Tetra Pak High Shear Mixer: your ally for productivity in cream cheese production

For manufacturers wishing to enter the market for cream cheese and other creamy cheeses, or for those already operating in the segment, having the right equipment is essential to achieving the creamy texture and characteristic flavor that consumers expect from this type of product. At the same time, achieving efficiency, lower resource consumption, and competitive costs throughout the process can be a challenge.

To support the food and beverage industry, Tetra Pak, a world leader in food processing and packaging solutions, offers the Tetra Pak High Shear Mixer, an advanced processing platform designed for the production of culinary ricotta, cream cheese, cheese spreads, and creamy cheeses. In industrial tests with culinary ricotta, the technology provided a productivity gain of approximately 145%, allowing production to increase from 380 kg to 940 kg in the same 45-minute interval.

“Manufacturers gain an ally in reducing the total cost of ownership (TCO), with process efficiency without compromising the final product quality,” points out Ana Paula Forti, Processing Director at Tetra Pak Brazil.

With the Tetra Pak® High Shear Mixer, all the ingredients for making cream cheese can be added simultaneously, allowing for better mixing and shorter processing times. This combines the addition of the cheese curd, followed by liquid ingredients, heating, cooking, homogenization, and deaeration, reducing the need for separate operations and making the process more efficient.

“The result is a significantly shorter production cycle, which translates directly into more batches per hour and a higher volume per production shift,” explains the Processing Director.

Tetra Pak High Shear Mixer technology features a dynamic mixing stator, allowing for both high and low shear to be applied at any stage of the process, providing the necessary control to achieve the desired result. High shear provides finer and more uniform homogenization, while low shear allows for well-dispersed mixing. The result is a stable mixture and a final product that meets important quality standards.

Lower resource consumption contributes to a reduction in TCO (Total Cost of Ownership).

The combination of increased production capacity, reduced resource consumption, standardized quality, and operational flexibility can contribute to lowering the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). When discussing cost reduction, the first thought usually refers to assets, raw materials, and labor. But TCO goes far beyond that: energy, water, chemicals, time, cleaning, and productivity are all part of the equation.

“The Tetra Pak High Shear Mixer is a solution that, by contributing to efficiency, flexibility and product quality, significantly helps in this equation,” Ana Forti further explains.

In a case study conducted in Brazil, the Tetra Pak High Shear Mixer provided up to a 20% reduction in energy consumption and up to a 38% reduction in steam consumption compared to conventional equipment. Cleaning costs were also reduced: the Cleaning in Place (CIP) system allowed for 24% less water and chemical consumption compared to the open cleaning method used by conventional equipment. Furthermore, in tests conducted with cream cheese, the mixer's high mechanical performance allowed for achieving the desired texture using up to 20% less texture-modifying ingredients.

“We don’t just supply equipment. Side by side with the industry, we create solutions to understand their specific product development needs and translate them into line configurations that deliver consistent quality, higher yield, and lower total cost of ownership,” concludes the Director of Processing at Tetra Pak Brazil.