There are various kinds of packaging for carbonated drinks and other beverages on the market, including plastic bottles, metal cans, glass bottles, etc., with different sizes. How can consumers buy safe and secure beverages? The author reminds you that you should pay attention to the following aspects when you buy the product, in addition to choosing your favorite flavor.
Product FAQ
1. Presence of impurities
Include obscure impurities, obvious impurities, and repulsive impurities. The reasons for the presence of impurities are as follows.
(1) Bottle or cap, unclean.
(2) Sugar:
the appearance of fine turbidity and the use of sugar has the greatest relationship.
(3) raw water:
water quality caused by precipitation of soft drinks, the main reason is that the water is too hard, the presence of copper, iron and other metal ions in the water.
(4) flavors:
soft drink production is generally used in water-soluble flavors, the main ingredients are distilled water, ethanol, propylene glycol as a diluent blend of flavors. Under the influence of sunlight, temperature change, oxidation and other factors, it will undergo oxidation, polymerization, hydrolysis and other chemical changes, which will change the flavor of the product and lose the good taste. Sometimes it may also cause turbidity or precipitation of the product.
(5) Other.
(i) Attention must be paid to the order in which the preservatives and citric acid are administered.
(ii) The color-presenting substance generally used in the production of carbonated beverages is a synthetic food coloring. Some varieties are oxygen resistant.
Poor chemical properties, when heat, light and metal ions exist, it is easy to make it fade and lose its original color.
2. insufficient gas content
Carbonated drinks do not contain enough gas, which generally means “weak” or “no gas”, mainly because of the insufficient content of carbon dioxide. As carbon dioxide is slightly acidic when dissolved in water, it has a certain sterilizing effect; and when it exists instead of oxygen, it can inhibit the growth and reproduction of oxygen-demanding microorganisms and has a certain effect of preventing spoilage. Therefore, low carbon dioxide content can also cause some soft drinks to deteriorate later, so it must be taken seriously. The main causes of low carbon dioxide content are as follows.
(1) carbon dioxide is not pure, especially the distillery liquid fermentation recovery, not separated, purified, more impurities.
(2) carbonation when the water temperature is too high, the mixed effect is not good, or air mixed in.
(3) The mixer has a leaky gap or pipe leakage.
(4) The lid is not strict, not in time or the size of the bottle and the lid does not match.
3. produce a paste
Some soft drinks left for a few days during production become a milky colloidal state and form a paste. The main reasons are as follows.
(1) Poor quality of sugar in the raw materials, containing more proteins and colloidal substances.
(2) Insufficient carbon dioxide content or too much air mixed in, so that some aerobic microorganisms grow and multiply.
(3) The bottle is not thoroughly cleaned, leaving bacteria behind, allowing bacteria to use the nutrition in the drink to multiply and form a paste.
To prevent this phenomenon, high quality white sugar should be used in production, the bottle should be washed thoroughly and the amount of carbon dioxide filled should be sufficient to avoid the paste in the drink.
4. spicy taste
Some sodas lack sweetness and aroma, have more than enough spiciness, and return quickly after drinking. This is mainly due to the insufficient addition of soft drink ingredients, or a reduction in the amount of syrup. The spicy flavor is mainly the taste of carbon dioxide. The low viscosity of soda with little or no raw materials means that carbon dioxide has less resistance to escape and decomposes faster when exposed to heat. The carbon dioxide escapes from the body soon after drinking it, making you feel the spicy taste. The solution is to add enough syrup to it. 5.
5) Bitterness of the product
Carbon dioxide pressure has a great influence on the taste of drinks: too high carbon dioxide will weaken the sweet and sour taste of drinks; too little carbonic acid will give people a slight stimulus, losing the proper taste of carbonated drinks. For complex flavors of carbonated drinks, too high carbon dioxide will dilute the unique flavor of the drink, especially for citrus carbonated drinks containing low volatile components. Some carbonated beverages contain volatile terpenoids due to the essence used, so high carbon dioxide will destroy the original fruit flavor and become bitter.
