Peter de Jong: decrease processing costs by 50%

Friesland Foods Domo developed a new ingredient, Vivinal Alpha, for the infant food industry, and wanted to optimize its production process. 
They asked NIZO food research for help, to work together with their own processing experts.

Fouling problems
Vivinal Alpha is a whey protein concentrate rich in alpha-lactalbumin. When processing this ingredient, heat induced fouling occurred. The fouling lead to a decrease in the cycle time and consequently a cost inefficient process. Together with Frieslandcampina’s technologists, NIZO’s scientists approached this problem by applying dedicated computer models to the data provided.

Working together to a solution
In NIZO’s food grade pilot facilities, not only the model was validated, but also test productions were performed, giving representative sample material for subsequent testing. “We could increase the cycle time of the process by 50%,” Peter de Jong, Head of the Processing group at NIZO remarks, “and by using special techniques we could also improve the flavour characteristics of Vivinal Alpha. This resulted in a cost effective process and a product with excellent sensory quality!”

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