Anchor Newdale ensures highest quality standards

Anchor Newdale, a well-known name among Sri Lankan children and adults alike, is the producer of Anchor Newdale flavoured milk and yoghurt. The factory situated in Biyagama boasts the latest technology in the manufacturing of milks and yogurt in Sri Lanka and ensures the highest quality standards.

The milk that goes into Anchor Newdale products comes from farmers in Fonterra’s farmer development programme, an initiative that has been in place for almost two decades. This programme provides local farmers with support, advice and training to help them produce high quality milk.

Producing an Anchor Newdale product starts on local Sri Lankan dairy farms and Fonterra, the brand’s parent company, works closely alongside the farmers it partners with to ensure they are producing at the highest quality.

From training on best practices, supporting the construction of dairy sheds and artificial insemination to helping farmers access supplements and feed, the Fonterra farmer development programme ensures that the Anchor Newdale supply chain begins with quality raw milk.

Thereafter the milk is either collected by Fonterra from the farmers’ door step or the farmers themselves deliver the milk to one of the company’s nine chilling centers within a few hours of milking.

Upon arrival, the milk is tested by the chilling center employees to ensure that it’s of a high enough quality to be made into Anchor Newdale products and only the milk which passes this test is collected and transported to the manufacturing site.

Several tests are once again done, when the milk arrives at the site to ensure that the milk is suitable for production.

“We have strict quality standards in place, every step of the way. Throughout the manufacturing process, more than 50 different tests are carried out to make sure people are eating top quality, fresh dairy nutrition every time,” Achyut Kasireddy, MD, Fonterra Brands Lanka (Pvt) Ltd. said.

He added that the company’s fully integrated supply chain means that they are also able to ensure that strict global quality standards are upheld as milk goes from the farm to the consumers as finished products.

Once the various quality assurance tests are concluded the milk goes through a process of heat and cold treatment to ensure the correct level of bacteria activity is present in the milk in the yoghurt process.

The milk is heated to 42° C which is the optimum temperature for bacteria activity and then chilled to 4° C to neutralize the bacteria.

This bacteria is required for creating lactose which gives the yoghurt its thickness and sourness. If the temperature exceeds 42° C the sourness will be too much and would be inconsumable.

The cultured milk is then fed into the FFS machine (Form, Fill, Seal machine) which produces 16,000 yoghurts an hour and runs 24 hours a day. The machine has a shift target of 2500 cups per shift.

“Our FFS machine is one of the most sophisticated technologies available in Sri Lanka since it carries out the entire process automatically. There is no human contact with the milk from the point it reaches the machine until it comes out as a packaged good,” Kasireddy stated.

Further, for the milk manufacturing process, the milk is heated to over 100° C in order to kill the bacteria and also to kill the various cocoons the bacteria creates to protect itself. The milk is then filled into packets while the packet is being formed and is there after sealed in the same machine.

Once packaged, the products are boxed and incubated and tested one final time. Upon completion the boxes are stored in a chiller before being loaded onto specially refrigerated trucks for transport to distributors and retailers.

Meanwhile, the company is also finalizing plans to set up a model farm project in the Hambantota area to train and develop local farmers in the region on a seven acre land.

Speaking about this i nitiative Roshan Kulasuriya, Human Resources and Corporate Relations Director, Fonterra Lanka, stated that they realize the need for budding farmers to be trained and given the necessary know how before they start the job.

“We will be training them on how to maintain the cattle, how they should be nursed and fed and various other technical knowledge required to carry out farming,” he said.

Fonterra will be growing CO3 grass in the farm, a type of grass which is most suitable for the cattle and cost effective too. “This will ensure the good health of the cattle and the farmer’s job is also made easy,” Kulasuriya stated.

At present, the company is identifying the farmers in the area who can be trained under this programme and there after they will be carrying out the operations in the farm.

“The programme is an initiative taken under Fonterra’s farmer development programme and will undoubtedly benefit many cattle farmers in the area,” he added.

The farmer owned New Zealand co-operative, Fonterra, is the largest processor of milk in the world, producing more than two million tonnes of dairy ingredients, value added dairy ingredients, specialty ingredients and consumer products every year.