Arla Application Services Find a Shorter Route to the Market

Arla Foods Ingredients’ solutions are an optimised combination of functional milk proteins and a process specially designed to give the required result. The starting point for each one is the customers’ existing production line.

18/02/09 Fast and efficient product development is crucial for all players on the competitive food market. And facilities are at hand to help them do it. By taking their projects to Arla Foods Ingredients’ application centres, food manufacturers can slash product development time from many months to a few days.

According to application manager Carsten Kirkegaard Jensen, the centres are of particular benefit to companies unable to afford extensive pilot-scale testing equipment. Only recently a large European manufacturer experienced the full value-adding worth of the skilled staff and advanced equipment at the centre in Denmark.

The customer had spent more than two years on trying to develop a product. They came to our centre and, within two or three days, we had made a product they were satisfied with, says Carsten Kirkegaard Jensen. By adopting an alternative approach to processing and adding some ingredients at a different stage, the desired product could be achieved.

Arla Foods Ingredients’ solutions are an optimised combination of functional milk proteins and a process specially designed to give the required result. The starting point for each one is the customers’ existing production line. That means no extra investments in processing equipment are required to implement the solutions. What the customer ends up with is a high quality final product at the lowest possible cost.

When our customers bring their development projects to our application centre, our hit rate is close to 100%, claims Carsten Kirkegaard Jensen. It goes really fast much faster than when one of our technicians travels backwards and forwards to the customer. By working together at our centre with our testing equipment close at hand, we can use each other as sparring partners in a more efficient way.

Within the Danish application centre, 25 experienced technicians are employed exclusively to work with application trials and process development. The extreme flexibility and diversity of the equipment means the team is capable of running 100 trials a week, adjusting the formulation and process until the desired result is obtained. A similar setup is in place at Arla Foods Ingredients’ application centre in Argentina.

We have technicians who have run tens of thousands of tests for customers all over the world, says Carsten Kirkegaard Jensen. That has given us expertise in all kinds of processing techniques.

The application centres are equipped to work with yogurt; ice cream; all kinds of cheese; aerated products such as mousse; beverages; meat; and soups, sauces and dressings. Functional milk proteins combined with optimised processing secure the flavour, texture, appearance, stability and shelf life of the final products.