The rise of liquid yeast
With the help of Tetra Rex cartons, innovative Dutch company DSM Bakery Ingredients has launched the world’s first liquid yeast that is sold in small packages.
It began as a challenge posed to Tetra Pak Netherlands by DSM Bakery Ingredients. “The innovation actually started out as a kind of ‘joke.’ They challenged us to package the liquid yeast, which was a tricky problem to solve,” says Martijn van den Biggelaar, field service manager of Carton Chilled at Tetra Pak Netherlands. “The product is a creamy and viscous fluid that constantly produces CO². If its temperature increases, or if it is subjected to motion, even more CO² is produced.”
Package with venting hole
The solution came in the form of innovative Tetra Rex chilled cartons. Says Martijn, “We had a package with a ‘venting hole’ that we decided to try out. (This special Tetra Rex package with “vent” was actually first introduced in South Africa for grain beer).
The hole allows the CO² to escape, and the pressure within the carton ensures that air from the outside doesn’t enter. We transported the product in a refrigerated van to Lund, Sweden, for the first test, where it was filled into 1-litre packages. This test was very successful and DSM realised that it could work out.”
A series of rigorous testing on 1 and 1.5-litre packages followed in Spain and Moer dijk in the Netherlands, tested on both Tetra Rex TR/7 and TR/6 filling machines. DSM was finally offered a specially modified TR/8 Slim, a twin-line machine with a capacity of 9,000 packages per hour.
Martijn says, “The machine has had parts such as the filling cams changed, and the filling system has been improved upon.” The product, Fermipan Cremapack, is packaged today in Tetra Rex 1,500 ml Slim cartons and produced in Casteggio, Italy, at DSM’s yeast production plant.
Market Acceptance way above expectations
To date, market acceptance has been way above expectations, with no competing liquid yeast products of similar size.
The 1.5 litre gable top is equivalent to 1kg of block yeast, creating a high performance yeast package that is more hygienic and easier to use. While liquid yeast was previously only available in bulk to larger bakeries by means of refrigerated tank trucks, Fermipan Cremapack now caters to smaller bakeries, such as those commonly found in southern Europe.
For more information, please contact:
- Susanne Glingestam, Tetra Pak Carton Chilled