[ PILOT PLANTS ]
Food innovation:
Test in Tetra Pak's product development center or pilot plant rental? Food producers are launching new products based on milk, whey, and plants at a high pace to match consumer trends. What is most optimal: test at Tetra Pak or rent a pilot plant? The key to success with product development is knowledge about the pre-treatment of the raw materials and about how the individual components of the raw materials are separated with the greatest possible precision to be reassembled into new foods. Membrane filtration plays the main role in these processes. To match the innovation pace of food producers, Tetra Pak Filtration Solutions has opened a new product development center in Aarhus, Denmark, this year, and at the same time increased its fleet of pilot plants that are rented out to customers. What to choose? - The advantage of testing new solutions and products in our product development center is that the food producer does not have to
Tetra Pak Product Development Centers
14 Mælkeritidende 11 / 2021
dedicate a lot of resources to the task, says Hanne Sørensen, Product Manager, Food and Beverage based Applications, PhD, who is leading several development projects within plant based filtration solutions. A trial typically requires one month of preparation, while the trials run intensively over a week. Tetra Pak Filtration Solutions designs the trials together with the food producer, handles the raw materials, performs the trials, and delivers the finished solution. - Customers can choose how much they want to be involved in the trial. Either by being present in the product development center and work with our experienced food technologists and engineers to develop the new products and adapt the production processes. Or they can participate virtually. Then, our employees run the trials themselves and
send information and data to the customer on an ongoing basis, she says. Examples of tests are fractionation of milk and plant proteins, removal of bacteria, concentration of dry matter, recovery and concentration of proteins, and removal of salts. The cleaning of the filtration system also requires great expertise. From idea to branding Through Tetra Pak's international setup of product development centers and customer innovation centers, we help our customers with the entire process behind new product launches. - In the product development centers, focus is on the technical solutions, while in the six customer innovation centers, which are located in Europe, the USA, and Asia, we develop the product concept; from idea to branding and launch, so that the product stands out on the shelves, she says. The setup in the product development center is adapted to each individual test using pilot plants. After the tests, Tetra Pak can dimension an industrial membrane filtration system. - The time and resources that the customer saves in-house by letting us do the work is usually not a visible expense in the accounts. The only "disadvantage" for the customer by using our product development center is that money must be put on the table. The advantage is that we have many years of experience gathered in one place in running many different applications, just as we continuously test which membranes are best suited for which applications, explains Hanne Sørensen.
