Technology/IT ¦ IDM
Halloumi and Grill Cheese
New production line by NDT
Today Halloumi or grill cheese is for many still seen as
a specialty from Cyprus. However, its historical roots
dates to ancient Egypt, where halloumi was produced
from sheep and goat milk. Today, the predominant
part of grill cheese is produced from cow milk.
Grill Cheese (halloumi) is on the rise in Europe and the drive
is rooted in our new eating habits, where vegetarians and in particular
flexitarians are seeing the product as a healthy and delicious
substitute. A development very much in line with the rise in
consumption of plant-based meat products.
Other drivers are:
Growing ethnicity and added hereto the lack of holiday travelling
due to Covid19 restrictions.
New eating habits – vegetarians and flexitarians (e. g. the number
of flexitarians in DK is 28% and growing).
Add hereto the rising demands from export markets the Middle
East and UK. Current volumes from the established supply channels
cannot manage this growth, so this calls for investment in
additional processing capacity.
New production line
The newly designed modular Grill Cheese production line from NDT
comes in handy. The line is based upon the halloumi method and
NDT is in the process of delivering such a line to a dairy in Sweden.
The new line holds a variety of ground-breaking features and
designs regarding the process as well as with respect to environmental
issues, and the key elements are the following:
Full control of core temperature in the cheese itself. By this it
becomes possible to control both grill characteristics as well as
the aroma development in the cheese to the point. Additionally,
this makes it possible to develop more cheese recipes.
A full range of salt percentages can be managed. The line
design of the salting process and brine circulation provides full
control, and by this salt percentages from 0,2% up to e.g. 7%
can be managed very precise.
Reduction of consumption of steam, electricity, and cooling by
more than 40%.
Add hereto a range of automatization features reducing man
power drastically.
The line for Sweden has a capacity of 700 tons pa, however this
can be easily expanded to 4,000 tons pa. It is fully automated
and the manning is 2 people. The area requirement is 200 m2,
and the line reduces labour cost by 70 - 80%
It also reduces the consumption of steam, electricity, and
cooling by more than 40%.
Layout of a new grill cheese plant that will be installed in Sweden (source: NDT)
NDT has developed a modular line for
Grill Cheese production (photo: NDT)
January/February 2021 ¦ international-dairy.com · 15
/international-dairy.com
