The Dannon Co. Dannon scores gold in Utah: West Jordan plant uses high-speed fillers for Danimals, gears up for la Creme

Dairy Foods, April, 2002 by Linda Robinson

It may seem an unlikely change to go from producing bottled water to manufacturing some of the country's best selling yogurt, but that's exactly how Dannon's West Jordan, Utah plant got its start in May of 2000. The plant dove right into drinkable yogurt production as the Tarrytown, N.Y. company was launching a new marketing campaign for the Danimals Drinkable nationally.

"The drinkable yogurt business was just getting launched nationally at the same time as we started this facility," Pierre Decrion, plant manager at Dannon West said. "So it was a good challenge for us to start a facility and support a national launch for this specific product."

Dannon keeps stacking up successful products in the yogurt industry. The cultured dairy beverage category grew to a $62 million business in 2000, a 260% increase from the previous year, according to Information Resources Inc. IRI attributes the increase directly to the introduction of Dannon's successful kids Danimals Drinkable Yogurt line. From the formula and packing design to the small container size, the product was created with kids in mind. This year the company has scheduled 50 million pounds of the dairy beverage to be produced, 90% of that will be produced in the Utah plant.

"So last year we bought a second filler," Decrion said. "We added a second line to manufacture those products, and now we have three lines overall."

As part of a marketing campaign aimed at the littlest members of families, Dannon developed a line of labels that allows children to identify a colorful character with their favorite flavor. It worked so well that the original 4-pack has now been expanded to a 6-pack. The container itself was designed to fit a child's tiny fingers, and is shaped somewhat like an hour-glass for easy gripping.

Following its success with drinkable yogurt, Dannon launched a new creamy, dessert yogurt. La Creme (see Dairy Foods April 2001) has, as the name implies, more cream. Rather than truck the already separated cream to sell to another company to be used in other products, Dannon's creative recipe makers found a use for it. By adding a specified amount of pure cream back into the yogurt at the batch tank, the end product is a sweeter, smoother and creamier dessert yogurt.

"La Creme is an incredibly mild, not tart yogurt. It's made with a touch of cream, and has a delicious, naturally smooth dairy taste and a rich, creamy texture that goes beyond traditional yogurts," Decrion explained. "So it might just change the way people think about yogurt."

Dannon purchases all of its milk for the West Jordan plant from local producers. On arrival, the milk is immediately tested for antibiotics, the presence of which could result in a rejected load. The milk is sent through a cooler where it is brought down to 38 degrees and then sent to storage tanks for up to 8 hours. The West Jordan facility stores the cream after separation and the first pasteurization. The cream goes into one of two bulk tanks until they are ready to use it - or 24 hours maximum. Milk samples taken to the receiving lab are tested with state-of-the-art equipment, including a Milkoscan from FOSS. The unit analyzes fat percentage, as well as milk solid and protein content and interfaces with the lab computer.

After lab analysis, the milk goes through its first pasteurization process. An APV/AGC HTST pasteurizer exposes the milk to 168 degrees F. temperatures in short flashes of time to kill any pathogens that might be present.

Rather than using the traditional process of yogurt production, Dannon uses the blended process for both the Danimals drinkable and the la Creme products. When the milk goes to the fermentation tanks the texture changes. For Danimals the only ingredients are milk, sugar, vitamin D and cultures, Decrion says.

Since Danimals is made with whole milk there is no need for additional butterfat. The resulting product is a liquid, creamy smooth drink with a refreshing aftertaste.

La Creme, begins the same way. But in the batching process when starch and gelatins are added, a small, standardized percentage of butterfat is added to the recipe to give the product a creamier consistency and a richer, fuller flavor.

After mixing in the batch tanks, all product is again pasteurized before fermentation to prevent growth of unwanted bacteria that could later compete with cultures that the process operator adds for the fermentation. Unwanted bacteria or yeast growth at this stage is undesirable so the second pasteurization process is very significant.

"This is a critical step," Decrion emphasized. "These steps are regulated by the states, so the pasteurizers are inspected and sealed by the state."

With pasteurization and batching complete, the pre-yogurt mixture is inoculated with the culture that will complete the fermentation process. In a proprietary procedure, the cultures are placed in a sterile canister that feeds to another tank. As the 100-degree milk mixture feeds into the fermentation tank, load cells measures the volume inside the batching tanks, explains Superintendent of Fermentation, Mike Wagner.