Orange Grove Dairy meets spring UHT deadline
Dave Durham said one of the must-do projects was to ensure the dairy met the beginning of the annual ‘spring flush’.
Orange Grove Dairy has met its spring deadline, to bring the production of long-life milk (ultra-high-temperature processing or UHT) back on stream. The installation of an imported new long-life milk filler marks a huge step on the journey to bring the dairy back to full production.
Following the devastating fire of April 1, which gutted Dundee’s most iconic business, the Durham family and its loyal staff have been working non-stop to not only rebuild the factory, but to also ensure as many Orange Grove Dairy products as possible stock supermarket shelves.
Orange Grove’s Dave Durham said one of the must-do projects was to ensure long-life milk could be produced come spring, to meet the beginning of the annual ‘spring flush’ of surplus milk from the dairy industry. This milk can then be utilised to produce long-life UHT milk.
“This way of balancing milk supply is an integral part of ensuring our not-one-drop-wasted milk policy is maintained during annual milk supply spikes,” explained Mr Durham.
Anthon Lee, Production Manager at the dairy, said the good news was that the microbiological testing on the cartons filled during the test phase has been completed, and the biologists have given the dairy the green light to go into full production. The new filler has the capacity to produce 6 000 capped cartons an hour. Work is also continuing at a rapid pace elsewhere on the premises, to rebuild the storage shed for the packed UHT milk.
“A lot of construction time was spent on cleaning the steel that was scorched in the fire and ensuring the struts did not suffer fatigue from the heat. Those which were damaged have been replaced and other struts cleaned. We are aiming at around October 15 to have the storage space available for our UHT products,” said Mr Lee.
Read this week’s edition of the Courier for the full update on Orange Grove Dairy.
RELATED STORY: Orange Grove Dairy rebuilds after fire
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