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FELINFACH FACTORY TOUR |
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In the Beginning......
In 1989 Volac acquired their milk processing site at Felinfach. Since then more than £1 million a year has been invested in the factory, including installation of ultra-filtration and microfiltration equipment, unique in the animal feed processing sector.
During the last 13 years, the Felinfach area has been transformed from an unemployment black spot to one where the goods, services and facilities are worth an estimated £3.5 million a year to the local economy.
Today, Volac Felinfach is producing high quality milk based feeds from concentrated milk protein for calves, lambs and piglets. Sales of these products total over £18 million a year, a figure which represents over half the company’s turnover. Around half of the products are sold to UK farms and the remainder exported to Europe and beyond.
Sourcing Quality Raw Material
Felinfach is ideally located in terms of proximity to raw materials. Initially protein was sourced from creameries within a 50 mile radius of the site, Nowadays, as a result of continued growth in business, raw materials are being purchased from as far afield at Yorkshire and Somerset. Transport is a major cost, so now several small preprocessing ultra filtration plants have been installed throughout the country, to concentrate protein and reduce volume delivery to Felinfach. Not only does this reduce transport costs but there are environmental benefits as well.
Productivity
The Felinfach site, which has LRQA ISO9001:2000, UFAS and FEMAS certification, is currently producing more than 50 different milk replacer products. The ingredients and formulations can be adjusted to ensure that all products meet specific customer requirements.
Volac work with a number of farmer groups who supply quality beef and lamb to supermarkets.
These suppliers require traceability from birth to plate and Felinfach is able to produce milks that are formulated to individual requirements, and are fully traceable. This forms what we call ‘The Milk Triangle.’
Factory Tour
1. Stringent quality control practises ensure that only the
highest
quality raw materials are used
throughout the manufacturing
process. This
starts with the testing of the liquid whey as it
arrives in tankers at the factory.
2. All liquid is pasteurised prior to being
passed into the ultra-
filtration
plant.
3. The ultra-filtration unit gently separates and
concentrates the
protein in the liquid as it passes through six banks of
membrane filters. These have a
total surface area of 2,500
square metres, and
are capable of processing 50,000 litres per hour. This liquid is divided into
two nutrient streams, one rich in protein, and the other rich in lactose.
4. Both pass through the unique evaporator in which water
is removed under high vacuum and
strictly controlled temperatures. In this
environment, the integrity of the high globular proteins is
retained and the two
nutrient streams are concentrated.
5. Concentrated Lactose
One and a half tonnes of
lactose are produced at the factory for
every tonne of milk replacer. The end products are marketed
throughout Europe in a variety of different formulations for use
in calf, lamb and pig diets.
6. Concentrated Milk Protein
Before spray drying at flash temperatures, fats are blended and
homogenised into the concentrated milk protein to produce a
fat-filled milk replacer which has the benefits of better mixing,
reduced separation and improved nutrient digestibility in the
young
animal. The spray-dried powder is agglomerated in fluid
beds before
being cooled and conditioned with dehumidified air
prior to entering the
bulk storage silos. Before bagging, the powder passes through a
blender
where essential
minerals and vitamins are added in the quantities and proportions
specified for
each individual formulation and animal species.
7. One bag from each pallet is sampled prior to stitching and heat
sealing. As long as QC results,
involving more than 20 tests, are found to meet the individual product
specifications, then the
product from that batch is released for sale.
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