At this year’s Vitafoods, the contract manufacturer SternMaid showcased its wide portfolio of services, ranging from blending, drying and processing to a complete package that includes purchasing of raw materials, co-packing, warehousing and delivery. The company has facilities for blending and optimising practically any product in the food or life science industry and package it as requested.
State-of-the-art fluid bed technology, for example, makes it possible to adjust and standardise the properties of foods, ingredients and food supplements to meet individual requirements. As processing can be done at low temperatures, the products are normally only exposed to a moderate heat of 30–50°C. This serves to protect heat-sensitive ingredients such as flavourings, vitamins and peptides, maintaining their nutritional and functional properties.
Besides presenting various processing methods at Vitafoods, SternMaid also gave an insight into its blending capabilities. The company has a total of eight blending lines to meet all manner of different requirements. On all of the lines, liquid ingredients can be sprayed onto powder homogenously through special nozzles. This permits extremely fine distribution of microcomponents such as flavourings, oils and emulsifiers. For highly sensitive applications such as allergen-free foods, SternMaid’s plant has a completely separate and independent section housing a counter-current container blending unit designed to pharmaceutical standards.
In the co-packing sector, too, SternMaid has the latest packaging lines and the necessary know-how to fill both large industrial containers and consumer packs for the retail trade. Besides filling sacks, fibreboard boxes and FIBCs, the lines can handle cans, tubular bags and folding boxes in sizes from 50–5000g.
