Over the past decade, the global dairy industry has experienced a lot of transformation, bringing forth a host of new trends and associated challenges. But due to the significant difference in how these challenges are manifested from region to region, it is also a complex area. While consumers in some regions have a strong focus on new and innovative product types that match individual needs in terms of health, convenience and sustainable sourcing of raw materials, consumers in other regions are mainly focused on traditional dairy products such as safe, healthy milk. However, as these markets develop, similar trends are to be expected. Consumers across the globe are becoming more focused on quality, diversity of choice and responsible production. These trends have a huge impact on the day-to-day business of most dairies as they are simultaneously faced with the volatility of raw material supply, price, shelf-life and tighter than ever profit margins. Three key factors offer support faced with these challenges:

• Versatile operations that enable easy adaptation to fast changing trends

• Consistently accurate analysis that brings you even closer to targets

• Always high instrument uptime and performance that ensures peace of mind

1. Versatile operations

Apart from retaining customer loyalty, product innovation can be beneficial from a financial point of view, as many new product types have higher margins. However, some dairy companies are also seeing themselves as forced to act and make these changes as consumer demands change faster and to a greater extent. Meeting the evolving demands from consumers is a trend that will continue to put increased pressure on dairy companies to adapt.

Overall, we have consumers that are much more focused on what they buy and consume. The nutritional value of a product is one aspect, but the environmental impact of the product is another. Consumers want to know how raw materials have been sourced and how they are processed. What goes into the production?

There is a lot of focus on health and that’s also what’s driving a lot of fortified products, focusing on specific nutritional components where you change the composition of your dairy products to fit in with current trends, whether it is added protein content or no sugar. So, in the mature markets at least, it has become increasingly complex to meet consumer demands.

MilkoScan™ FT3 provides:

• Accurate testing of any liquid or semi-solid dairy product, including chocolate milk, drinking yoghurt, WPC, plant-based drinks and more. This versatility makes it an ideal tool for dairy producers with diverse product lines.

• A smart flow system that can recognize and auto-adjust to each sample and deliver results in as little as 30 seconds, depending on product type. This leads to immediate gains in production through the rapid availability of critical quality control data for a variety of samples.

• A single calibration model can be applied to multiple products within the same product category without additional calibration work. You can still choose specific products, but these do not require individual calibration models. Compared to other solutions, this means that you have fewer calibration models to maintain and less reference testing to be done.

• The most comprehensive and accurate screening of your milk with either targeted or untargeted models in just 30 seconds. Adulteration screening can be included as part of the platform quality testing and is an important tool for improving milk quality and ensuring food safety. Check for deliberate or accidental adulteration while performing normal quality control tests.

2. Consistently accurate analysis

Another challenge in the more mature markets is increased competition and a lot of pressure to deliver low-cost products. In some cases, we see new players such as retailers entering the market and releasing their own private dairy labels. This adds pressure to already thin margins on traditional dairy products such as fluid milk. This means that getting more out of your raw materials is more relevant than ever to stay competitive.

The MilkoScan™ FT3 has a faster analysis time than older models, with the ability to analyze up to 120 samples per hour. This speed allows for more efficient production processes, reduces waiting time for results and enables timely corrective actions. At the same time, improved technology combined with advanced algorithms provides more accurate and reliable results than older MilkoScan models. This is especially important in the dairy industry where precise measurements are crucial for making the most of raw materials, ensuring product quality and safety, and increasing margins for improved profit.

MilkoScan™ FT3 provides:

• Patented automatic standardization that runs every second hour. This avoids instrument drift and ensures stable results over time. There is no need to perform time consuming standardization checks with associated use of chemical reagents, and the need for costly reference analysis is significantly reduced.

• Exceptional transferability. Get the same, accurate results on all your MilkoScan FT3 instruments. Achieving high transferability is essential, as populations of instruments installed both within a single factory and across different production sites are increasingly common.

• Connect your instruments in a network. As the industry consolidates and becomes more global so does the number of instruments within each dairy. With MilkoScan FT3 you can rest assured that all instruments in a network always measure the same. This makes it simple to run a master/satellite set-up in which a master instrument keeps the other networked instruments updated. This reduces the workload of maintaining all the calibration models and result validations.

• Increased efficiency. MilkoScan FT3 can be integrated with existing dairy production systems, enabling seamless data transfer and process control. This integration can lead to increased efficiency in your production processes and reduced waste, resulting in cost savings for dairy producers.