processed cheese processing line / UHT

The STEPHAN UHT System was designed for continuous UHT-treatment to increase shelf life of all kinds of processed cheese. The UHT system is able to handle processed cheese from low to high viscosity such as spread, block, IWS slices and analogue. After the first preheating step to 85 °C in a STEPHAN batch cooker or continuous cooker, the product will be heated in the UHT head to a temperature of 145 °C with a certain holding time to inactivate spores. The UHT head and the heat holding section are Teflon coated to avoid settings and burn-ons. Afterwards the cheese will be cooled down very fast to 85 °C by flashcooling under vacuum. The cheese structure have to be rebuilt in a creaming tank with a special designed frequency controlled creaming tool, controlled by an inline viscosity system. The creaming tank is in an inclined position to avoid product rotation and to make the creaming reaction more efficient. The flashcooling and the creaming reaction could be achieved in separate tanks or in our unique flashcooling and creaming tank combination, following the STEPHAN principle: all-in-one. For extended production runs ( 40 h nonstop and more) the UHT system consist of a double head execution, while one UHT head is in operation the other head is under intermediate cleaning, to be prepared for the next head switch over.