Milk and Cheese Powder Handling Solutions

Ensure Smooth Ingredient Flow with AZO’s Milk and Cheese Powder Handling Expertise

Milk and cheese powders’ unique properties can make bulk handling of these high fat or high protein ingredients challenging without experienced system design and engineering.

Milk/Cheese Powder Attributes
Toxicity
Low High
Abrasiveness
soft hard
Friable
Solid delicate
Combustible
Low High
Flowability
free-flowing poor
Hygroscopic
not high
Bulk Density (lb/CF)
light heavy
particle Size
Coarse fine
Overview_milkcheesepowder

Milk and Cheese Powder Handling: Overview

Depending on their source — either animal or vegetable — milk and cheese powders have either high fat or high protein content. Either way, milk and cheese powders complicate bulk material handling. Whether they’re used in producing snacks, mixes and blends, or candy and confections, ensuring their smooth flow through a process is key to effective bulk handling. Maintaining proper environmental conditions prevents the separation or loss of fats, while proper dust mitigation minimizes explosion risks. Beyond managing unique ingredient characteristics, dry bulk handling systems must also provide dependable first-in/first-out flow to maximize product freshness, maintain batch control, and preserve hygienic conditions. AZO’s design and engineering team will deliver the dry bulk ingredient handling solution that safeguards product purity for any milk or cheese powder.

Milk and Cheese Powder Handling: Common Challenges

hygroscopic-nature
Processors handling milk and cheese powder must prevent fat separation to avoid equipment clogs.
hygroscopic-nature
Processors handling milk and cheese powder must prevent fat separation to avoid equipment clogs.

Handling milk and cheese powders with high fat content requires appropriate environmental controls and special handling. High temperatures or excessive conveyance speeds tend to heat fat, which separates and smears. Without proper storage temperature, conveyance methods, and flow speed controls, milk and cheese powders can build up and clog equipment around pipe bends or receivers. The ideal automated bulk handling system incorporates features that reduce the chance of fat separation and includes easy-to-clean designs in case they do.

sugar-bulk-density
Food manufacturers using milk and cheese powders must meet hygiene and food safety requirements.
sugar-bulk-density
Food manufacturers using milk and cheese powders must meet hygiene and food safety requirements.

Product safety is a critical concern for food manufacturers using milk and cheese powder ingredients, as contamination can not only affect quality, but also pose risks to consumers. Whether storing, dosing, weighing, or conveying these bulk dry ingredients, processors must comply with proper hygienic handling practices through regular sanitation and wash-downs. They must also eliminate cross-contamination risks, verify, and document cleanliness, and prevent allergen cross-contact.

explosion-protection
Milk and cheese powders’ different properties require different bulk ingredient handling approaches.
explosion-protection
Milk and cheese powders’ different properties require different bulk ingredient handling approaches.

The proteins, fat, and sugars that are all part of milk and cheese powders behave differently when moving through a bulk material handling system. To ensure high quality products, milk and cheese powders need to arrive at the mixer fully intact and complete. The design of the automated bulk handling equipment used in the system must account for these complicated ingredients to ensure reliability and consistent product quality.

Ensuring
Milk and cheese powders require a properly conditioned environment.
Ensuring
Milk and cheese powders require a properly conditioned environment.

Some ingredients, such as milk and cheese powder, are hygroscopic. Because they will readily absorb moisture, they are prone to clumping and resist flow. Proper environmental controls, such as dehumidifiers, are necessary to prevent clumping, sticking, caking, or forming of bridges in storage bins. Providing the necessary equipment to control the environment around all bulk ingredients is critical to optimize safe and reliable bulk flow.

raised-complexity
Handling milk and cheese powder requires proactive dust mitigation.
raised-complexity
Handling milk and cheese powder requires proactive dust mitigation.

The high volumes of dust generated by milk and cheese powders are prone to ignition and a source of pest infestation. Explosion protection requires either suppression or venting to the outside the facility. Fugitive dust in a food plant is also an open invitation to unwanted pests.  This is an especially troublesome problem in hard to reach or hidden areas. Every bulk ingredient handling system must incorporate explosion protection and dust mitigation equipment to safeguard a food manufacturing operation and its customers.

hygroscopic-nature
Bulk ingredient handling requires space for explosion protection.
hygroscopic-nature
Bulk ingredient handling requires space for explosion protection.

Any bulk ingredient handling operation must ensure adequate space for the installation of explosion protection and dust mitigation equipment. This may require some creativity in design and installation to ensure that necessary protection can fit into the available square footage — or be located in proximity to an exterior wall or roof — for venting. This can be especially challenging when adding explosion protection in an existing manufacturing plant.

AZO’s Milk and Cheese Powder Handling Systems: Outcomes & Benefits

AZO’s experienced design engineers understand the unique properties of milk and cheese powder. Every milk or cheese powder bulk handling system we design incorporates equipment and solutions that reliably and effectively address the challenges outlined above. As a single-source provider of automated ingredient system equipment, AZO designs and engineers bulk milk and cheese powder solutions that enhance both safety and productivity in your facility.

With an AZO bulk milk and cheese powder handling system, your operation will:

  • Avoid plugged or clogged storage to prevent downtime spent cleaning equipment.
  • Convey milk and cheese powder safely and effectively to promote smooth flow and avoid smearing and product loss.
  • Safely contain dust and control explosion risk.
  • Sift out unwanted foreign material upon receipt and prior to dispensing.
  • Maintain proper hygiene and eliminate cross-contamination risks with easy-to-clean equipment.

 

Questions About Bulk Ingredient Handling?

AZO’s Milk and Cheese Powder Handling Systems: Equipment & Engineering Solutions

AZO has years of experience handling milk and cheese powders using unique, engineering-centric designs. Your solution will match your unique requirements and be optimized for the safest, most reliable handling process. AZO engineers use the following equipment for milk and cheese powder handling:

Outdoor Silos
For storing material in large volumes
Big Bag Unloaders
For unloading bulk material
Vibratory Bin Bottoms
For aiding the material flow of materials
Delumpers
For unloading bulk material
Screeners
For sifting unwanted foreign material from a process
AZO®MULTIAIR and SuctionPlus Dense Phase Conveying
For gentle conveying of sensitive materials