Dairy Industry Chiller Systems
At the heart of the United States’ economy, the dairy industry provides an essential nutritional resource. Dairy farms and processing facilities handle a lot of milk, and it’s crucial to keep the supply at a cool temperature for as long as possible. That’s why every facility needs a milk chilling plant process that ensures dairy products reach supermarkets in good condition.
At Smart Family of Cooling Products, we supply farms and processing plants with the tools they need to produce bacteria-free dairy products with the longest possible shelf life. We offer machines in various sizes to provide milk cooling equipment that meets your facility’s needs.
Why Does the Dairy Industry Need Coolers?
The dairy industry works at a fast pace to keep up with consumer demands. As a result, it’s essential to have fast-acting cooling equipment that enables businesses to produce high-quality dairy products and maintain their machines’ good health.
Dairy products like cheese and milk must remain cool for maximum shelf life, but certain aspects of production expose the products to high temperatures. Industrial coolers return dairy products to a cool temperature before bacteria can spoil the batch. Additionally, producing dairy products and heating them to kill bacteria strains the facility’s machines.
Industrial chillers help to keep the dairy products and production machines at consistently cool temperatures day in and day out.
How Dairy Chillers Work
Businesses in the dairy industry need tools that help them keep products cool to retain their quality. Industrial dairy chillers are mechanisms that remove heat from dairy products during specific points of their production process. By removing heat, industrial chillers preserve the quality of dairy products and production equipment.
Dairy chillers typically remove heat from products by implementing one of two cooling mechanisms. Most dairy chillers utilize either air cooling or water cooling. Air cooling dairy chillers use a pumping system and refrigerant to send warm air into the machine, where a refrigerant chemical removes the heat and outputs cool air in return. Similarly, water chillers mix the warm product with a cool solvent like a water-glycol mixture that safely and quickly removes heat.
The process of cooling dairy products in an industrial chiller is complex but easy to integrate into any facility. A water chiller’s pumps will connect with a facility’s milk treatment machines, while tower units can air-cool machines and products. Industrial chillers work quickly to provide instant results that meet food quality and safety demands.
Dairy Chiller Applications
The dairy industry is one with sensitive temperature control parameters. Many of the processes involved in developing safe-to-consume dairy products on a large scale require temperatures to remain low. However, many of the tactics that make dairy products safe for consumption involve spiking temperatures. As a result, it’s crucial to find machines like dairy chillers that can restore dairy products and machines to a low temperature quickly.
Pasteurization
Pasteurization is a process that makes milk or cheese safe for consumption by removing any harmful bacteria before the product is packaged and sent to stores. While there are many forms of pasteurization, the essential concept involves heating the dairy product to kill contaminants before cooling it to around 39 degrees Fahrenheit.
Pasteurization is a tricky process because the milk or cheese must reach a high enough temperature to remove the bacteria while retaining desirable enzymes. Glycol dairy cooling systems aid in many of the most common pasteurization techniques, including:
Contact Smart Family
High-Temperature Short-Time
HTST pasteurization involves heating the product between 191 degrees and 212 degrees for 15 seconds to kill pathogens and prevent bacterial reproduction. A high-quality dairy chiller can revert the milk or cheese back to 39 degrees and give the product a shelf life of roughly two weeks.
Ultra-High Temperature
During UHT pasteurization, the heating mechanism causes the dairy product to reach temperatures as high as 280 degrees. UHT dairy products will last between six and nine months after treatment by a dairy cooling system, even without refrigeration.
Vat Pasteurization
Vat pasteurization is a longer process that heats the milk or dairy to 145 degrees for 30 minutes. A chiller is still necessary to remove heat from the liquid.
Equipment Cooling
Many of the processes involved in pasteurizing dairy products and other aspects of running an effective dairy plant cause machines to run for extended periods of time. Hours of usage can cause milk tanks, butter churns, homogenizers, cheese presses and other machines to run hot. An industrial chiller will remove warm air or liquid from these machines and the surrounding area to prevent damage and ensure efficient daily operation.
Factors to Keep in Mind When Purchasing a Dairy Chiller
The market is full of industrial chiller options for dairy farms and treatment facilities. Here are some things to consider before your purchase a dairy chiller:
- Types of dairy products: The type of dairy products your facility produces will influence which type of industrial chiller is best for the job. If your facility works with a variety of products, it will need a chiller with the flexibility to adapt based on the situation.
- Energy needs: Industrial chillers offer varying energy output levels. Choosing the right machine will help your facility meet and surpass its energy efficiency goals.
- Size of operation: Select a dairy milk cooling system with the power to cool all of the equipment in your facility without going overboard. Be conscious of your plant’s space availability, too.
- Temperature needs: Each type of pasteurization heats dairy products to a different temperature level, so choose the chiller that best suits the methods your facility performs.
- Staff available for maintenance: If you have few workers to spare for maintenance, a durable, low-maintenance chiller may be the best option for your plant.
Dairy Milk Chillers From Smart Family
Dairy farmers and treatment facility owners can find the tools they need for an efficient milk cooling process from Smart Family of Cooling Products. Our industrial chillers are available in different sizes to accommodate your specific needs. We offer ethylene, water and propylene glycol chillers, so you have options that cater to the precise specifications of your cooling processes.
Give us a call at 281-540-2805 or email sales@smartcoolingproducts.com to discuss the right cooling equipment for your facility. You can also reach out to request a Chiller Genius quote today.