Thawing butter in under 10 minutes instead of 5 to 6 days
A food company thaws thousands of tonnes of butter a month. Its thawing room needed five to six days and a lot of space and energy. A NutriTemp Flex continuous line does it in under 10 minutes.
This case study is based on material from Sairem. Utily Solution is Sairem's exclusive sales and service partner in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Customer
A food company in Saudi Arabia that thaws several thousand tonnes of butter every month and packs it into consumer portions.
Challenge
Butter was thawed in a thawing room. It took five to six days, the thawing room took up a lot of space and energy, and the butter lost water while thawing. Above all, the company could not respond flexibly to orders, because everything had to be planned almost a week ahead.
The customer needed to thaw 25 kg butter blocks from −18 °C to a working temperature, 1,500 to 2,000 kg per hour in eight-hour shifts.
Solution
Sairem proposed a NutriTemp Flex continuous microwave line. Butter blocks travel on a belt through a tunnel where microwaves heat them evenly throughout. The line runs continuously, and power and belt speed are set for the required output temperature.
Results
- Under 10 minutes instead of five to six days.
- Last-minute orders: butter is thawed to current demand, not a week ahead.
- Less space and energy: the large thawing room is no longer needed.
Butter responds well to microwaves. In tests by the manufacturer Sairem, a 25 kg block of butter is tempered from −18 °C in about 10 minutes. See more test results on our microwave tempering page.
