Arla Foods Ingredients to build EUR 120 million lactose plant in Denmark

Arla Foods Ingredients (AFI) will invest EUR 120 million in a lactose plant in Denmark. The plant will be established next to Denmark Protein in Nr. Vium.

Construction is scheduled to be completed by October 2014 and the plant will be fully operational in 2016 with an annual capacity of approx. 85,000 metric tonnes. The plant will be designed to fulfil requirements from the infant formula industry supporting strict quality standards and growing market demand.

The added capacity will together with the existing joint venture plants in Germany increase AFI lactose volumes to approx. 135,000 metric tonnes pr. year.

According to CEO in Arla Foods Ingredients, Henrik Andersen, this investment sends a strong signal to the whey ingredients market that AFI remains committed to supply high quality products to the global nutrition and food industry.

“We have had a very constructive dialogue with a number of leading customers regarding their future demands for lactose quality. Our new plant will deliver on these demands,”he says.

AFI is a company fully owned by the dairy cooperative Arla Foods amba. 

Lactose also called milk sugar:

• Natural component from milk (carbohydrate of the milk)

• Cow milk contains approx. 4,5% lactose (human milk approx. ca. 7%)

• Lactose is extracted industrial from whey by evaporation and crystallization 

• The most common commercial application is as ingredients in food, e.g. infant formulas, chocolate, confectionary and bakery products