ESL milk and dairy products production lines

During the ESL milk aand milk products manufacturing, the raw milk is undergoing ultra high temperature treatment which is often termed sterilization.

Special attention should be paid to quality of milk for sterilization - thermal instability, storage time, bacteriological quality.

The raw milk is unsuitable for production of ESL milk and milk products if pH of raw milk is less than 6,5, an alcoholic concentration is less than 75% and if the raw milk was stored for a long time at low temperature.

Two chief methods are used for production of ESL milk and milk products:

• in-container sterilization;
• ultra high temperature (UHT) treatment, where the milk is sterilized in a continuous flow followed by aseptic filling.

UHT treatment can be applied to a wide range of dairy products: fresh and recombined liquid milk, evaporated milk, cream, fermented milk products, whey-based drinks, ice-cream mix etc.

Now the most widely used method of ESL milk production is UHT treatment.

The UHT treatment plant is closed system and includes the following stages: pre-heating of milk, high-heat treating (sterilization), homogenization and aseptic packaging without re-infection.

UHT plants are often flexibly designed to enable processing of a wide range of products in the same plant. Usually it consists of:

• cream separator with standardization device;
• direct or indirect UHT system;
• homogenizer (indirect UHT system) or aseptic homogenizer (direct UHT system);
• aseptic packaging machine;
• aseptic tanks for intermediate storage;
• pumps and pipelines.

Attention should be given to the fact that main processing stages during ESL milk manufacturing, regardless the type of products, are pre-sterilization of equipment, production of ESL milk and milk products, aseptic intermediate cleaning, and CIP.

The Plava complete lines for ESL milk and dairy products manufacturing are equipped with machinery of leading Russian and foreign manufacturers.

Depending on a range of products and requirements for ones, there are a few types of UHT systems:

• direct heating;
• indirect heating.

In contrast, direct heating systems are divided into steam injection system (steam injected into product) and steam infusion system (product introduced into a steam-filled vessel).

The indirect heating system are based on plate heat exchangers, tubular heat exchangers or scraped surface heat exchangers.

The Plava experts provide you with the necessary advice on the selection of UHT treatment, related equipment and lots more.