparations formulated and marketed as sports drinks and featuring widely in beverage markets world-wide. A new chapter reviews their formulation and performance characteristics. Another major trend in the area of fruit-containing non-carbonated bever ages is the highly successful marketing of ready-to-drink products.