Spreading the Wealth
Butter making has existed for more than 3,000 years and modern technology continues to optimize it to meet changing market demands. Churns have evolved into precise, efficient high volume production lines.
While making the highest quality product at the lowest cost can contribute to success in most industries, this is particularly relevant to butter production, where there is little option to compete on ingredients. But that doesn’t mean there is no room for innovation.
Many butter producers are finding, for example, that automating key processes not only reduces labor costs but also reduces downtime and enforces consistent product quality. And in these days where ingredient supply reliability may be iffy, some producers are also extending automation into their supply chains, gaining greater assurance that highest quality ingredients will be available when needed.
Smarter Butter Production
Think of SPX FLOW as your process automation partner. We have extensive experience in analyzing processes to find procedures that can be automated effectively. We can identify the cost sinks and process optimization opportunities. We can free your operators to focus on those areas in which human judgment is essential — like monitoring and responding to process alarms — while leaving everything else up to the control software.
And because we can equip your butter production line end to end, including CIP and packing systems, we can deliver a more automated and tightly-integrated production line than just about anybody else. We can even access your operations securely, 24/7, to provide you near-real-time technical support to minimize process downtime
The systems we design for you will integrate nearly a century of engineering experience into accurate, reliable turnkey butter processing systems that support your brand promise.
Spreads
Modern butter processing also makes several non-traditional butter-like spreads possible on a large scale. These include spreadable butter products and low-fat butter options that cater to segments of the dairy market. While the ingredients for traditional butter are well-regulated by statute, the opportunity to bring non-traditional butters to market is wide open.
New, low-fat, and spreadable butter products and plant-based products like vegan blocks are appearing in grocery dairy cases regularly. At one time, plant-based margarine was the primary alternative to butter. But today, the market is accepting more and more spreads made from oil and plant-based ingredients such as almonds and coconuts. Consumers are also interested in spreads fortified with vitamins, essential oils, omega 3 fatty acid, and with lower low-fat, high nutritional form of butter.
Fortunately, most of process innovation that SPX FLOW has developed in automating butter and complex alternatives applies as well to spreads. SPX FLOW has extensive experience in adapting butter production lines for alternative butters and spreads.
SPX FLOW are experts in producing butter and anything that looks like it. In our Global Innovation and Design Centers our food scientists, automation engineers and marketing teams collaborate with customers to test, simulate and refine production for maximum market advantage. The Innovation and Design Centers have a unique capability for combining trials of both butter and margarine technologies.
