DAIRY
Preserve dairy's goodness - Naturally
Flavourtech’s technologies are used by the dairy industry for a range of applications from value-added products through to product reproducibility. Two key application areas are:
- Dairy protein concentration: The Centritherm® evaporator has proven to be an ideal unit for concentrating dairy products without damage. For example, various protein products can be concentrated to solid levels not achieved before in traditional evaporators, without any protein degradation; and
- Cream deodorisation: The Spinning Cone Column (SCC) is used to reduce levels of unwanted animal feed and transport flavours common in cream and milk.
BENEFITS
BENEFITS OF THE CENTRITHERM EVAPORATOR
- No reduction in protein functionality due to the Centritherm evaporator’s low thermal impact capabilities.
- Increased drying capacity as the unit can handle more viscous materials (up to 20,000 cP) and thus concentrate solids to higher levels than other evaporators.
- Designed and built to comply with strict dairy industry standards.
BENEFITS OF THE SPINNING CONE COLUMN
- Reduced operating costs, reduced steam consumption and flexible operation.
- Improved cream quality as a result of short residence times, typically 25 seconds, within the column and low operating temperatures thus avoiding thermal degradation.
- The column’s internal design allows processing of slurries or viscous products that cannot be handled in traditional stripping columns.
- The SCC is a hygienic system with “Clean In Place” (CIP) capabilities and is designed to meet dairy industry standards.
APPLICATIONS
Dairy protein concentration
Worldwide requirements for high quality, functional, protein-based ingredients for use in a range of health food products and baby formulas have generated increased demand for dairy proteins. In the majority of cases, dairy proteins are concentrated and dried to provide stable, easily transportable products.
Flavourtech’s Centritherm evaporator offers superior drying capacity and an innovative solution to conventional concentration methods which other technologies cannot match. This capability allows high concentrations to be achieved without damage to the product to increase spray dryer capacity and throughput.
Given dairy proteins are sensitive to heat denaturation, the Centritherm evaporator minimises thermal degradation and subsequent loss of protein functionality by reducing the contact time between the heating surface and the product to approximately one second. The unit’s evaporation temperatures can also be adjusted to further minimise thermal impact. Lower evaporation temperatures of 40°C and steam temperatures of 70 to 90°C, are not uncommon and can help protect valuable dairy proteins, ensuring they are of an extremely high quality without reducing functionality.
Dairy protein products commonly processed by the Centritherm evaporator include:
- Milk Protein Concentrate (MPC70 and above)
- Whey Protein Concentrate (WPC70 and above
- Milk Protein and Whey Protein Isolates (MPI and WPI)
- Colostrum
- “Special Proteins” that are ‘sticky’ or highly viscous
A range of Centritherm evaporator models are available for batch or continuous processing. For more information, please visit the Centritherm evaporator page.
Cream deodorisation
SCC installation for cream deodorisation capable of processing 80,000L/h
Some of the world’s largest, most advanced dairy processors have adopted the SCC as their standard technology for the removal of undesirable odours from cream. The SCC removes these odours without sacrificing the fresh flavour of the raw milk or cream. This helps achieve flavour consistency throughout the year in products manufactured from the deodourised cream. Typical odours that can be removed by the SCC include:
- Undesirable feed flavours, such as weed taints or grassy notes
- Off odours originating from the animal, such as “cowy” flavours
- Flavours developed during transportation or storage, such as oxidation flavours
The gentle treatment of the cream within the SCC results in minimal damage to the fat globules, reducing crystallisation times during the butter making process. Further, the parameters of the SCC may be easily adjusted throughout the year to control the degree of off-note removal. Finally, the SCC uses approximately 20% of the steam required by alternative deodorisation techniques making it more cost-efficient to operate.
One of the major dairy users of this technology is a large New Zealand cooperative that has standardised the use of SCC technology across its factories. The primary application within these locations is the removal of undesired flavours from cream for the production of butter that is then exported around the world.
Simultaneous deodorisation and pasteurisation is achievable within the SCC and it has been designed to operate hygienically in the dairy environment and to meet industry standards, such as NZCP7 and USD3A.
Case Study
Improving cream production with the SCC
One of the major users of the SCC in the dairy industry is the large New Zealand cooperative, Fonterra. With over 20 SCC columns, Fonterra utilises the technology to remove undesired flavours from their cream treatment process and now use it instead of vacreator technology in many of their factories.
The SCC provides substantial benefits in terms of improved cream quality due to low operating temperatures and short residence times, considerably lower steam consumption, reduced length and frequency of CIP and simple, flexible operation. The result being an overall reduction in energy usage, effluent loads and labour when compared to the old vacreator technology. The SCC’s gentle processing also means less disruption to the cream’s fat globules leading to a lower churning requirement for butter production.
All these factors combine to produce a consistent high quality cream, regardless of the prevailing seasonal or animal feed conditions, at a very low cost per litre. In fact, the operating costs have shown to be in the order of 25-30% of those of traditional cream treatment equipment.
