Molkerei Berchtesgadener Land dairy has modernised its butter production at its Piding, Germany, site, investing €3.5 million in the process. The focus is on more precise monitoring of all quality-relevant parameters and a new, improved packaging solution. With the new butter plant, key process steps are continuously monitored and cleaning is automated. This ensures the quality of every single piece of butter can be guaranteed even more precisely.

The new butter plant replaces the old facility dating from 2003. A significant improvement lies in the continuous monitoring of production parameters. An integrated belt weigher checks the weight of every single piece of butter in real time. At the same time, the water content in the butter is measured continuously. In addition, a continuous supply of cream via a buffer tank ensures stable process conditions. Pressure and temperature fluctuations are avoided, which improves uniform processing and ensures consistently high quality.

In parallel with the process optimisation, the packaging has also been further developed. The new MOSH/MOAH-free aluminium-laminated plastic butter wrap is around 55 per cent lighter than the previous aluminium-laminated parchment packaging. A heat-sealing process ensures the butter is sealed airtight and aroma-tight. This provides optimum protection against the effects of light and oxygen

Cleaning of the tanks, the butter drum, the packaging equipment and the pipes in the new butter plant is now carried out in an integrated, fully automated cleaning process. By doubling the batch size, the number of cleaning processes required is also halved. This leads to a 50 per cent reduction in the use of lye and disinfectants. In terms of caustic soda alone, this saves around 1,700 kilograms annually. Water consumption is also significantly reduced: as the cleaning water from the butter plant cannot be reused due to its fat content, the reduced cleaning frequency has a lasting impact on overall consumption.