Welcome to the Britvic Learning Zone

Acids

Citric (citrus) or malic (from apples) acid is used to achieve the pH level required for preservatives to work and to achieve the right balance between acidity and sweetness.

Aseptic production

Aseptic filling involves bringing together clean packaging and sterile products in a commercially sterile environment. This enables us to meet consumer demand for preservative-free products that do not require refrigeration.

Barcode

An optical, machine-readable representation of data used by retailers' scanning systems to identify types and prices of products, and to control stock levels.

Best before date

The date by which a product should be consumed to guarantee optimum quality.

Carbon dioxide

The gas which gives carbonated drinks their fizz. It has no effect on a drink's nutritional value.

Citrus comminutes

Whole citrus fruits crushed to a smooth paste. Comminutes are usually used in dilutable drinks.

Colours

These are used to improve appearance and offset colour loss during production and shelf life. Fruit juice is not permitted to contain added colours.

Natural colours are physically extracted from a recognised food source, eg red anthocyanin colour from grapes, and tend to be more expensive, less concentrated and more sensitive than artificial colours.

De-aerate

The process of removing free dissolved oxygen from water in order to provide greater flavour stability.

Flavours

In response to consumer demand, the majority of our products use natural flavours. The remaining products are normally Nature Identical Flavours (NIF), which are chemically identical to natural flavours but have been synthesised in a laboratory.

From concentrate (FC)

Water is evaporated from the juice to form a concentrate, shipped and rehydrated in the UK.

Not from concentrate (NFC)

Squeezed juice is frozen or aseptically packed, stored and shipped to UK for pasteurisation and bottling.

Pallet movements

The number of journeys a pallet of product makes between leaving the factory and arriving at the retail outlet.

Preservatives

• Preservatives may be natural or synthetic and are used to prevent spoilage from microbial growth or chemical changes.
• If used, they are present in tiny amounts less than 0.04% (you could refer to the levels in terms of being less than the legal limits: eg less than 0.03% for potassium sorbate in RTD products).
• In response to consumer demand for more natural products, many new products are preservative-free, relying on aseptic processing and/or in-pack pasteurisation to provide an extended shelf life.

Puree

Pulpy fruits that can be FC, NFC tend to be used in chilled, viscous drinks like smoothies.

Sensory and analytical checks

Sensory checks are those involving the senses of sight, smell and taste.

Analytical checks are tests that involve other equipment or chemicals.

SKU no

Every product line that Britvic produces has a unique Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) number that acts as a unique identifier that identifies its make, pack size and flavour.

Vitamins and minerals

To supplement their nutritional value, we add selected vitamins and minerals to some of our drinks.