Australian research highlights waste in cheese production

Single-serve butter and shredded cheese are the worst offenders in dairy wastage, new research has revealed, in a bid to boost manufacturing output.

Nearly one in 10 single-serve butter packs are wasted in the manufacturing process, new data has revealed.

And shredded cheese is also a major source of waste for Australian milk processors, analysts have found, as the sector attempts to improve efficiency with record prices paid at the farm gate.

Manufacturing performance software company OFS announced the findings from its Dairy Snapshot Report, benchmarking performance in the production of milk, butter and cheese.

The report analysed thousands of hours of production from dairy companies, both in Australia and overseas, between April and June 2022.

Shredded cheese coming down the line.

OFS chief executive James Magee said the analysis examined areas such as downtime, speed of production and how much wastage occurred in each category.

He said 5.43 per cent of all shredded cheese produced in the two-month period was wasted, while the single-serve butter clicked over 9 per cent.

“Inflation is hitting the dairy industry, just as it’s hurting food manufacturing across the board,” Mr Magee said. “There’s also the pressure of skills shortages.

“Processors are looking at ways to make their production lines more efficient. These findings show there’s plenty of opportunity for improvement. The shredded cheese and single-serve butter statistics were standouts, but there are also other categories that can perform better (according to the analysis).”

The OFS findings come as Saputo management in Canada flagged the need for further factory closures in Australia.

Fonterra also recently indicated it would remain in the Australian market, after floating a potential break in trans-Tasman relations.

United Dairyfarmers of Victoria president Mark Billing said with high prices paid at the farm gate, processors were well served by examining efficiencies on the production line.

“There’s a lot of stainless steel (in dairy factories) sitting idle,” he said. “So anywhere where you can save one or two per cent is always worth looking at. Often, when things are running at peak profit, there isn’t the same pressure to make those efficiencies as when margins are tight, which they are at present.”

Other key statistics from the OFS report included milk filling production lines spending 42 per cent of available time not filling containers.

Cleaning, sterilisation and maintenance of equipment were cited as reasons for the delays.

The milk category reported a very low waste output of just 0.73 per cent of units lost between the start and finish of the filling line.