Arla Foods Krusa has moved to reduce the environmental impact of its salad cheese production by replacing its microfiltration system with a UV pasteuratisation one.
The new system, which was created by Danish company Lyras, has already reduced waste and energy consumption and simplified the company’s cleaning and operational processes.
According to Arla, the UV system, which is known as Raslysation, requires approximately half the amount of energy than was previously needed, and the company’s team can now use “considerably less CIP chemicals”.
A non-thermal treatment, it uses UV light at a specific wavelength to pasteurise opaque liquid food and non-food products, including dairy, juice and enzymes.
As the liquid is directed past the light source, everything is illuminated to inactivate bacteria and other micro-organisms.
Lyras developed the system alongside public health experts, academics and stakeholders in both the dairy and juice industries, in 2017.
“Our new UV system from Lyras enables us to reuse 100% of our brine and thereby eliminate the CO2 (carbon dioxide) emitted from the salt retentate disposal,” Vagn Clausen, packaging manager at Arla Foods Kruså, said.
“Cleaning has also become cheaper and easier, taking just 15 minutes. The solution is also considerably cheaper compared to cleaning microfiltration systems.
“Importantly, the working environment for our employees has also improved, and Lyras’ Raslysation system has ensured that the high quality of our product is maintained, if not exceeding our previous output,” he added.
“It much easier to operate the new UV system from Lyras compared to the microfiltration plant we had used previously,” stated Claus Werner Fischbach, process operator at Arla Foods Kruså.
“We control the Raslysation unit from our SCADA system, just as we do with the rest of our process equipment.
“The Lyras system worked from day one and we’re pleased with the results,” he added.
An increase in demand for salad cheese prompted Arla to redevelop its plant to process large amounts of brine per hour, which it previously micro-filtered.