Stafford’s Bakery (founded in 1978) is located in Gorey, Co. Wexford, Ireland. It is best know as "The Local Bakery“ supplying the South East of Ireland with its "Daily bread”.
The type of bread baked is varied and includes white sliced, brown sliced, stoneground, and buttermilk bread. They also produce scones and hot cross buns and offer a custom celebration cake making service locally.
Stafford’s are also subcontracted to manufacture par-baked baguettes for other food companies. Since 1978 the company has grown steadily and in 2005 embarked on a modernisation and scaling up of its yeast and buttermilk handling capabilities.
The Starting Situation
As part of the expansion project two 8,000 litre tanks were installed to hold the buttermilk, replacing the previous boxed delivery and manual handling operation. Centrifugal pumps were being used to pump the yeast and buttermilk to the production centre. These pumps were unable to meet the increasing demands of the plant and could not deliver effective CIP cleaning (Cleaning in Place).
Stafford’s decided to look at alternative pumping technologies to allow for the selection of a single pump that could be used both to pump the yeast and buttermilk and also to operate the CIP cycle.
The buttermilk pump only operates when buttermilk is required in the bakery and it is pumped directly into the mixing bowls as and when required. The ability to thoroughly clean the pumps and pipework using CIP was easily acheived as there are no dead areas in the pump
The Solution
seepex recommended their BCSO hygienic pumps for both the yeast and butter milk applications due to their low shear characteristics, CIP ability and flow control as pump flow rate is directly proportional to pump speed.
The yeast pump operates 24 hrs/day pumping a variable capacity of up to 3m³/hr over 100m to the ingredients mixing area.
The Benefit
The low shear action of the pumps ensures that that the consistency of the yeast and of the buttermilk are not affected. In the case of the buttermilk, shearing and/or churning would affect its consistency rendering it unusable. Likewise high agitation of yeast can also cause break down to the point that the “Living Organism” could sustain damage. In both cases seepex progressive cavity pumps are seen to be “gentle on the product”.
