Eating healthier, more natural foods is a growing trend that delights Daisy Brands - a family-owned, Garland, Texas-based firm that makes the best-selling brand of sour cream in the United States. Known for its "Pure and Natural" recipe using no additives, preservatives or artificial growth hormones, the company recently opened a plant in Casa Grande, Arizona, to expand its national distribution. The continuing success of Daisy Brands is based on a recipe that uses all-natural ingredients -- plus, the technology ingredient of the Danfoss Flexline™ family of motor control valves and control stations.
"Making sour cream requires close temperature control to maintain quality," says Tom Cooper, president of Refrigeration Concepts, Inc., (RCI) Comstock Park, Mich. "That's why the refrigeration system we built for the Casa Grande plant in 2008 uses the Danfoss Flexline platform to deliver precise control."
Refrigeration is required in all phases of sour cream production. Sour cream is made by introducing a bacteria found naturally in milk to change the taste and texture of cream. Cream is normally sweet, but fermentation by the bacteria produces lactic acid, which changes the texture and taste. The flavor becomes mildly sour -- which is why a dollop of sour cream adds tang to foods ranging from baked potatoes to tacos to fruit salads. Daisy Brand makes both regular and light sour cream styles using just one ingredient -- Grade A cultured cream. The low-fat style also uses vitamin A palmitate, a stabilized form of the vitamin.
The proprietary sour cream production process begins by pumping raw milk through a cream separator. Then it is homogenized and pasteurized.
Cooper explains that Daisy has unique requirements for their proprietary process. As such, precise control is a benchmark that Daisy requires and insists on. After pasteurization and homogenization, the cream is cooled. Then the culture is added and given time to ferment. Fermentation is stopped, then the sour cream is packaged in cups. USDA specifications require sour cream to be stored at a minimum of 45 degrees F (7.2 degrees C) for at least 12 hours prior to inspection. But with Daisy, they exceed government requirements in all facets of the process.
To meet these temperature requirements, Cooper installed the plant's ammonia refrigeration system to produce chilled water to cool various vats and silos and to supply evaporator coils in the storage area.
"Ammonia refrigeration is still the backbone of the cold storage and food processing industries," says Cooper. "It is a naturally occurring gas that is environmentally friendly, with an ozone depletion potential (ODP) and a global warming potential (GWP) of zero. Ammonia also has good thermodynamic properties that make it very energy efficient. And thanks to its long history, our industry knows how to handle it safely."