Soft Drinks Industry Analysis

Overview of the Industry

Since ancient times, people had believed the mineral water found in natural hot springs to be beneficial to one’s health (Bellis, M. n.d.), and so, people sought to recreate this healthy drink and allow more to acquire it. By 1767, it was Dr. Joseph Priestly who successfully produced the first man-made glass of mineral water, which was mass produced by a Swedish Chemist, Torbern Bergman, through his invention three years later. Bergman’s apparatus made the drink from sodium carbonate by use of sulfuric acid. The use of sodium bicarbonate eventually gave the synthetic mineral water the label of “soda water” by 1798. However, soda water did not become very popular until 1830’s when John Matthews invented his own device for charging water with carbon

Process Flow Diagram for the production of Soft Drinks from www.pall.com The production process of soft drinks is one of the simplest in the beverage industry. Our group has summarized the process in five steps namely water clarification, water filtration, sterilization and dechlorination, mixing, carbonation, and filling.

Water Clarification

The most important ingredient in soft drinks is the water as it makes up about 87-94% of the beverage. This is why the water quality has to be of high standard. Clarification is a step which almost all beverage manufacturers have in order to ensure the good quality of their drink.

In clarification, raw water is stored in a cylindrical tank wherein coagulants like ferric sulphate and aluminum sulphate added to the raw water. Immediately after the coagulants are added, flocculation of the suspended solid particles, organic compounds, and bacteria takes place. This is a part of the process wherein the impurities are absorbed by the coagulants. The coagulants with the impurities are then called floc and increase in size, which makes it easier to be trapped by the filters (Mitchell,