Glossary · Faults
Plastic and packaging taint
Definition
Off-aromas picked up from unsuitable plastics, seals, hoses or bag-in-box liners, ranging from a plastic or chemical note to the medicinal character of chlorophenols.
- Subject
- Faults
In more detail
Two different problems share one name. The first is straightforward migration: unsuitable plastics, perished seals, the wrong grade of hose or a bag-in-box liner stored badly, all of which can give up small quantities of what they are made of into an acidic, alcoholic liquid that is an efficient solvent. The result reads as plastic, chemical or rubbery, and it comes from the packaging.
The second is chlorophenols, and they are worse because the concentrations involved are tiny and the cause is usually hygiene rather than materials. Chlorine-based sanitiser residue meeting phenolic compounds — abundant in cider — produces chlorophenols and, through microbial methylation, chloroanisoles: the same family responsible for cork taint. They are detectable at nanograms per litre and read as medicinal, damp cardboard, or sticking plaster, and they can contaminate a whole cellar through cardboard, timber and wall surfaces rather than through any one vessel.
The practical consequence is that the second problem is a reason a great many cider makers do not use chlorine sanitisers at all, and use peracetic acid or an iodophor instead.
Where this is covered properly
The glossary defines; these pages explain. Each is described in its own words.
Fault
Plastic and packaging taint
Plastic, rubber, adhesive or chemical notes picked up from unsuitable containers, liners, hoses, gaskets or cleaning residues.
Fault
Plastic and packaging taint
Plastic, rubber, adhesive or chemical notes picked up from unsuitable containers, liners, hoses, gaskets or cleaning residues.
Related terms
Terms that belong to the same part of the subject, or that this one is routinely confused with.
Faults
Cork taint
A musty, damp-cardboard aroma caused chiefly by 2,4,6-trichloroanisole, formed when moulds methylate chlorophenols in cork, wood or premises. It suppresses fruit aroma even below the point of obvious mustiness.
Sensory
Sticking plaster
A descriptor for the sharp medicinal, antiseptic note of volatile phenols, most often from *Brettanomyces* and occasionally from chlorophenol contamination in packaging or premises.
Equipment
Bag-in-box
A collapsible plastic bag inside a cardboard carton, fitted with a tap. Because the bag collapses as the cider is drawn, no air enters, which makes it a good format for still, unpasteurised cider.
Milling and pressing
Sanitation
The routine cleaning and disinfection of everything juice touches. In a cider house it is the single most effective control on spoilage, and it is separated into cleaning, which removes soil, and sanitising, which reduces the organisms left behind.
Where to go next
- Cider glossary — The whole vocabulary, by subject and A–Z.
- Comparisons — Terms that are only really clear when set against the thing they are not.
- Search — Finds terms by their aliases and by their spellings in other languages.
Sources
What this page rests on. Where a source is marked as registered rather than read, CiderHQ is recording that the body is authoritative on the subject without claiming to have worked through the document itself. See our evidence policy for what each state means.
Cider and perry production technical training material
Peter Mitchell / Cider and Perry Academy · reference work · registered as competent for this subject
Searched again on 2026-08-25 and it remains the one printed source here that a bibliographic check cannot fix, because it is not a published work with an edition. It is course material issued to participants of a training programme, so there is no catalogue record to verify, no ISBN, and no lawful public copy. Its state stays `registered` for that reason rather than through inattention.
The Science of Cidermaking and associated technical writing
Andrew Lea · reference work · passage verified 2026-08-24
Written by a food chemist who worked at Long Ashton on apple phenolics. Unusual among specialist cider writing in that it is primary-research-adjacent: the author is describing work he did, and cites the literature. This is why it is registered at tier 1 for chemistry while a general cider book is not.