Last month we invited customers from Africa to the DCN Product Development Kitchen at CPUT in Cape Town for advanced Jet Cook product and processing training and trials. The popularity of our Jet Cook condensed milk systems brought customers from South Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Sudan for the demonstrations on DCN’s latest technologies.

Many of these customers are currently purchasing Condensed Milk from Malaysia, Indonesia and Germany and now want to explore production of condensed milk in-house/country.  A drawback of importing the product are long lead times, currency fluctuation, increased transport costs, volumes, waste and product availability.  Most of the customers re-pack the canned product into 30gram sachets for the local market, which adds even more cost and increases the chances of food contamination.

The DCN Jet Cook process offers huge energy savings, reduced water usage and rapid processing times with a very small footprint.  Hot filling directly from our system, will increase product shelf-life, stability and ensure a food safe finished product. Our customers will have the flexibility to produce bespoke products such as flavoured condensed milk or creamer without having to commit to the large volumes that the co-packers require.

During our trial 250kg and 300kgs batches of condensed milk were produced within 18-20 minutes and had an attractive creamy mouthfeel, dairy flavour with high gloss and excellent viscosity.

We also completed advanced product and NPD training with a customer who is a leading chilled ready meals producer in South Africa, and has used DCN Jet Cook Technology for more than 10 years. The training included Jet Cook Process, Emulsions, Braising Bar and demonstrating the advantages of our Vapour Reduction System.

We also produced an extended tomato paste product and two types of vegan mayonnaise, (60% and 52% oil)  at CPUT, both to the satisfaction of the customer.

DCN will be back in Cape Town in January installing another Jet Cook System to produce sauces and ready meals, as well as completing more trials at the CPUT’s Product Development Kitchen.

If you interested in booking a trial or would like more information on DCN and our products and processes, please contact info@dcnorris.com or c.tucker@courlanders.co.za

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The rise in popularity of Oat Milk

The surge in demand for oat milk and other ‘free-from’ food and beverages in recent years has expanded the offerings on supermarket and café shelves. This expansion has been a game-changer for those adopting a dairy-free diet, with non-dairy milks such as oat, almond, coconut, and soya becoming staple alternatives. The shift toward plant-based foods has largely been driven by factors such as allergies, intolerance, the quest for healthier options, and the desire to reduce environmental footprints.

In the past, these beverages weren’t readily available off-the-shelf. However, food producers have tapped into this trend, leading to a significant demand for equipment that can manufacture these alternative products to a high standard and in large volumes.

The Challenges with Oat Milk Processing

DC Norris has spent over 50 years helping food and beverage producers innovate their equipment to meet the tastes and demands of today’s consumer. One of the biggest challenges plant-based beverage producers face is replicating the desirable attributes of animal milk, such as creaminess, texture, taste, and health benefits. With different chemical compositions – fat, protein, carbohydrate, and minerals in milk versus oil bodies in plant-based products – it’s a challenge to replicate the qualities of animal milk. This process requires additional machines, steps, and additives. To meet consumer demands, ensure safety, and deliver a high-quality product, the right machinery and operational processes are crucial.

The traditional oat milk production process is a complex, multi-stage operation that can include pre-soaking oats, heating, homogenisation, adding amylase, and a holding stage, followed by a final heating to denature the amylase before cooling and filling.

Our Jet Cook is an innovative solution to the challenges of plant-based beverage production. It reduces risk factors and ensures consistent high-quality output. Jet Cook uses a patented steam system (the Jet Nozzle) that simultaneously heats, mixes, and pumps the product earning substantial energy savings while not compromising on flavour.

Investing in Jet Cook offers oat milk manufacturers a quick return on investment with a multitude of benefits, including reduced production times of up to 50%, 45-55% energy-savings, 8-10% reduction in ingredient additions like amylase and salt, reduced cleaning times and chemical usage, and less water usage.

A Real-World Example – Jet Cook Oat Milk Production

In 2019, a world-leading ambient beverage manufacturer sought our expertise to improve their grain-based beverage production. Their objectives were to match the existing product flavour, achieve a creamier mouthfeel and smoother texture, and reduce the long processing stages and times. We ran processing trials at our Product Development Kitchens in both the UK and Cape Town South Africa prior to installation, ensuring we met their requirements. The system we proposed has the capacity to produce 15,000lt p/h, increasing their throughput and reducing energy and water usage. This resulted in a return on their initial investment within just 12 months.

