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11 October 2002
Longwarry achieves zero downgrade of milk powder
Longwarry Food Park (LFP) commenced operations in January 2002, on the former Bonlac Foods - Longwarry
Branch site. LFP has a 2.3 tonnes/hour evaporator and spray drier in addition to 200 acres of land, an
on-site effluent treatment plant, cold storage facilities, and adequate gas, electricity and water
supplies. The site is EPA licensed and AQIS approved. LFP can provide low cost facilities and
infrastructure to small food manufacturers, including food grade production areas, steam, chilling,
electricity, compressed air, gas and effluent treatment to support a start up business. Bridge Dairies,
Mc Colls and Bonlac Foods - (Grated Cheese Operation) are already tenants at LFP.
Ian Porter, General Manager - Operations LFP with the Soliquid mixer
The evaporator and spray drier is currently being used for contract manufacture. LFP has achieved zero
product downgrade output by using a Saurin Soliquid mixer. Typically, spray driers produce downgrade
product during start up and shutdown. This powder is generally very fine in particle size distribution
and low in moisture content. This could occur for the first and last 5-10 minutes of production. In
addition, factories may produce out of specification powder for a number of reasons, including
microbiological contamination, particle insolubility, bulk density or moisture.
Generally, one way of utilising the downgrade powder is to blend it back into production in controlled
amounts. Metering it onto the fluid bed is one option. There are however, disadvantages in doing so.
LFP now use the Soliquid unit to mix the downgrade powder into the liquid stream going to the evaporator.
Soliquid not only mixes the powder in well, but also actively de-aerates the milk, which assists the
operation of the evaporator. Since Soliquid mixes the powder directly into the feed stream, no additional
water is added that would ultimately need to be removed in the evaporator and spray drier.
The powder, being incorporated in the liquid feed stream, gets treated in the evaporator and blends in
completely with the rest of the product. The downgrade powder from the start of the run can be
incorporated in the feed of the same run. The downgrade powder produced at the end of the run gets
used in the next run.
As a result of this, routine downgrade of product has been eliminated, resulting in improved production
efficiency and increased yields.
Food Australia - Volume 54, Number 10
October 2002, Pg. 445
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