Nutritional Formula

Supplying global plants for nutritional formulas

Dryer exhaust system
GEA has more than 50 years of experience supplying end-to-end processing lines for all kinds of nutritional formula products. We design, configure and install reliable, trouble-free solutions that fit in with your process, product and business needs, meet the most stringent regulatory standards, and deliver consistent powders and liquid products with tailor-made functional performance.
Powder nutritional formula

The demand for premium quality, milk-based nutritional formulas is on the rise. Industry has developed a wide range of products, including powders that provide complete nutrition for infants, key nutritional supplements for children and adults who have special dietary needs.

We understand that no two nutritional formula recipes or production processes will be the same. As a manufacturer you will have highly specific process requirements, so our GEA experts work closely with customers to configure plants that match expected product properties, and plant operating requirements.

Our state-of-the-art technologies are designed to help to maximize plant flexibility and to improve traceability and overall operational efficiency. We think that our complete process lines will give you, and consumers, great confidence in the quality and safety of your finished products and brands!

Hygienic plant design for product safety

Microbiological safety is a critical consideration at every stage of nutritional formula production, from ingredient reception through to final product packing. GEA equipment is manufactured to meets the most stringent hygiene requirements, and features automated clean-in-place (CIP) systems to help make sure cleaning is thorough, but efficient. GEA solutions can also help you ensure full and transparent traceability of raw materials and ingredients, throughout the process and into the final product.

Optimized plant performance and sustainable solutions

We select the most up-to-date, proven equipment and components to configure reliable and durable plants that will also offer maximum productivity. GEA solutions are tailored to meet your process and operating requirements, while helping to maximize yield, uptime and so productivity, which ultimately reduces your total cost of ownership. We understand the need to focus on environmentally sound, sustainable production, and have used our expertise to identify significant energy-saving and energy-management opportunities. Wherever possible we can suggest resource-saving technologies and options that help to reduce energy use, recycle heat and water, and keep waste and product loss to a minimum.

From ingredients reception right through to evaporation, spray drying, powder filling and palletizing, GEA can tailor end-to-end, turnkey solutions for processing high quality nutritional formulas for global markets. 

Nutritional formula customer factory

Process line - Powdered nutritional formula

Centrifuge - Clarifier CSI for Milk or Whey

Liquid ingredients including raw milk, vegetable oils, and whey-based products are received into the plant where they are stored and are handled gently and hygienically. Raw milk typically undergoes heat treatment and cream separation before further formulation. We can offer a range of technologies to remove bacteria and spores from liquid ingredients to ensure maximum microbiological safety without damaging sensitive products.

The new HYGiTip from GEA with fully automatic, hygienic discharging system for 25kg bags (Photo: GEA)

Large quantities or powdered dry ingredients are added when manufacturing Nutritional Formula. These ingredients need to be tipped from 25kg bags and bulk containers which can require a large input of labor. GEA can offer a full spectrum of solutions from fully manual to highly automated tipping and conveying systems depending on your scale of operation and needs.

GEA BATCH FORMULA® PRO High Shear Mixer

A wide array of minor dry and liquid ingredients are added into Nutritional Formula. Mixing technology plays a key role in ensuring consistent processing of these complex formulations. Our innovative MIXING FORMULA® system incorporates a high-shear vacuum mixer that produce homogeneous, fully dissolved mixes while reducing the entrainment of air

Ariete Homogenizer 5400

High pressure homogenizers are used routinely in dairy applications as they apply dynamic high-pressure energy to break particles in the fluid down to the smallest, potentially nanometer-scale size. The high pressure homogenization process creates an emulsion that is stable when the mix is concentrated, dried, packed and resolubilized by the end customer.

Dairy evaporation nutritional formula

The formulated product mix is further heat treated on the evaporator using a range of different solutions to ensure microbiological safety and stability. This may include; our low thermophile system, UHT technology, direct steam injection, or steam infusion technologies.
Product is further concentrated before drying using a falling-film evaporator.

MSD spray dryer

Spray drying is used for final moisture removal to produce a dried powder. A GEA MSD® Spray Dryer is recommended for nutritional formula to produce consistent, precisely defined functional powders with uniform bulk density and robust agglomerates and that are readily re-dissolved in water. The new CEE cyclone design allows fines recovery from drying to be maximized while minimizing smearing and energy use. Our no-intervention fines system allows fully automated CIP, reduces the risk of contamination, and ensures less downtime on the dryer.

scan-vibro-vibrating-sifter

The dried powder is sifted using a GEA Scan-Vibro vibrating screen to remove oversized particles and then gently conveyed to storage using gravity or dense phase conveying to minimize breakdown of the powder. The powder is drawn under vacuum to minimize interstitial air and flushed with nitrogen before packing. This produces a powder with very low residual oxygen and ensures that the powder has a longer shelf-life.

GEA Avapac Limited Intervention Filling

GEA offer a range of powder filling solutions for Modified Atmosphere Packing (MAP) into 25kg bags or bulk containers. GEA 25kg Limited Intervention (Li) filling machines with fully automated bag handling improve overall operational efficiency whilst reducing labor demand.
Manual or automated palletizing options are available for integration to provide a turnkey solution for customers that require it.

Refrigeration

GEA experts can integrate smart cooling & heating solutions into the complete Nutritional Formula process, resulting in lower energy consumption, minimized operating costs, increased sustainability and reduced carbon footprint.

Automation

GEA technologies can be configured with full automation to ensure optimum efficiency and performance. The GEA Codex® solution, for example, provides full and transparent traceability of raw material and ingredients, throughout the process and into the final product.

GEA OptiPartner process optimization

GEA OptiPartner

GEA OptiPartner combines GEA’s process know-how with operational expertise to optimize the productivity of spray drying plants for powder production.

Customer case

Delivering solutions for sustainable baby formula manufacturing at Danone

Video from Danone Nutricia nutritional formula production facility in Cuijk/Haps, the Netherlands, with a nice testimonal and images from our Niro MSD spray dryers, MVR evaporator, and Ariete Homogenizers.
optipartner facility

Customer case

GEA OptiPartner improves DMK-Zeven plant

Learn how GEA OptiPartner improves advanced process control in DMK-Zeven plant, one of the country’s leading dairy producers of milk powder for process optimization as a GEA Service.

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