Pizza Drives Cheese Sales
17 April 2008 10:07
Tetra Tebel Alfomatic cheddar equipment is a versatile, modular solution for automatic whey drainage, fusing, stretching, milling and salting of cheese curd - for cheddar and mozzarella cheese types.
Alfomatic units are among the largest equipment in the Tetra Pak Processing Systems product portfolio, measuring at least 10 x 2 x 7 metres. Some are 20 metres long.
Tetra Tebel Alfomatic equipment can handle a broad range of cheese types and process a wide variety of moisture and fat contents, at high volume with equal efficiency and uniformity. A single Tetra Tebel Alfomatic can treat 1,500 kilos to 16,000 of cheese curd per hour, depending on the cheese type. Whether the customer wants to automate a small operation, or build up a system capable of processing more than 100,000 kilos (220,000 pounds) of cheese milk per hour, the Tetra Tebel Alfomatic is suitable.
The major benefit of the Tetra Tebel Alfomatic is that many different types of cheese can be made on the same equipment, even stirred and washed curd varieties.
Whereas in the past approximately one unit was sold per year, between March 2006 and the end of 2007 a total of nine Tetra Tebel Alfomatics were sold.
"Sales of the Tetra Tebel Alfomatic have recently multiplied for a number of reasons," explained the Sub Category Manager Cheddar and Pasta Filata at Tetra Pak Tebel in Holland, Michael Crook. "Pizza sales are increasing all over the world, and with them the demand for Mozzarella cheese. The world market for pizza cheese is growing by 5% annually.
"Japan, Brazil and Denmark have come strongly, with needs for both Mozzarella and Cheddar production, and our marketing efforts have started to pay off. In Ireland grants have made investments in dairy projects possible, and for some customers it has just been time to update old, outdated equipment with higher capacity units," he said.
"All in all the market is growing. This explosion in sales has put tough demands on our whole team, to manage, install and commission so many in a short time. They have done tremendous work!"
The future continues to look interesting, especially on the American side of the Atlantic: new US factories are still being built, at least one large plant every other year – business which Tetra Pak Cheese & Powder Systems handles. Brazil also has some interesting projects coming up.
For more information on this company:
Tetra Pak Processing Systems - Total Production Solutions for the Food Manufacturing Industry
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