On a visit to Glanbia Food Ingredients, Johnathan Ball received very favourable comments from John Walsh (Production Manager Cheese) about our Rapid Cheese Cooling Tunnel installation at Ballyragget one season ago.
The Irish Dairy Board grades the cheddar that Glanbia produces. The cheese is marked in approximately 25 categories; colour, consistency, moisture, acid, etc. The grade achieved reflects the price they are paid in the open market and Glanbia’s price has increased by approximately 20% this season. The results also show (anonymously) how their cheese compares with the other Irish producers. Their product has moved to the top of the class in all categories since the new tunnel installation. A specific mention was made by the Irish Cheese Board that last season’s cheese was “consistently of high quality and good shape” and “that it goes through their cutting machines every time now”.
John said “even the cheese that had been marked down, was much better than their top graded cheese in the previous season” that “this was a very small proportion of the overall season’s production”.
One of the shift managers Tim Purcell said of the system “Due to its reliability we have had time to trial open top boxes and mozzarella cheese in bags (without boxes), which the Rapid Chill Tunnel handled and produced very good results”.
During the tender stage for the replacement machine Glanbia insisted on a performance guaranteed to cut ‘down-time’. John said “the actual down-time measured was less that 0.0001%” and also that the “new machine took less than 75% of the space of the old one and held 20% more”.
