The Global Miller: November 2018

November 29, 2018

OCRIM designs titanium rolls for cutting-edge milling plant

Immediately after the success of the antimicrobial sieves, OCRIM has studied and designed the way to optimise and enhance the mill's operation, linked to the performance of the roller mills, in order to optimise both time and maintenance costs.

This led OCRIM to focus on the grinding rolls, designing a solution that would incorporate as many benefits as possible for the end user. For this market request, the solution presented by OCRIM has included titanium-coated rolls for the fluted passages in the grinding process, ensuring a much longer life of the rolls currently used by the entire milling industry.

Rolls with titanium coating
Image credit: OCRIM

OCRIM's Research & Development department, following this new engineering strategy, carefully studied the results related to the titanium coating of the rolls in order to be able to share with its customers the important opportunities that this innovative product can offer.

Rolls with titanium coating
The grinding rolls are all made of chilled-iron cast alloy with different hardness, according to the requirements or the technological diagram. The duration of the roll is thus directly dependent on its hardness.

The fluting of a cast iron roll is preserved and, therefore, maintains its characteristics for longer periods of time when the roll has high hardness values (e.g. 530 HB). In this regard, the OCRIM Research & Development department has conducted several research studies and trials, achieving tangible results through the application of a special titanium coating for the corrugated rolls.

This coating causes a considerable increase in the surface hardness values and consequently increases the duration of the fluting over time, to keep the ideal configuration of the plant as unaltered as possible.

Based on the "field" results obtained, the rolls with titanium coating are therefore economically more advantageous than the traditional ones, since they last longer. The longer life of the titanium-coated rolls, although with a higher starting cost, results in the following:

- savings in terms of time and maintenance costs because, with this technology, OCRIM guarantees, in a B1 passage, an average duration of about 3 years with no maintenance
- fewer plant stops to change rolls, which involve loss of productivity
- lower costs related to savings for the renewal of fluting and/or the purchase of new rolls
- reduced plant yield losses, which instead inevitably occur with traditional rolls due to faster loss of their fluting profiles.

From the analyses carried out already with a production of 7200 T/year, considerable savings are obtained by using titanium-coated rolls, confirming the validity of this new OCRIM product. OCRIM's titanium-coated rolls are already fully in production and on the market and are already used by many customers in their plants, with full satisfaction and with results that exceeded expectations, as they are even more satisfactory than the tests conducted.

With the titanium-coated rolls another goal has been achieved also because it has improved the baggage of technical and technological experience of both OCRIM and its customers. Each goal achieved is a stimulus and an incentive to look ahead in a concrete and productive way, to study and design other innovation strategies, to improve the know-how of OCRIM and that of its customers.

For more information visit the OCRIM website, HERE.

The Global Miller
This blog is maintained by The Global Miller staff and is supported by the magazine Milling and Grain
which is published by Perendale Publishers Limited.

For additional daily news from milling around the world: global-milling.com

Aybakar company profile

Established in 1932, Aybakar is one of the major machinery and equipment manufacturing companies in the field of grain processing industry. They deal with the realisation of turnkey mill projects and modernisation of wheat flour, semolina and maize mills.

The first mills that were designed by Aybakar's engineers and technicians have satisfied the domestic market requirements. Encouraged by the experiences in Turkish market, Aybakar has expanded abroad by modernisation of existing mills and accomplished implementation of turnkey projects as well as exporting milling machinery and equipment to 45 different countries and has been rendering continuous after sale services successfully.

By the feedback and close cooperation of clients, their research and development department had the opportunity to develop modern, high capacity and efficient mills at reasonable prices. Working under ISO 9001-2000 standards, they have always made technology and development their highest priority.

In the meantime, CNC machine tools have been introduced to their machine shop in order to improve their quality and increase production capacity. As far as turnkey milling plants are concerned, Aybakar has the honour of offering state of art technology to their clients, reducing energy needs and labour costs. State of art technology, high quality machinery and precise after sales services are Aybakar's chosen path for the ultimate goal: customer satisfaction.

Visit the Aybakar website, HERE.

