Producing standard white milk is a low margin business. It is vital to produce milk with optimal fat content to get the most out of every dro of milk. That is why the standardisation of milk is such an indispensable process.

At Arla Foodss dairy in Palmers Green, London, UK, a new Tetra Pak Standardisation unit makes that process more reliable, stable and accurate.

Josette Bogerman, regional project manager at Arla Foods, says the cooperative had to replac three obsolete standardisers: "Then we heard about the new equipment from Tetra Pak. It was perfect for us to try a new unit at that point in time."

Arla Foods requirements were to minimise the downtime to three days. "That is exceptional for us," she adds.

By October 2015 Tetra Pak had installed the new version unit at the site and the field test of the machine could begin. The unit is designed for automatic inline standardisation of the fat content in milk and cream directly after milk separation. It is a highly reliable system based on extensively tested and refined automation software and components such as flow transmitters and regulation valves.

When Arla Foods runs a milk recipe with the milk fat set point of 3.0% the standardisation unit delivers a fat content of 3.0% +/- 0.015%. Says Bogerman, "We can see the difference in higher accuracy, a lot of cream is coming back into our tank. For every single batch we do, accuracy is improving."

The machine runs at least eight hours a day, seven days a week, all year round.