Reprinted from: Snack Foods & Wholesale Bakery
Malt Products Corporation (MPC), a manufacturer of malted barley extract and other natural, nutritious sweeteners, has expanded its customer service portfolio by adding to its research and sampling capabilities. Now fully operational, the company’s Mashing Device LB Electronic from Germany-based equipment manufacturer Lochner Label and Technik GmbH precisely replicates MPC’s automated production mashing process, allowing food and beverage sector customers to experiment with new ingredients and formulations efficiently and cost-effectively.
At MPC’s Dayton, OH manufacturing facility, the Lochner lab masher is paired with a custom-built lab scale system for a microcosm match of large-volume mash filtration. For the company’s food and beverage industry customers, this opens up a world of potential for product innovation, allowing them to try new recipes and ingredients expediently and inexpensively.
“The enhanced setup enables us to test an exceptionally wide variety of raw ingredients to not only determine feasibility for production, but also develop profile samples for new products,” said Amy Targan, president of Malt Products Corp.
The system also expedites scalability: By conducting such exacting lab-scale testing, MPC is able to limit the amount of production trials required with new and emerging raw materials, and more quickly move into commercial-scale manufacturing. This helps meet often conflicting customer demands for innovation and speed to market.
The lab masher is an integral part of a five-year, $50 million investment by MPC, beginning with the 2015 expansion of its state-of-the-art brew house and addition of a Meura mash-filter, expanded laboratory, research and development and customer application capabilities. These investments are in response to increasing demand for non-GMO and natural, nutritious ingredients.