5 highlights from BrauBeviale

I spent much of last week at the huge and always rewarding BrauBeviale beverage processing trade fair in Nürnberg. Here is a small selection of the many highlights I noted:

• PET bottles with glass inside
  KHS has developed a way to line the inside of PET bottles with a very thin coating of glass, which substantially boosts the shelf life of carbonated drinks in smaller bottle sizes and has no adverse impact on recyclability.
• Embossing glass with ink
  Owens-Illinois displayed its Expressions technique, which can customise glass bottles with endless variations of printing that include the effect of clear cut glass embossing.
• PET recycling leadership
  Krones has now designed and helped build 10 PET recycling plants around the world from California to Bangladesh.
• Tethered caps under development
  Although industry representatives believe the European Commission is mistaken in seeking to require that caps are redesigned to remain attached to the neck of bottles, I saw prototypes from both Aptar and Bericap that show how this might be made to work.
• World Beverage Innovation Awards
  I was particularly pleased to present this year’s Awards, because there were 241 worthy entries that bear witness to a thriving and imaginative industry. Full details of the finalists and winners are available at www.foodbev.com/news/world-beverage-innovation-awards-2018-winners-braubeviale.