Prevention Of Recontamination In Powdered Milk Production For Baby Food: Process Diaphragm Pump Ensures High Hygiene Standards

Manufacturers of milk-based food for babies and small children have to uphold the highest purity standards in their products, as well as consistent quality and optimal process safety in the plant. There is significant risk of hygienically unsuitable system components recontaminating the end product. This is why there are strict standards regarding hygiene and material approvals for production systems. For even better compliance with these requirements, HOCHDORF Swiss Nutrition AG., a Swiss producer of infant formula and follow-on milk, has acquired a new, hygienic high-pressure pump for conveying the manufactured milk concentrate reliably and safely as well as for metering and further processing precise quantities.

Unlike the plunger pump previously in use, the hermetically sealed diaphragm pump does not require plunger flushing. This substantially lowers the risk of the system recontaminating the end product. The company decided on a Triplex G3F process diaphragm pump in an aseptic design with a collecting pipe and pressure transmitter solution from LEWA GmbH. It is designed for the pressure necessary for spraying the concentrates in the spray tower and also stands out thanks to its hermetically sealed diaphragm pump heads, its high-power drive unit and its low noise emissions. The unit has been in continuous operation without errors since April 2017 and the risk of recontamination has been substantially lowered.

“Due to the high hygiene requirements for the production of food for children and infants, it is necessary to make continuous adjustments to new legal mandates,” explains the plant manager responsible at HOCHDORF Swiss Nutrition AG. “This is why it is essential that we coordinate the individual components in our plant to each other perfectly in order to meet the highest purity specifications and, beyond that ensure consistent product quality. Therefore, the references from LEWA about similar hygienically advanced applications were important when deciding on diaphragm pump technology.”