Leader in the global food & beverage industry
PepsiCo is a leader in the global food and beverage industry, operating in 200 markets and with annual revenues in excess of $60 bn. The PepsiCo Cork site is home to 700 manufacturing and R&D personnel. The Research and Development (R&D) team includes product and packaging developers, and quality and regulatory personnel with a special focus on dairy, beverages, fruits and vegetables.
Comprehensive characterisation of properties
PepsiCo work with a diverse range of ingredients including sweeteners, flavourings, acids, buffers and preservatives. These ingredients come from a wide range of global suppliers. To ensure smooth running of the manufacturing process, ingredients are required to have certain physico-chemical properties such as rheometry (flow), particle size, particle shape, crystallinity and moisture sorption behaviour.
Understanding how these properties affect the manufacturing process and the resulting product quality is critical for PepsiCo. Working with the company, the PMBRC Technology Gateway selected three key ingredients from the PepsiCo supply chain and conducted a comprehensive characterisation of their properties. Differences between suppliers were identified and these differences were mapped onto process performance. Using the data generated, the project team were able to identify the ideal quality attributes of the incoming raw materials and likewise flag potential problematic batches of incoming ingredients.
global leader in food and beverage industry
Innovation Partnership – Feasibility Study
in annual revenues
The PepsiCo & PMBrc Technology Gateway partnership
Using the data generated from the project, PepsiCo were able to approach suppliers with a target profile for the incoming raw materials. Potential new suppliers would have to meet certain ingredient specifications prior to being approved for use in PepsiCo manufacturing plants. PepsiCo are now expanding the project to other ingredients in their supply chain.
“The work done by the PMBRC provided a real insight into how material properties impact our manufacturing process. It helped explain why some materials have historically caused problems during manufacturing and allowed us to take steps to avoid these problems in the future. During the project regular progress updates were provided. The team explained the results comprehensively which was helpful to my team as we build our knowledge in this area”.
Paula Lyons, R&D Concentrate Stewardship Manager, PepsiCo R&D
Tech Gateways
The Technology Gateway Network delivers innovation expertise to industry across Ireland. It is run by Enterprise Ireland in partnership with the Institutes of Technology.
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