Development, Optimization and Quality Assurance of Sysskonhem AB Ginger Beer Process

This master thesis work was performed in collaboration with Sysskonhem AB, Brygghuset Finn and Applied Microbiology at the Faculty of Engineering, Lund University. With the knowledge of ginger beer being a sensitive product, the potential case where a consumer perceives or experiences quality deficiency in the product, the likelihood for Sysskonhem succeeding on the market diminishes radically. The aim of the master thesis project was to design and evaluate a new safe and efficient large-scale production (<2000L) process for Sysskonhem ginger beer at Brygghuset Finn. This has been done and monitored thoroughly. Thus, up-scaling challenges as maintaining quality and safety of the product and optimizing and develop a new external flavor infusion unit have been worked on throughout the project. Food safety management system (FSMS) have been implemented to the new large-scale production process by applying hygienic process design and practices to the developed process and by establishing a HACCP-plan to the new design. Analysing the concentration of the pungent [6]-gingerol in samples collected during the initial phase of the process using HPLC gave positive answers on the efficiency of the new flavor infusion unit. However, it was shown that more flavor could be extracted using fractions of EtOH in the surrounding extraction medium. The background microbial burden disturbance in the pre-, post-, and pasteurization stage of the ginger beer process have been thoroughly analysed. For covering this, process cleanliness testing, pasteurisation condition experiments and settling plate analysis have been performed. In addition to traditional pasteurization, UV treatment was tested which was proven to be as efficient. The most important conclusions given from this master thesis are; that the new flavor infusion unit is proven efficient and that the pasteurization condition of 75 C, 20min reveals at least a 5 log10-reduction of CFU/mL. Furthermore, UV-treatment was found to be as efficient as traditional pasteurization. Finally, the post-pasteurization stage of sensitive products must be protected due to high background microbial burden disturbance from running the milling machine.