More than 400 employees work in the main plant of Uelzena eG in Uelzen. This is where it all started in a very small way more than 60 years ago with the production of milk powder and butter and where over the last decades, it has developed into the company’s largest production site. Today, the Uelzen site is home to the production of a broad range of products such as milk powder, butterfat, instant beverages and health products for the different business units of the cooperatively organized Uelzena group.
On behalf of the business division, Uelzena Ingredients, Uelzena produces skimmed milk and buttermilk powders, butterfat as well as some very special butter specialities such as laminating butter for puff pastry, lactose-free butter and recombined butterspecialty butter at the Uelzen site. We also utilize the spray-drying equipment for our contract drying services. Moreover, the central distribution department for milk powder, milk fat, cheese and contract manufacturing is located at this site.
Apart from having butter melting equipment for the production of concentrated butter and butterfat with vanillin or carotene, the site is also equipped with other sophisticated technologies for the processing of milk fat and for example, we operate a production line for mixed fats made from butter and vegetable fats.
Our fractionating plant is unique in Germany. It allows milk fat to be separated into hard stearins and soft to liquid oleins in a purely thermo-physical process. We use this equipment to recombine butter and butterfats with defined melting points and product properties.
At our deodorization plant, we can remove color, odorous substances and most of the cholesterol from the milk fat. For this, we also apply a purely physical process. Our customers use the white butterfat that is obtained in this way as a base for confectionery products including white cream candies or light-colored cream fillings.
There are a total of nine spraying towers with different designs, technological options and capacities available at our Uelzen site. The Ingredients division uses these towers for the production of skimmed milk and buttermilk powders. Currently five of these towers are dedicated to the contract drying of raw materials provided by our customers. The spray drying technology is supplemented by two flexible liquid mixing lines for the preparation of the fluid to be spray dried and by various dry component mixers for powders.
The Uelzena eG is organized in the form of a second stage cooperation. That is to say that our members for their part are dairy and milk cooperatives in which milk producers from the region around our sites are organized. They provide us with the majority of the raw milk, concentrates and cream we need and process and thus ensure a high level of raw material safety. As a modern milk processor, sourcing raw materials from the region is an integral part of our sustainability concept. Moreover, knowing the precise origin of the milk guarantees our products the highest quality.