Realcold Tunnel Installation At Glanbia A Great Success

On a recent visit to Glanbia Food Ingredients, NH3 received very favourable comments from John Walsh, with regard to the Cheese Cooling Tunnel installation.

The Irish Dairy Board grades most of the cheddar that Glanbia produces. They mark all the cheese in approximately 25 categories, on colour, consistency, moisture, acid, etc. The results also show them anonymously how their cheese compares with the other producers in Ireland and that their product has moved to the top of the class in all categories since the new tunnel installation. A specific mention by the Irish Cheese Board had been made on the consistency of quality and shape of their cheese last year and that the cheese now goes through their cutting machines every time.

Whilst cheese prices have gone up due to demand over the same period, the improvement in quality has dramatically improved Glanbia's profitability. He said even the cheese that had been marked down was much better than their top grade cheese that they had produced in the previous years and was now a very small proportion of the overall seasons production.

The shift managers for the system were very enthusiastic about the tunnel, having done successful trials with open top boxes and mozzarella cheese in bags only, which produced very good results.

During the tender stage Glanbia were guaranteed less than 0.6% downtime per day. The actual downtime is 0.0001%. The comment was made that the Realcold Tunnels reliability is down to the simplicity of operation which has resulted in a predictable consistency.