Jet Cook: A Quick Return on Investment

As plant-based beverage production continues to grow, investing in our Jet Cook™ or other industry-leading cooking equipment will equip your business to produce delicious, safe, high-quality products efficiently and cost-effectively.

Now that you have a better understanding of oat milk production and the cutting-edge solutions DC Norris offers, why not take the next step?

Get in touch: Our team of experts is always ready to discuss how our solutions can meet your unique needs. Contact us today for more information.

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It is time for another ‘Meet The Team! Introducing Rachel Hughes, our Office & HR Administrator. Rachel joined the company just under 2 years ago, starting as an administrator. Rachel quickly took on more responsibilities, ‘My job has evolved since joining and I now do HR tasks as well as general Admin. This could be anything from booking travel, preparing offer letters, contracts, to dealing with Recruitment Agencies. I also get involved with Purchasing, Spares and Accounts. I like to be organised and help out where and when I can – I will always try to make things easier, I also love creating a spreadsheet for things!  The best part of the job is the people – we have a really friendly team here and I love that I can come into work and be myself’.

Rachel’s interests outside of work are house renovating and spending time with friends and family.

Rachel likes getting her nails done and has a lot of tattoos, her favourite one is her cats name on her ankle.

General Manager, Sharon Owen says, “Alongside being a very caring and thoughtful person, Rachel is the most organised person I know! Nothing is too much trouble and you can guarantee any task will be completed to the highest standard.  Rachel is a great fit for the Admin team and has a very bright future ahead of her”.

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Congratulations to Dianne March for 25 Years at DC Norris today! Dianne started in 1998 working on our reception desk, then moved into technical sales where she prepares all the quotes for our customers.

DCN’s Director, Ian Jones commented, ‘Dianne is one of our longest serving employees and is a mainstay of the Sales Team at DCN.  Her attention to detail and in-depth knowledge of DCN equipment and systems means we can turn urgent and detailed proposals around in hours instead of days when required.

Dianne is a conscientious, diligent, and loyal employee who we all love to work with, she also keeps the Sales Team in-line and ensures we offer a professional approach to proposals.’

Dianne is currently enjoying a well-earned holiday in Zante!

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Sustainability is a hot topic globally as we continually look for ways to protect our environment, ensuring there are enough resources for future generations. It is essential that food and beverage manufacturers embrace sustainable food processing, address these concerns, and strike the balance between productivity and sustainability.

The Need for Sustainable Food Processing

Historically, industrial food processing has placed significant pressure on our global resources. However, as an industry, we are now more aware of these challenges and are transitioning to sustainable food processing. This shift involves producing foods on an ongoing basis without undue harm to the environment. Factors such as reducing the amount of water used and optimising energy consumption play an essential role in mitigating global warming. Similarly, limiting needless food waste is extremely important.

It is critical that Food Manufacturers make these important changes, as mass production has put a big strain on our environment. Currently, about one-third of food produced globally never gets consumed, and food waste accounts for about 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Consumers’ demands are now more sophisticated; they want to know the provenance of their food and that it has been produced sustainably. There has also been a significant shift over to plant-based foods as consumers aim to reduce their environmental footprints.

Innovations in Sustainable Food Processing

DC Norris is committed to developing and installing the most up-to-date environmentally friendly food processing systems. We have launched a new range of equipment and redesigned existing machinery with the specific objective to reduce carbon footprint.

Jet Cook: Energy Efficient Cooking

Scientific trials have shown that 52.5% less energy is used when cooking with DCN’s Jet Cook technology compared to conventional kettles. Manufacturers can benefit from rapid heating and huge energy savings as 99.5% of the energy is collapsed directly into the product. Less water is required for cleaning as there is zero burn-on on the vessels.

Recipe Manager Software: Minimising Waste

DCN’s Recipe Manager can be used to efficiently control DCN equipment, including Cooking Kettles, Cooling Systems, Cook Quench Chill and CIP systems, reducing the need for operator input. Getting it right the first time is now even more important to avoid wasting valuable ingredients, energy, and time. The many features and benefits ensure optimum efficiency and consistency between batches, meaning downtime and process errors are kept to a minimum.

