Downpour of health
Akhil
Bhargav discusses on the cryogenic and microwavable ready-to-eat technology
In
the dairy industry of today, there are three very clear trends for the
dairy processing equipment. First, the demands for greater flexibility
have increased. As more new products and more new variations of products
are requested from the consumers, more and quicker changeovers are required.
The time to introduce new products, new tastes or new ingredients has
shortened. The dairies want to be able to quickly, easily and at a reasonable
cost adapt the production to new conditions and changed prerequisites.
Thus, the
processing equipment needs to be very flexible and deliver a wider range
of diverse products. Second, there is a global trend for higher efficiency,
particularly for bulk products. The hard pressure on dairies today,
from brand owners and retailers, makes it vital to lower operating costs
and increase productivity. This also puts new demands on the processing
equipment, in regard to reliability, efficiency and throughput. Finally,
a very strong trend worldwide is the demand for traceability and security
in the automation solutions.
This
is mainly due to two factors:
• Increasingly larger volumes are produced by fewer people.
Therefore, it is essential to be able to trust the production systems.
• In
recent years food alarms have made the consumers more and more concerned
with food safety. This has led to a demand for food safety to be built
into the systems, continuously developed and improved. Key features
for dairy companies Dairies focus on value for money when it comes to
equipment.Key
features are reliability, throughput and low maintenance costs. Also,
the time frame from decision to up-and-running has become shorter. Today,
nobody wants to wait for equipment once the decision is made. They want
a rapid execution of a project, partly because everything changes so
quickly, but also to minimise the overall costs. Dairies also want the
components to be standardised in order to keep the storage costs for
spare parts down to a minimum.
Global
trends on local markets
The global trends in dairy processing equipment are influenced
by global consumer trends, global brand owners and global retailers.
In the developing countries, progress happens very quickly; for example,
China had a very small dairy industry 10 years ago. Today, it has jumped
several steps ahead on the development ladder and now has high requirements,
demanding the same systems and levels of safety as in Western Europe.
Five years ago, Polish dairies were small, farming dairies. Today, they
build new, modern plants. They have embraced new technologies and production
methods, becoming a competitive force on the European market.
Technical
support and maintenance
The necessity for preventive support and maintenance is an essential
factor in modern dairy industry. A dairy, with its tight, just-intime
production, cannot afford break-downs or lengthy disruptions. A 24-hr
stop is catastrophic. The cows keep milking and there are no other substitute
plants to send the incoming milk to. As the production becomes more
technically advanced, with complex systems, more specialist knowledge
is required for the fault-finding and emergency assistance. The plants
run 24/7, which means that technical support may be needed for the same
hours. This makes it often more efficient to purchase the particular
expertise, knowledge and technical solutions externally, including remote
diagnostics and fault-finding. Maintenance is increasingly planned and
runs according to strict schedules. Additionally, modern automation
systems often have built-in alarms that signal trouble before it occurs,
thereby avoiding costly breakdowns.
Development
of dairy equipment
The main driving forces for the evolution of dairy equipment are
increased hygiene requirements and decreased energy consumption. For
example, the design of equipment has increased the heat exchange efficiency;
automation increases mechanical efficiency, optimises production throughput
and modern equipment handles shorter changeovers and thereby minimises
production losses.
The innovative
dairy industry
In the dairy industry, much of the competition comes from drinks,
tea and soya-based products. In order to continue to grow, we need to
keep developing and find new products that the consumers want in order
to continue to grow. Probiotics and single-serve health drinks are two
areas where the dairy industry has developed by leaps and bounds the.
