Processing, blending and filling to customers’ specifications
At Health Ingredients Europe, the contract manufacturer SternMaid will present a diversity of possibilities for outsourcing production processes. The company has a wide range of plant and machinery at its disposal, consisting of mixers for powders and liquids, milling machines, various packaging lines and a multifunctional fluid bed processor. Food ingredients in powder form, such as vitamins and proteins, or dry beverage bases and dietary supplements can be processed, blended and packaged just as the customer wishes.
Processing
With the aid of fluid bed technology, SternMaid is able to modify the structure of the particles and thus their behaviour in practical use to permit specific applications – to mask an odour or taste and achieve better dispersibility, to reduce the proportion of dust or to protect the product against external influences. For example, powder mixtures can be agglomerated to form tablettable premixes or permit easy dosing in beverage dispensers or capsule coffee makers. Process air temperatures from 20 to 130 °C make it possible to adjust the drying conditions more flexibly to the products –important, for instance, in the gentle drying of enzymes.
Contract blending
For contract blending SternMaid has three blending lines for small and medium-size orders between 100 and 10,000 kg. Four other lines are designed for large quantities over ten tonnes; these are fully automated and capable of measuring and weighing in as many as 15 different raw materials. For highly sensitive applications such as allergen-free foods the company has a separate section of the plant with a counter-current container blending line designed to pharmaceutical standards. All the lines have a blending accuracy of up to 1:100,000 and flexible filling options.
Contract packaging
In the co-packing field SternMaid also has state-of-the-art packaging lines capable of filling both industrial and retail packs. Besides filling sacks, fibreboard boxes and FIBCs, the lines can handle cans and tubs, tubular bags and folding boxes in sizes from 50 to 5,000 grams.