November 28, 2018

Balaguer Rolls company profile

Founded in 1916, Balaguer Rolls is a family business specialising in the casting and machining of centrifugal rolls for milling and a range of other industries, including compound feed, soybeans, coffee, chocolate, paint, salt, biscuits, chemicals and more.

Throughout the company's history, Balaguer has earned the trust of many of the largest food machinery manufacturers worldwide: Balaguer rolls have been incorporated into roller mills around the globe. Balaguer also supplies rolls to end-users - flourmills, edible oil factories and such like - in no fewer than 120 countries.

Visit the website HERE.

The Global Miller
This blog is maintained by The Global Miller staff and is supported by the magazine GFMT
which is published by Perendale Publishers Limited.

For additional daily news from milling around the world: global-milling.com

November 27, 2018

ASM-Process Automation company profile

Flour Mills
The major advantage, to working with ASM is that they are available. After sales and upgrades for the future; is what makes ASM great value. They have partnerships with Petkus from Germany as technology providers and Imeco from Italy for weighing, bagging and palletising solutions.

Feed Mills
ASM say it proudly, they are experts in terms of automating of sending daily batching to the plant or getting recipes from MNGT. They work PCS7 batch on open blocks for after sales.
Vist the ASM-Process Automation website, HERE.

Alapala complete new Project in Olam Ghana

Alapala have recently successfully completed a new Project in Olam Ghana. The project is a flour mill capacity extension, ensuring that Alapala are able to better serve their 22,000 customers worldwide, in over 70 countries.

In 2011, Olam Ghana has opened its flour mill, with a production capacity of 500 tonnes per day, which was built and made prosperous by Alapala's colleagues expertise. In order to meet the increase in demand in Ghana, Olam has increased its total production capacity to 1.100 tonnes per day. 100 tonnes per day was made in the first phase of the project and 500 tonnes per day in the second phase, thanks to the hard work and dedication of Alapala.

In addition, the mills storage capacity was increased with an additional 40,000 tonne silo, which was manufactured by Alapala.

Alapala are proud to have encouraged this investment, that is technologically innovative, sensitive to the environment, and will make a real difference to the milling industry.

For more information visit the Alapala website, HERE.

Flour Fortification

by Pinar Erdal, Mirpain Milling & Baking Ingredients, Turkey

Vitamins and minerals are organic compounds that are needed in small quantities to sustain life. Different vitamins and minerals have different roles and their absence will cause serious disease.

People need vitamins and minerals in their diets, because their bodies cannot synthesise them quickly enough to meet their daily needs and vitamins are essential for normal physiologic function. If there is poverty about vitamins in diet, it will cause a specific deficiency. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated the required average nutrient intakes for a healthy person, which is often not reached.

image credit: Mirpain

Food systems often fail to deliver foods sufficiently rich in essential vitamins and minerals. This failure is due to poor availability, access, affordability, and use of inappropriate foods. It causes widespread micronutrient deficiencies and their negative health consequences, which affect over 1.6 billion people around the world.

Wheat is an important cereal crop and, together with maize and rice, accounts for 94 percent of total cereal consumption worldwide. To obviate the deficiency of vitamin and minerals, flour fortification has an important role.

Food fortification is a practice of adding one or more essential nutrients to improve the nutritional quality of the food supply. Fortification of industrially processed wheat flour, when approximately implemented, is an effective, simple, and inexpensive strategy for supplying vitamins and minerals to the diets of large segments of the world’s population.

Wheat flour fortification should be considered when industrially produced flour is regularly consumed by large population groups in a country. Wheat fortification programmes could be expected to be most effective in achieving a public health impact if mandated at the national level and can help achieve international public health goals. Decisions about which nutrients should be added, and the proper amounts to add to flour for fortification, should be based on a series of factors, according to nutritional needs and deficiencies of the populations; the usual consumption profile of fortified flour.

In the less industrialised countries, fortification has become an increasingly attractive option in recent years, so much so that planned programmes have moved forward to the implementation phase more rapidly than previously thought possible. Globally 87 countries have legislation to mandate fortification of at least one industrially milled cereal grain.

Read more HERE.

