In a pioneering collaboration, SIG and AnaBio Technologies have launched a revolutionary product – long-life probiotic yogurt – marking a significant advancement in probiotic beverages and aseptic packaging. This innovation opens a new avenue for probiotic beverages, allowing them to be packaged in aseptic carton packs and spouted pouches, ensuring extended shelf stability without requiring refrigeration. Probiotics have gained global recognition for their potential health benefits, particularly in promoting better gut health and enhancing immunity.
Until now, the integration of probiotics into aseptic beverage packaging has been a formidable challenge due to their vulnerability to the common heat treatments employed during processing. Moreover, probiotics tend to lose their stability during storage, which has limited their application to refrigerated beverages with shorter shelf lives.
This collaboration between AnaBio’s encapsulation technology and SIG’s gentle aseptic filling technology has successfully surmounted these obstacles. This breakthrough now enables food and beverage companies to create probiotic beverages containing live probiotics that can be stored at room temperature for extended durations without the need for refrigeration. This innovation answers the consumer demand for wholesome, flavorful, and nutritious probiotic beverages in packaging that is both sustainable and convenient.
Sinéad Bleiel, Founder of AnaBio Technologies, elaborates on their approach: “Our patented ‘encapsulation’ technology provides a protective layer to probiotic cells, such as Lactobacillus strains, allowing them to withstand high processing temperatures. When consumed, digestive enzymes naturally break down the coating, releasing the probiotics to deliver their health benefits. Our collaboration with the SIG team not only offers consumers probiotic products with unique health benefits but also extends product shelf life for added convenience. This is a significant advancement in the realm of probiotic beverages.”
Drawing from their expertise in aseptic filling, SIG has implemented precise filling and processing parameters to ensure a uniform suspension of probiotic cells per pack, ensuring the safe filling of probiotics into SIG’s aseptic packaging solutions with the highest quality standards.
Christoph Wegener, Chief Markets Officer at SIG, emphasizes the far-reaching impact of this collaboration: “This new product category, created by SIG and AnaBio, provides a groundbreaking solution for beverage and food manufacturers, addressing the limitations of fresh probiotic beverages. Our innovation reduces distribution costs by eliminating the need for refrigeration, extends shelf life, broadens product accessibility, and reduces food wastage, benefiting both retailers and consumers. Aseptic probiotic yogurt drinks exemplify our commitment to innovation, meeting evolving consumer demands while delivering high-quality products with an extended shelf life in sustainable packaging. Our aseptic carton packs have proven to be one of the most sustainable packaging solutions available in the market.”
This groundbreaking partnership opens doors to various opportunities, including the creation of new product segments in emerging markets where highly nutritious products are in high demand, and the fusion of sustainable packaging solutions with healthy probiotic concepts that were previously limited to the fresh aisle.