Beer is one of the most consumed beverages in the world. For a long time, glass bottles have been the main container of beer, but their impact resistance and pressure resistance are poor, and there are potential safety hazards. The development of cheap and applicable substitutes is of great market value . As a new type of beer packaging container, the development of PET plastic beer products has become a global research hotspot.
China's beer industry has become one of the industries with the fastest growth, the largest production and sales volume and the most intense competition in the world beer market. For a long time, beer has been mainly packaged in glass bottles, especially in my country, the utilization rate of glass beer bottles is over 90%. However, the inherent defects of glass bottles have triggered a global upsurge in seeking cheap and suitable alternatives. New types of plastic PET beer packaging containers have emerged in Europe and the United States. my country has also continued to increase investment in this topic.
Plastic beer bottles, a packaging product that is popular abroad, are hardly seen in China. The author once saw it at an exhibition two years ago. At present, the packaging technology of plastic beer bottles has become more and more mature. It can be said that plastic beer bottles have many advantages. Compared with the explosion of glass beer bottles, the explosion of plastic beer bottles will cause much less harm to people. At the same time, the cost per bottle of plastic beer bottles is lower than that of glass beer bottles. In addition, plastic beer bottles are light in weight and have great advantages in logistics.
So what is the reason why plastic beer bottles have not been marketed in China? The author thinks there are several reasons. First of all, glass beer bottles have been used by people for tens of hundreds of years, forming a traditional consumption habit. It is difficult to predict the market's acceptance of plastic beer bottles. In the current highly competitive beer market, companies are not willing to change the packaging rashly to make this attempt. Secondly, the entire production line of beer bottles from production to filling is complete, which requires a lot of cost investment. Changing the packaging of beer bottles means that the entire production line needs to be rebuilt, which is difficult for manufacturers to accept.
In our country, secondary recycling or three or four recycling glass bottles are widely used, and the used glass bottles are collided, scratched and squeezed, resulting in the decline of various surface quality and internal quality of glass bottles, thus exacerbating potential safety hazards . At the same time, the investment scale of manufacturing glass bottles is large, the energy consumption is large, the logistics cost is high, and the breakage rate is high. At the same time, the glass bottle production process has a greater impact on environmental pollution.
For many years, people have been trying to find new packaging materials to replace the traditional glass bottles. Although the transparency of cans made of aluminum foil is not good, it can meet the packaging of beer, and it is not easy to break and explode. It is difficult to popularize because the packaging cost is too high.
In recent years, people have gradually turned their attention to beer plastic packaging materials. Plastic has the characteristics of light weight, good strength, easy processing, and easy recycling. However, the quality assurance of beer puts forward high requirements for plastic beer bottle containers. Beer is a sensitive beverage, and the infiltration of a very small amount of oxygen into the packaging container will also change the taste and aroma of the beer; on the other hand, the loss of carbon dioxide in the beer will affect its carbonation level and foam characteristics, which is It is required that plastic bottles not only prevent oxygen from penetrating into the bottle, but also prevent carbon dioxide from escaping from the bottle, and can withstand pasteurization heating. Although a small number of plastic wine bottles have been used in the packaging of special beer such as light beer and wine bottles with low gas content in some countries in Europe and the United States, the problem of poor gas barrier properties has not been completely solved for a long time. Bottles still cannot replace glass bottles in large numbers.