November 26, 2018

The oldest bread in the world

by Rebecca Sherratt, Production editor, Milling & Grain

Scientists at a 14,000-year-old dig site have uncovered the earliest-known evidence of bread-making. Found in the Black Desert in Amman, Jordan, this shocking discovery has extended the first evidence of bread by more than 5,000 years.

The advent of agriculture, before this amazing find, was originally predated 4000 years later, leaving scientists baffled by the revelations this ancient loaf has given us. Before this, it was originally thought that the Neolithic people, of the Stone Age, were the inventors of bread approximately 9,000 years ago, in Çatalhöyük in Turkey.

The Neolithic people made bread by producing flour, comprised of wild barley and wheat, mixing it with pulverised roots of plants, adding water and baking it.

“This is the earliest evidence we have for what we could really call a cuisine, in that it’s a mixed food product,” Professor Dorian Fuller of University College London says to BBC News. “They’ve got flatbreads, and they’ve got roasted gazelles and so forth, and that’s something they are then using to make a meal.”

The ancestral loaf was possibly used to wrap roasted meat, such as gazelle, which could also make this the oldest sandwich ever discovered. Scientists have noted that the bread would have resembled our modern-day flatbreads; a pitta bread or chapatti, whilst tasting much like our multi-grain breads.

An extended history
Despite bread being a staple of our diet for what we now know is an ever more extensive period of human history, very little is still known about the origins of bread-making.

Prior to this discovery, the unearthing of the 9,000-year-old Turkish loaf was founded, ad considered the oldest evidence of bread making. Scientists then analysed these under a microscope, the bread showing signs of various modern processes of bread-making, such as kneading, grinding and sieving.

The 14,400-year-old Natufian hunter site in the Black desert where the bread was located was known as Shunayqa One, in North-East Jordan. The site has previously been subject to extended expeditions and scientific investigations. Buildings containing fireplaces there were uncovered by British archaeologist Alison Betts in the 1990s, and since then the location has proven to be repeatedly blessed. Four more excavations were carried out at the site, between 2012 and 2015, where charred food was also discovered, along with animal bones, plant remains and ground stone tools.

Read more HERE.

Registration is now open for winter session of AFIA-KSU feed manufacturing course

The American Feed Industry Association has opened registration for the winter session of "AFIA/KSU 500: Fundamentals of Feed Manufacturing," an online course conducted in partnership with Kansas State University. The five-week education course will take place February 11 – April 1, 2019.

"Not only does the AFIA 500 course provide students with an in-depth overview of the feed manufacturing process, but it also provides them tips they can use at their facilities for improving facility safety, quality and maintenance," said Gary Huddleston, AFIA's director of feed manufacturing and regulatory affairs. "Students can work at their own pace from the comfort of their homes or offices, while engaging in online discussions with their peers from around the world and course professors."

The feed technology group in KSU's Department of Grain Science and Industry developed the AFIA 500 course in 2010. It covers a variety of topics, including: the process flow from particle size reduction, to batching and mixing, conditioning and pelleting, boilers, post-pellet systems, packaging and loadout, and maintenance.

KSU is the only US University to offer a Bachelor of Science degree in Feed Manufacturing and is home to the IGP Institute. For more than 35 years, the IGP Institute has established a worldwide reputation as a centre of excellence for international programs related to flour milling and grain processing, feed manufacturing and grain quality management, and grain marketing and risk management focused on corn, grain sorghum, soybeans and wheat.

To date, more than 450 individuals have earned a certificate for completing this course.

For more information and to register, visit the course website, HERE.

FEFAC welcomes EU Commission’s encouragement for EU plant protein production

FEFAC has welcomed the European Commission report on the development of plant proteins in the EU published on 22 November 2018. FEFAC hopes the new political interest at both EU and national level will create the momentum to stimulate the availability, quality and competitiveness of EU plant protein production.

Compound feed manufacturers are prepared to continue to source more EU grown proteins to participate in the development of economically viable chains, provided they are a feasible option compared to traditional protein sources.

