Tetra Pak® New Whey Filtration System Helps Small and Medium-Sized Dairies to Reduce Food Waste

Tetra Pak’s processing business is now the market leader in filtration systems for milk, cheese and whey applications, enhanced by the acquisitions of Filtration Engineering and DSS Silkeborg in 2012 and 2013 respectively. We now have important in-house expertise in reverse osmosis, nanofiltration and microfiltration, and we are now focused on applying these technologies across a range of applications.

This means that we don’t just provide our customers with ways to cut waste, we also provide them with new market opportunities.

For example, a common by-product of cheese production, whey is often dumped as food waste but now it can be turned into a valuable product. Whey is only valuable when concentrated, but the filtration technology needed has traditionally been highly customised and too expensive for most small and medium-sized dairies.

So in September 2013, we launched Tetra Alcross® RO Lite, a filtration system that helps small and medium-sized dairies extract value out of whey that costs about 30% less than the customised alternatives.

The system uses a process of continuous reverse osmosis filtration to remove excess water from the whey, tripling its concentration while retaining dissolved salts, lactose, acids, proteins, fats and bacteria. This concentrated whey can then be sold to food processors as an ingredient in a number of products, bringing a valuable income stream, while also significantly reducing or eliminating unnecessary transportation and waste handling costs.

ABOUT TETRA PAK

Tetra Pak is the world's leading food processing and packaging solutions company. Working closely with our customers and suppliers, we provide safe, innovative and environmentally sound products that each day meet the needs of hundreds of millions of people in more than 170 countries around the world. With more than 23,000 employees based in over 80 countries, we believe in responsible industry leadership and a sustainable approach to business. Our motto, “PROTECTS WHAT’S GOOD™," reflects our vision to make food safe and available, everywhere.

More information about Tetra Pak is available at www.tetrapak.com