New Zealanders Drink Over 9 Million Gallons A Year

Taupo Times, Volume XIV, Issue 66, 24 August 1965, Page 5

New Zealanders Drink Over 9 Million Gallons A Year

Last year, New Zealanders consumed more than nine million gallons of soft drinks. This was an average of approximately 3.6 gallons for each man, woman and child in New Zealand, or an average of approximately 18 gallons for each person between the ages of 10 and 21 (the major consumers of &>ft drinks). Today the manufacture of soft drinks is a fully mechanised process, and the ingredients are completely untouched by human hands. On entering a modern soft drink factory one is immediately struck by its absolute cleanliness. All machines are spotless and stainless steel predominates. At regular intervals all machines and pipelines are thoroughly cleaned and sterilised. Soft drinks are subjected to the most stringent quality control at all stages of manufacture. The main processes of soft drink manufacture are: — •- Water treatment — its filtration and purification. • The making of "inter-' mediates" from raw materials. These are the plain syrup (sucrose or sugar and water), and the various solutions of fruit juices, acids, colouring materials and preservatives. • The preparation of the flavoured syrup, by adding the filtered plain syrup to required amounts of juices, acids, essences, etc. • Bottling and packing. | This last process is carried out in various stages. In most plants each bottle first receives a predetermined quantity of the flavouring syrup from an automatically measuring syruper. The bottle then moves to the filling head, which I fills it with chilled charged water from the carbonator and clamps on the crown seal. The bottles are finally labelled, cased and sent to the warehouse for delivery to your store. Constant research by the industry is producing soft drinks with even more ac- | curate flavours. Innes Tartan Ltd., one of the leaders in the industry, have

recently developed a new range of soft drinks with truer fruit flavours than ever before. Initial test marketing of the drinks, known as the "Ju'cy" range, is in the Bay of Plenty, Rotorua, Taupo areas, and the company is undertaking an intensive advertising and sampling campaign.