Friesland Foods Domo Makes Whey Investment

15/04/08 Friesland Foods Domo has invested in a whey demineralisation centre in Bedum.

The expanded production capacity and the modifications will enable Friesland Foods Domo to respond more effectively to the demand for products used in infant nutrition.

The worldwide demand for ingredients for functional foods, such as infant nutrition, is growing dramatically. The modification of the production site in Bedum is perfectly in line with the strategy being pursued by Friesland Foods. The strategy regards milk- and whey-based ingredients as one of the cornerstones of the concern. ‘By increasing its production capacity in Bedum, Friesland Foods Domo is responding to the growing market for infant nutrition. This makes our production site in Bedum the whey demineralisation centre of Friesland Foods’, says Roelof Joosten, managing director of Friesland Foods Domo.

Considerable investments have been made in the production site in Bedum in the past year, in order to boost the production capacity of demineralised whey products. At the whey demineralisation centre, salts are removed from the whey by means of ion exchange. The product name used by Friesland Foods Domo for demineralised whey is Deminal 90.

Deminal 90 is suitable for use in infant nutrition. Salt-free food is particularly important for infant foods, because a baby’s kidneys are not yet fully developed in the first few months of life, so unnecessary strain on the kidneys should be avoided. The product is available in powder and liquid form. Roelof Joosten: ‘In the past few years, Friesland Foods Domo has made enormous strides in the development, technology and production of high-quality ingredients based on milk and whey. The production site in Bedum only makes this speciality for infant nutrition.’

The Friesland Foods complex in Bedum is also home to Friesland Foods Cheese. In recent years, the Friesland Foods Cheese production site in Bedum has invested in a new preplant (milk processing, rennet production and whey processing), a new cheese dairy for oblong, naturally and foil ripened cheese (15 kilos) and a dairy where cumin Gouda and Maasdam cheese are produced. The total production capacity is 63,000 tonnes of cheese. The cheese is matured and processed in the warehouse. Bedum houses two packing lines for foil-ripened cheese and Maasdam cheese, and the latter is exported directly from the plant in Bedum.

The workforce at the Friesland Foods complex in Bedum totals over 170.