WEJ

My Trip to the Coca-Cola Factory

It was a Monday, like any other Monday, the sun was shining, the grass was growing and the birds were chirping. But...... as destiny would have it, this Monday became a history making day for the children of Massada College. For this will be the first time ever that the enquiring minds of the year 6/7's would visit this holy shrine the "Coca~Cola Factory".

Our class with the merry leadership of Mr. D. Southern headed out for the Coca~Cola Factory. There we were greeted buy our guides for the day. They started with a short introduction to the factory and gave each person a Coca~Cola hat (very thoughtful indeed) and a pair of protective glasses.

As they began, in the minds of each of the students was to see if the could discover the ever elusive formula for the Coca~Cola syrup which was known to only three people in the entire world. In so doing taking the School out of its financial trouble.

Our first stop was at the Depalletiser. This was the Machine which removed all the cases of empty retuned bottles ten pallets at a time. "What are the ingredients for the syrup in Coke" someone asked "I am sorry I am not allowed to release that information" she replied "Doh!!!"

We then moved on to the next section. This machine produces aseptic, that is preservative free, packages to prevent the coke from spoilage. The amazing thing that I learnt was that this machine was able to pack 250ml and 300ml bottles into pallets.. In one hour the machine could do 5,000 packs of 250ml. "What are the ingredients for the syrup in Coke" someone asked "I am sorry I am not allowed to release that information" she replied "Doh!!!" We still had no hint as to what ingredients were used.

We then stopped at the following places:

  • During stops at Wiggens the robot which can stack 600 cases of pallets per hour.

  • Postmix where they produce a range of there soft drinks in a carbonated form.

  • Thermal Processing line which is their newest line filling one of there newest drinks "Powerade" at 84 degrees celcius.

  • Bottle washer where they clean all the recycled bottles ready for refilling again. All of these bottles come straight from the Depalletiser machine.

    We kept asking the same old question "What are the ingredients for the syrup in Coke" and we would always get the same old reply "Oh I am sorry but we are not allowed to release this information!"

    Stop 7 was where all the washed bottles are delivered at 32 at a time, the machine is able to wash up to 10,000 bottles at a time and 42,000 bottles in an hour.

    The shrink wrap machine ,wraps plastic over and around the trays then it heats the plastic so that it shrinks and creates a protective seal around the cans. This ensures that the cans are clean, and don't fall out during transportation. And then......"What are the ingredients for the syrup in Coke" someone asked "I am sorry I am not allowed to release that information" she replied "Doh!!!"

    The low fill detector is an intelligent machine that can tell if a drink container is filled with the proper amount. If it isn't then the bottles or cans are sent straight back to the recycler. This ensures we don't receive underfilled cans and bottles of Coca~Cola. And then ,yes you guessed it.... "What are the ingredients for the syrup in Coke" someone asked "I am sorry I am not allowed to release that information" she replied "Doh!!!"

    Afterwards we headed off for the Can line Paramix System Filler and Steamer.(long name for a machine !) This is used to carbonate the drink. First they mix the syrup with water, this has to be done precisely to ensure each can tastes the same. The can is then filled with Carbon-Dioxide.

    Glass Bottle filler has four steps.

    1. The machine first does one last inspection to make sure the bottle is not dirty.

    2. They then go through the same steps as in the can filler.

    3. Once the bottle is filled the machine puts on the bottle tops.

    4. The last step is to make sure that each bottle has the right amount of liquid inside, if not it is taken to the recycle area.

    The P.E.T Bottle filler was next on the route. This would fill all the other products that Coca~Cola produces in 350ml, 500ml, 1L, 1.5L, 2L, 2.5L, and 3L P.E.T bottles.

    The label machine was our 15th stop, this quite simply put the labels on the bottles.

    Coming closer to the end of the line now, we reached the sugar silos. Each of which contained 100 tonnes of sugar.

    We then saw the bottles being packed , then sealed in cartons and sent to the warehouse.

    We were now scheduled to visit DAH DAH DAH DAH, DAH DAH DAH DAH

    ......... The Syrup Production Machine!!!! This is the moment we've been waiting for. Finally we have reached the heart of the famous Coca~Cola. Where we are hoping to learn the secrets of (The real Thing) Coca~Cola.

    So we decided to once again ask the question... "What are the ingredients for the syrup" "I am sorry we are not allowed to answer that question, all our recipes are top secret, you should know that by now"

    "DOH" We had come here to learn about Coke, and if we were lucky maybe even to learn the secret ingredients of Coke. Well we learnt a lot about Coke, and the tour of the factory was great, so what am I worried about!!!!

    Just to cap a great excursion off, Coca~Cola supplied every child with a complimentary cup of Coke Just to remind us that..............

    "It's Always The Real Thing Always Coca-Cola"

    By Joshua Altit


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