Purchase knowledge and consumption advice
1. Check whether the product name, net content, ingredient list, manufacturer’s (or distributor’s) name and address, product standard number, production date, shelf life, origin, QS mark, etc. are complete on the product label.
2. choose products with different specifications according to your needs and drink them as soon as possible after opening the package because carbon dioxide will gradually escape during storage and will affect the taste if you drink them again.
3. for products in transparent packaging, you can observe the light when you are choosing the product, first of all, look at the bottom of the bottle upside down, there should be no precipitation, suspended solids, no leakage, and the cap should be sealed tightly; then shake a few times to see if there are any impurities, whether cloudy.
4. give priority to recently produced products, especially in the summer and autumn seasons, when buying, try to choose hard cans that are not easily deformed products.
For people with special requirements on sugar and calorie intake, such as diabetics, you can choose products labeled as “low sugar” or “sugar-free”. 6.
6. it is best to buy products of well-known brands from regular sales channels.
Tea drinks: See if the product name is standardized.
Tea beverage labeling is not standardized tea beverage market is currently a major problem. One of the performance of the product name is not standardized, some of the name does not reflect the product performance, such as only standard milk tea without adding the word “beverage”; some do not indicate the real attributes of the product, such as only standard “lemon tea” “apricot tea”. “, and not clearly labeled as fruit tea. The second performance of the ingredient list labeling is not standardized, some additive but not marked, some add fruit flavoring but marked to add fruit juice, some only marked to add sweeteners, preservatives and do not indicate the specific name. These problems make consumers confused or even misled when buying and selling tea drinks. Therefore, when buying and selling tea drinks, if you find that the label of tea drink products should be specified on the content is not marked full.
That is a substandard product.
All kinds of tea beverages have their corresponding odors. Tea soup drinks have the aroma and taste that original tea should have; fruit-flavored tea drinks and fruit juice drinks have the mixed aroma and taste similar to some kind of fruit juice and tea broth, with soft aroma, sweet and sour taste; carbonated tea drinks have the characteristic aroma and taste of varieties, with soft aroma, sweet and sour taste, with cool and stimulating taste; milk-flavored tea drinks have the mixed aroma and taste of tea and milk.
Fruit and vegetable juice drinks: the bottle should not have sugar stains.
Fruit and vegetable juice beverage refers to beverage products made from fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables, which can be divided into raw fruit and vegetable juice, concentrated fruit and vegetable juice, raw fruit and vegetable pulp, fruit and vegetable juice, high-sugar fruit and vegetable juice, fruit and vegetable juice, fruit and vegetable juice and other fruit and vegetable juices. When buying and selling, you should judge whether the beverage and its name are the same according to the content of the original fruit and vegetable juice marked on the label, and whether there is leakage and inflation of the package. The specific methods are: the mouth and body of bottled or canned beverages should be free from sugar stains and dirt, soft-packaged beverages should not be deformed when squeezed by hand, and the caps and bodies of bottles and cans should not be raised; the appearance of fruit and vegetable juices should be checked. The pulp of the fruit is allowed to settle; in addition to 100% raw fruit and vegetable juices, sugar, food coloring, flavoring and preservatives are usually added during the production process of fruit and vegetable juice drinks. Therefore, it should not be used as a substitute for fruit and water in daily life.
Vegetable protein drinks: Products must be marked with the blue QS logo.
Plant protein drinks are beverages made from high protein content plant fruits, seeds or seeds, nuts and other nuts as raw materials. According to raw materials, there are mainly soy milk drinks, coconut milk drinks, almond milk drinks, walnut milk drinks, peanut milk drinks, etc. When choosing plant protein drinks, you should buy products marked with the blue QS logo. When shopping for plant protein drinks, you should buy products marked with the blue QS logo. Different raw materials for plant protein drinks have different nutritional and health care functions, which can be chosen according to one’s own needs. Soy milk drink has the highest nutritional value, almond drink has the function of moistening the lungs, walnut drink contains phospholipids and has the function of strengthening the brain. Vegetable protein drinks are rich in protein, but they cannot replace normal diet or cow’s milk.
