Process / Product quality benefits
- Complete dispersion of yogurt ingredients in a single pass
- Smooth, homogeneous Greek yogurt texture
- Elimination of lumping and post‑fill separation
- Doubled production output
Customer brief
A Mexican dairy renowned for producing a wide range of unique yogurt products encountered significant challenges while launching a new Greek yogurt. Their original processing configuration could not fully dissolve and incorporate formulation ingredients into the yogurt base, resulting in a lumpy texture and phase separation at retail.
Multiple alternative mixing technologies were trialled without success. The processor required a scalable solution capable of delivering complete ingredient dispersion, stable structure and repeatable industrial texture suitable for large‑volume production.
Fristam’s solution
A Fristam FS Shear Blender installed downstream of the existing mix tank, the FS delivers uniform blending without requiring modification to the broader production system, which the customer wanted to keep in operation.
Trial set up
1. A trial FS Shear Blender with a 3532 rotor stator combination and a 25 HP motor was installed in the phase after the mix tank.
2. Yogurt was pumped at a flow rate of 190l/min, with a differential of 6 bar towards Fristam Shear Blender.
3. Once the yoghurt entered the shear blender – the intermeshed rotor‑stator geometry generated intense turbulence as rotating teeth passed within mere millimeters of the stationary teeth at high speed.
4. Centrifugal force drives the yogurt through the high‑energy shear zone within the blender, ensuring complete dispersion of all ingredients in a single pass.
A successful outcome with the Fristam FS Shear Blender
The FS shear blender eliminated lump formation, prevented separation and delivered a smooth, stable Greek yogurt texture suitable for market distribution!
Production capacity improved dramatically: where approximately 50,000 litres previously required eight hours to achieve acceptable texture, the facility can now produce an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 litres within the same timeframe while maintaining consistent quality and operational reliability. Doubling production output!
Sustainability benefits
- Lower waste from off‑spec or separated yogurt batches
- Higher production efficiency per processing hour
- Reduced energy per litre of finished product
Financial benefits
- Significant increase in hourly production capacity
- Improved utilisation of existing processing infrastructure
- Reduced product rejection and quality losses
- Scalable throughput supporting market expansion
Other benefits
- Inline retrofit without full system redesign
- Proven industrial scalability following trial validation