Pilot Plant and Applications Lab
Pilot Plant
The Dairy Products Technology Center at Cal Poly has a pilot plant with scaled-down versions of equipment similar to that found in commercial facilities. It is available for hire to assist with the R&D efforts of the dairy industry. Capabilities include UHT/HTST processing, spray drying, evaporation, membrane filtration, ice cream manufacture, butter manufacture, and cheesemaking. The pilot plant is for research purposes only and is not intended for commercial production. For more information, please contact Sean Vink at svink@calpoly.edu or 805-756-6104.
Applications Lab
This program provides technical support to manufacturers, users and marketers of dairy protein, dairy carbohydrate, and dairy fatbased powders and concentrates [nonfat dry milk (NFDM), skim milk powder (SMP), milk protein concentrate (MPC), whey protein concentrate (WPC), lactose, delactosed permeate (DLP), butter and milkfat]. It involves transfer of existing research information, technical training, preparation of information bulletins, providing solutions/information on technical product applications issues and conducting targeted short-term projects to address specific applications needs including new food and product development. Approximately 8,000 square feet of processing area is available in the pilot plant facilities. Applications support and specialized analytical capabilities are also available. Sensory expertise is available for food and beverages by QDA style descriptive testing and affective/consumer testing with the use of Compusense® Five or Compusense at-hand software. The plant is fully equipped for all traditional unit operations for the manufacture of dairy foods and ingredients and is licensed by the state of California for commercial manufacture of dairy foods. Additionally, space is available to accommodate specialized equipment for research and development projects on a short-term basis. Four analytical labs support work in the areas of microbial, physical and chemical analyses of dairy foods and ingredients.