Kalekoi gets its yogurt machinery from InoxMIM

It was in 1974 when a group of farmers in Galicia, a region located in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, decided to focus all their efforts on the production of milk of exceptional quality.

A few decades later, in 2014, Alejandro Moure, inspired by that spirit, founded his own dairy farm in the town of Lalin and called it “Kalekoi”. The milk used in the production of his products comes from his own farms and from others located in towns close to the factory.

This proximity and control of the origin of the milk allows the farm to produce high quality products, even if the quantities are much smaller compared to the market giants.

It was during his search for specialised equipment and machinery to make his yoghurts that Alejandro Moure discovered InoxMIM. InoxMIM shares his philosophy, despite being located on the other side of the peninsula, in Porqueres, near Gerona.

Galicia, which has been an autonomous community since 1981, is known for its capital, Santiago de Compostela, the final destination on the world-famous “Camino de Santiago” or “St. James Way” pilgrimage, and has four provinces; A Coruña, Lugo, Ourense and Pontevedra. It is a mountainous region with significant areas of forest land, eucalyptus plantations as well as rivers and estuaries.

The main economic activity of the region comes from fishing and agriculture, although the shipping industry is also an important driving force in the region. A native of this region, the Rubia Gallega cow is the main source of milk and meat in this autonomous region.

Alejandro Moure’s dairy farm uses milk from his own herds, producing 150,000 litres a year. This milk, which is pasteurised, homogenised and skimmed, is used to make more than 10 varieties of yogurt, including both natural flavours as well as different flavours that the master craftsman makes depending on the season.

When it comes to the organic products, which are becoming more and more prominent in the Spanish market, Alejandro says “we are watching this space very closely for the near future!”.

It was when Alejandro Moure was looking for a supplier of machinery for yogurt and other dairy products that he found “InoxMIMGrup”, a company located in Porqueres (Gerona), strongly linked to the manufacture of industrial equipment for the food sector.

By producing equipment for the transfer of fluids (pumps), emulsifiers, agitators and mixing systems ourselves, we have satisfied the needs of a large number of customers over the years. Our wealth of experience in agitation and pumping, combined with our wide range of processing products, allow us to provide solutions in SKID format for the vast majority of industrial, food, chemical, cosmetic and pharmaceutical applications.

Albert Moreno de InoxMIM.

When something needs to be mixed, dissolved, emulsified or pumped, be it as part of a small pilot project or a high-tech industrial production of yogurt or dairy products, wine, soft drinks or cosmetic products, you can rest assured that you will find machinery made by InoxMIM.

In the Kalekoi dairy industry, InoxMIM has manufactured an HTST (High-Temperature Short-Time Pasteurisation) pasteurisation unit, a skimmer to skim milk and various pumps.

This pasteurisation equipment has a working range that goes from 400 to 1000 litres per hour and can be easily installed in both small and medium-sized dairies. To carry out the sterilisation, the unpasteurised milk leaves the balance tank (25L) towards the exchanger where it is heated to 75°C or above, depending on the desired pasteurisation temperature.

Once the pasteurisation temperature is reached, the milk enters the 20”or 300” retainer, as part of the yogurt production, where the pasteurised fluid is kept at the said temperature for long enough (twenty seconds or more) to guarantee that any pathogenic organisms present in the milk are killed.

This procedure extends the expiration date of the milk while maintaining its flavour as well as preserving the vitamins and proteins that it originally contained. Finally, the milk is cooled to 4°C to be cold packed or stored in isothermal tanks.

This unit is equipped with a heat regeneration system consisting of a countercurrent circulation system in the plate exchanger.

Heat regeneration is based on taking advantage of the heat absorbed by already pasteurised milk, which has a high temperature and must be cooled to the outlet temperature. This absorbed heat is used to preheat the unpasteurised milk before it is heated to the pasteurisation temperature using very hot water (93-95°C). In summary, with this system the milk is cooled beforehand, using cold water, and the milk due to be pasteurised is preheated with hot water.

The regeneration is carried out in two stages. The first stage involves an outlet product which has a temperature of 45°C in order to be able to produce yogurt. The second stage is when the outlet product stops being cooled down. For this reason, it is not necessary to use cold water in the production of yogurt since the milk is only cooled to 42-45°C.

In the event that part of the milk is not pasteurised for any reason – usually due to a drop in temperature – it is removed from the system and put into a separate container to cool down. It can, if desired, be returned to the balance tank at the beginning of the process.

There is a three-way valve after the retaining rube that diverts the direction of the product if the temperature is not correct. It could be sent directly to the balance tank, but this is not recommended as this may change the inlet temperature and the pasteurisation unit will need to be stabilised again

With the same pasteurisation unit, Kalekoi can produce yogurt.

What makes Kalekoi’s yogurts like homemade ones is the adjustment of the fermentation time and pH achieved by the Kalekoi specialists. They know the exact amount of ferment and the necessary conditions for each type of yogurt they want to produce.

During the production of milk and yogurt, Kalekoi uses several InoxMIM pumps to feed milk into the balance tank, to feed the skimmer, for services (hot and cold water), and for storage and packaging. They are all gamma FL20CI FL31CI centrifugal pumps, which produce food products.

Alejandro Moure says that he decided to use InoxMIM equipment not only because of its attractiveness and quality, but also because of InoxMIM’s personalised and thorough technical service that always found him the best solution for his needs. Therefore, I am very satisfied with my equipment. Furthermore, the versatility of the pasteurisation unit allows me to experiment with new milk and yogurt recipes.