The expansion and efficiency improvements are part of FrieslandCampina’s corporate route2020 strategy. The company has worked hard over the past 18 months to expand its cheese production facilities and the FrieslandCampina Domo plant, which produces ingredients for infant & toddler nutrition. The cheese business has acquired a new cheese-making plant, extra production lines and a new brining tank.
The project has resulted in the doubling of cheese production capacity. As a result, the company can now process 1 billion kilos of milk to give 120,000 tonnes of cheese per year. FrieslandCampina Workum makes two types of cheese: foil-ripened cheese, which retains its taste and texture in a vacuum-packed film, and naturally-ripened cheese, which is matured in the traditional way on wooden shelves.
The doubling of capacity also means an increase in the supply of whey to the nearby FrieslandCampina Domo production plant. Whey is rich in lactose and proteins, both of which are valuable nutrients that are added to infant & toddler nutrition, among other products. The new FrieslandCampina Domo facility in Workum thickens whey into powder using a process known as reverse osmosis, which filters it under high pressure. The water released is recycled as processing water for the production of cheese, and is also used in FrieslandCampina Domo’s own production processes. The technology is highly energy-efficient, saving up to half a million euros.
