Tetra Pak VP calls to rethink added sweeteners in iced tea
The vice president of marketing and product management at Tetra Pak US & Canada, a food and beverage packaging manufacturer, advises ready-to-drink tea companies to start focusing on naturally brewed iced tea to satisfy the region's thirst for premium products. According to Suley Muratoglu, the industry must find ways to improve current production methods, which involve adding ascorbic acid to stabilize the beverage and then adding sweeteners to mask the resulting bitter taste. Instead, companies should consider adopting aseptic processing and cartons, where flash heat treatment renders tea shelf stable and retains its quality without the need for preservatives. IRI market research firm predicts that the super-premium volume share of the $3.5 billion US ready-to-drink tea industry will rise from 6.8% in 2010 to 9.8% in 2015.