Company Announcements

Fruit slurry for the perfect smoothie

24 Jul 2023

Peak Foods is a joint venture between Interstate Food Processing Corporation and Lakeside Foods. They are specialized in whipped topping products for the retail, foodservice and industrial sectors. For a new business line, ingredients for smoothies of its own brand Blendtopia, Peak Foods utilized some experience from dairy production, but also had to implement new innovative processes. In High Temperature Short Time (HTST) pasteurization, the highly viscous consistency of fruit purees presented a particular challenge. With the IZMAG flowmeter, the process now can be controlled with the highest precision. Using the PPR (Paperless Process Recorder) allows Peak Foods to monitor and easily log the critical pasteurization step.

The end products are primarily concentrates in form of fruit slurries, such as banana or strawberry purees, and are characterized by a very low water content but a high percentage of fruit chunk.

The special production process, developed for perfect product consistency, results in high demands on the manufacturing equipment. The very high viscosity of up to about 4000 Cp, the very low flow rate of about 1.5 gal/min (5.7 l/min) and the low production temperature of 42-46 °F (5-8°C) were a challenge especially for the flow measurement. However, for evidence of pasteurization, flow control needs to be highly accurate and reliable.

Click here learn how Peak Foods successfully installed new processes, which led Engineering Manager Rich Griffin to say:

"We were able to prove that the measurement accuracy fully met expectations. In addition, an IZMAG (Electromagnetic Flow Meter) is significantly more cost-effective than a comparable Coriolis Meter, so that we can now use the best technical solution at the most favorable price"