Solid beverages are products for brewing and drinking that are processed with food raw materials, food additives and other solid materials in powder, granule or block form. Such as juice powder, soybean powder, tea powder, coffee powder, fruit-flavored solid drinks, solid state soda (effervescent tablets), ginger powder. Solid beverage is relative to the physical state of the beverage. It is a special variety of beverage. It is characterized by small volume, good quick solubility and good preservation.

Commonly used raw materials and auxiliaries

Fruit juice: Fruit juice is the main raw material of fruit juice type solid beverage.

Maltodextrin: Maltodextrin can be used to improve the viscosity of the beverage and reduce the sweetness of the beverage, but also has the role of turbidant, and pigment, flavors, etc. in the appropriate proportion with the use of the product’s sense of transparency disappears, the appearance of fresh fruit juice to give a person a sense of reality.

Sweeteners: Sweeteners (including sucrose, glucose, fructose, maltose, etc.) are one of the main raw materials of fruity substitutes, and are the main source of sweetness for such products.

Dairy products: including sweetened condensed milk, milk powder, cream, etc. It is the main raw material of protein-based solid drinks.

Egg yolk powder: made from fresh egg yolks or mixed with ice egg yolks after spray drying, it is yellow powder with normal odor, no bitter taste and other peculiar taste, and good solubility.

Cocoa Powder: made from fresh cocoa beans after fermentation and drying, and processed by stir-frying, shelling, oil extraction, drying, etc. It is dark brown in color, with natural cocoa aroma, and is used for the production of cocoa-type Cream of Wheat.

Baking soda: used to neutralize the acidity of raw materials in the production of protein-based solid beverages in order to avoid precipitation and floating of proteins by the action of acid.

Vitamins: used as nutritional enhancers in the production of fortified Cream of Wheat, often with Vitamin A, Vitamin D and Vitamin B1.

Other food additives: including flavors, colors, acidity regulators, sweeteners, etc.

Production process

2.1 Key control links

Quality control of raw and auxiliary materials and packaging materials; hygiene management control of production workshops, especially cooling and packaging workshops; cleaning and sterilizing of equipment; batching and measuring; control of dehydration and packaging processes; hygiene management of operators.

2.2 Quality and safety problems that are prone to appear

Inadequate management and control of equipment, environment, raw and auxiliary materials, packaging materials, dehydration and drying, cooling and packaging, personnel, etc., will easily make the products unqualified in terms of moisture and hygiene indexes, etc.; the control of ingredients and other links will easily lead to the use of food additives in excess of the scope and quantity.

2.3 Common problems of products

(1) Taste and color change: the taste of solid beverage products is mainly caused by oxidation. For example, the fat oxidation in the product makes the product have a fat oxidation flavor.

Preventive measures:

1, strict control of the process parameters, especially sterilization temperature and holding time, must make the activity of lipolytic enzyme and peroxidase loss.

2、Strictly control the moisture content of the product.

3, to ensure the sealing of the product packaging.

4、Store the product in a cool and dry environment.

2）Impurities

Solid beverage products appear impurity over the phenomenon, the reasons are as follows:

1, the purification of raw materials is not complete.

2、Production process is subject to secondary pollution.

3、The temperature of hot air in the drying room is too high, resulting in scorched powder around the air blower.

4、Improper regulation of the hot air in the air distribution box, resulting in eddy current, so that the milk powder is overheated locally and produces scorched powder.

(3) Poor speed solubility

The following measures can be taken for the poor speed solubility of solid beverage products:

1、Spray lecithin on the product particles.

2. Increase the diameter of the particles appropriately and try to make the product particles of uniform diameter.

4）Caking

After the package of solid beverage is opened, the content is easily caked. This is due to the fact that the general water content of solid beverages are relatively low, in the external environment when the humidity is slightly higher, it will absorb water.

At a certain temperature, a variety of food materials and the relative humidity of the external environment have a moisture content at equilibrium. When the moisture content is lower than the moisture content, that is, hygroscopicity leads to caking.

So solid beverages from production to packaging, transportation, storage, should pay attention to prevent its moisture absorption.

The relative humidity of the general packaging room should be controlled below 45%; good air barrier materials or composite materials should be used to make packaging; when using acid in the ingredients, anhydrous citric acid or tartaric acid should be used.