Process and Product Development: Maximising Efficiency

We offer product and process training either on customers’ sites or in our Product Development Kitchen. This training ensures that operators are using our systems to their best potential in the most energy-saving and time-efficient way. Recipe processes will also be evaluated to ensure they are being carried out correctly with fewer wasted ingredients.

DCN has considerable experience working with plant-based food manufacturers and can help with recipe development and process training. By investing in high-quality food processing systems, customers can be confident that their equipment will last longer and achieve maximum efficiency.

A Real-World Example: Fresh Cut Foods

In 2021, we installed our new Cook Quench Chill ‘Adapt’ into Fresh Cut Foods in Nottingham, UK. This new model was developed during lockdown with the specific objective to reduce the carbon footprint for our customers.

“This was part of a project to upgrade the manufacturing capability of the facility, to accommodate the increase in product demand… The ‘Adapt’ is using a fraction of the amount of water and energy compared to our existing linear system. In addition, we have seen significant improvements in overall plant and labour productivity, through increased batch sizes, reduced cycle times (in some cases cycle times have halved), and reduced line manning.”

Chris Copestake, Chief Executive at Fresh Cut Foods

Embracing sustainable food processing

In conclusion, embracing sustainability in food processing is not just about addressing global environmental concerns, but it’s also a strategic move that ensures business longevity and customer satisfaction. By creating more efficient, sustainable systems, DC Norris is demonstrating that it’s possible to improve productivity while reducing environmental impact. To learn more about our sustainable food processing solutions, contact us today.

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DC Norris are delighted to be exhibiting next month at ProPak Asia after a few years hiatus due to COVID restrictions on travel. The premier Processing and Packaging Exhibition of Asia runs from the 14th – 17th June 2023, and is held in Bangkok’s International Trade and Exhibition Centre, Thailand.

We will be showcasing DC Norris’ award-winning Jet Process – The high-speed all-in-one in-line system which can entrain, mix, cook, sterilise and cool in a single pass. Jet Process give food manufacturers a wide range of benefits including the ability to quickly process large volumes in a small footprint.  It can also reduce energy usage, has zero burn-on and it can be operated for many hours without cleaning.

The Jet Process system can be used to replace traditional heat exchangers and combines as many as four of our JET COOK™ Units in sequence.  Each unit is individually controlled to add the required amount of heat and shear to give the desired finished product.

Jet Process is presently being used for the production of liquid food, beverage and pet food products such as condensed milk, sauces

and maheu in the Middle East, Asia and Africa.  We have recently installed a large wet pet food system in the UK.

DC Norris offer a large range of innovative processing equipment, with a recent focus on helping our customers to reduce their carbon footprint.  Our team will be on hand at Propak Asia to assist you with your enquiry and advise on how to reduce water and energy usage, as well as minimise the amount of food waste.

Register now: https://www.propakasia.com/

More about Propak Asia:

Propak Asia is the region’s number one international trade event for Food, Drink and Pharmaceutical Processing and Packaging Technology, and is a part of the ProPak series running across the globe in Myanmar, India, Philippines, Middle East & North Africa, Vietnam, and China.

This will be ProPak Asia’s 30th Anniversary – and it is truly the “Must-Attend” industry event in Asia, as quality and variety of products increase and expand, and productivity of operations and manufacturing standards are driven higher by consumer demands and new automation and technological advances.

Join us this year at Propak Asia, we look forward to welcoming you.

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Wednesday 26 April 2023 is Stop Food Waste’s 7th year – a global day of action created by Compass Group to drive awareness, and to provide solutions that address food waste.

Compass Group are asking you all to think responsibly when purchasing food.  Many restaurants, cafés and stores are offering surplus foods to customers using apps like ‘too good to go’ which helps prevent perfectly good food from being thrown in the bin.

DC Norris have made a conscious effort to support our customers in reducing food waste. We encourage our customers to take trial samples with them, or donate leftover produce to local food banks or food service business’.

What you can do to help:

Prevent food waste at the source by storing food optimally, making use of every edible part of the ingredient and planning meals ahead of time.
Inspire others to waste less and repurpose more.
Repurpose food by redistributing any surplus to your local community, or giving a second life to ingredients that most commonly go to waste.

Find out more about Stop Food Waste Day via their website – STOP FOOD WASTE DAY

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