Variety: The spice of NZ food life
BREAKING NEWS
EDITOR'S NOTE
INFANT ON THE RISE
GEA to build largest infant formula plant in China for Junlebao Dairy
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As I take the helm of NZ Food Technology for
a period of time, I’m excited at what the future
landscape of Kiwi food is about to bring.
Pressure to produce more per acreage – in
my view – is a great thing, opening up fresh
opportunities for New Zealand food and
beverage manufacturers. The flow-on effect in
terms of contribution from businesses outside of
the actual food/beverage manufacturer is what
NZ needs to get ahead. We need to produce,
more. An opportunity for one business in the
making of a product provides work for many
other businesses that are able to contribute to
the source business/project being a success –
from ad agencies to engineers.
Hot topics and trends in food and drink are
popping up everywhere. Evolution is on an
exponential curve. In this issue we talk about
new proteins, market trends and the likes…
and you can add that to the previously well
documented opportunities within food and
beverage markets: legalisation of hemp seed as
food, the rise of insect power, super powders,
fermented foods, raw and more. Health will be
huge in 2019 and beyond.
It’s our job at NZ Food Technology to present
you with such opportunities and to put you in
touch with innovative suppliers of ingredients
and machinery, services and solutions to ensure
your business has access to all it can to be that
success.
Myself, I’m off to eat a Brazil nut for my selenium
fix. But just one.
Greg Robertson
Publisher
Food processing supplier GEA has secured
an order from the Shijiazhuang Junlebao
Dairy Co Ltd in China to supply the country’s
largest spray dryer for the manufacture
of infant milk formula (IMF), with a
planned production capacity of six tons per hour.
The project has already kicked-off, with commercial
production scheduled in the second quarter
of 2020.
Founded in 1995, Junlebao achieved sustained
and rapid growth over the years and today is the
largest dairy processing company in the Hebei
Province and the fourth largest dairy processing
company in China. Well known for its liquid milk
products, e.g. yogurt, lactobacillus beverages and
UHT milk, it entered the infant formula milk powder
market in 2017. In 2016, GEA provided the whole
production line technology and plant for infant formula
milk powder for the Junlebao factory located
in Junyuan.
The new plant, which is being built adjacent to
the one completed in 2016, is a turnkey project
for GEA, which includes supplying wet mixing,
evaporation, drying and downstream powder handling.
GEA is also responsible for the plant design,
project execution, installation & commissioning and
automation.
Central to the plant will be the GEA MSD-1600
multi-stage spray dryer, described as one of
the world’s most advanced dryers – combining
spray and fluid-bed drying in a three-stage drying
process. The GEA MSD drying tower produces
formula powder products exactly to customer
specifications and achieves an excellent agglomeration
effect.
Junlebao chose GEA for this major project given
the companies had worked together in 2016 on
a project with a similar scope and were extremely
satisfied with GEA’s performance on the project
and subsequently with the capacity and operational
stability of the plant and the world-class quality
of the end products.
Leon Han, head of dairy sales – Greater China at
GEA, was delighted to announce the new order.
“We’ve worked very closely with Junlebao for years
and it has been a real pleasure to see the success
the plant we built for the company two years ago
has had,” he says. “The new plant will be the
largest of its kind in China and we are delighted
to be working with Junlebao again on this exciting
project.”
“During the building of the 2016 plant we developed
a very strong working relationship with
GEA here in China. For this reason, GEA was
the chosen partner for the new plant and we’re
confident the project will be a success,” confirmed
a Junlebao Dairy spokesperson.
GEA has many years of experience in IMF
production, bringing together its expertise and
market-leading technology to help dairy processors
with the equipment of their production lines.
GEA plants are trusted worldwide, achieving high
product quality, maximum efficiency, productivity
and environmental sustainability. On-going support
is provided by GEA’s global network, including its
in-house test facilities where customers can develop
and refine processes and products ahead of full
production, to help bring new products to market
quickly and profitably.
Junlebao factory’s pretreatment area.
The impressive showroom at Junlebao Dairy’s factory.
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