Image credit: Andrew Gustar on Flickr
(CC BY-ND 2.0)

FEFAC stresses the importance of animal nutrition science and precision livestock feeding as key tools for making the most efficient use of available protein sources, for example by offering the best amino-acid profile to respond to physiological requirements of farm animals as well as reducing nitrogen emissions and nutrient leakage.

FEFAC President Nick Major presented the views and recommendations of compound feed manufacturers at the conference The Development of Plant Proteins in the European Union, held on 23 November 2018 in Vienna, Austria.

He stated that, "the ambition to stimulate EU protein crop production is very sensible given the reduced importance of the EU as an importer on the global market of soybean meal in combination with the dependency on very few exporting countries."

Mr Major also pointed to the report's finding that the development of premium feed/food markets will be the main driver for the market uptake of vegetable protein grown in Europe. In that light he encouraged the European Commission to harmonise the rules for product claims for food of animal origin fed on "non-GM feed" in order to guarantee a level playing field and increase market transparency.

Mr Major also reminded that it is unrealistic for the EU to become entirely self-sufficient for its protein needs, meaning facilitating the sourcing of responsibly produced protein-rich feed materials is also of great importance.

For more information visit the FEFAC website, HERE.

Tighter soy cerification programmes create opportunities to end 'legal' deforestation

The large-scale and recently increasing "legal" deforestation in South America is being challenged by The Round Table on Responsible Soy Association (RTRS) through its scheme of soy certification; a system that ensures a genuinely sustainable food chain.

RTRS is the internationally recognised organisation promoting the responsible production, trading and use of soy. It has been estimated by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) that 88 million hectares of Amazon and Cerrado could still be cleared "legally" if nothing is done to protect them.

Image credit: Neil Palmer CIAT on Flickr
(CC BY-SA 2.0)

"Legal" deforestation in South America is being challenged by RTRS through its soy certification scheme. Its verification and certification system has been working towards a sustainable food chain since 2009.

Producers have responded to this challenge and via RTRS have certified soy product to the value of 4 million tons in 2017 and expects to exceed that number in 2018. RTRS sets a robust and verified standard for soy certification, through its wide network of growers that is a readily available solution for tackling deforestation and conversion of natural land in the widest scope.

Two recent reports on certification standards by Mekon Ecology and Thunen in support of the Amsterdam Declarations Partnership – the initiative of European countries working towards eliminating deforestation from agricultural and commodity, trade and signed by Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom – observed that RTRS ensures zero deforestation soya production and is transparent in its certification of production.

Furthermore, the Thunen report concluded that while many schemes - such as those included in the FEFAC Soy Sourcing Guideline - do offer positive progress towards sustainable soy sourcing only a small number meet the deforestation-free goals of the AD Partnership. RTRS certification system is a truly holistic approach that stands up for the environment and sustainable agricultural practices as well as the social and ethical rights of workers.

As part of 2017's Cerrado Manifesto announcement WWF Global Soy Lead Jean F. Timmers, stated that RTRS will play a vital role in delivering progress in the face of deforestation, "WWF signed the Cerrado Manifesto, is a key partner in the Collaboration for Forests and Agriculture, and considers RTRS as the only standard explicitly banning all conversion of natural vegetation. It is a very useful tool ensuring the transparent implementation of this objective".

Marcelo Visconti, Executive Director, Round Table on Responsible Soy says, "Via the issue of "legal" deforestation RTRS can bring the producers, industry, governments and NGOs together by providing a holistic solution to the whole soy supply chain. Leading organisations in the food and animal feed industries can sign up to our system of certification in order to play a truly active role in the protection of the Amazon and Cerrado."

For more information visit the RTRS website, HERE.

Central States Fumigation and Services company profile

Central States Fumigation and Services along with its Gulf Coast Division has fumigated tens of thousands of facilities and buildings including: steel bins, concrete tubes, tanks, flat storage, bunker/tarp, warehouses, coveralls, rail cars, barges, containers, vessels among other structures.

Their experienced and respected leaders have over 230 years experience combined in the Industry and their reputation as the premier provider of fumigation services from coast to coast precede them.

All of their trustworthy work crews have certified applicators on hand, marked trucks and company logo work wear, and have gone through extensive, personalised training to best serve you. Central States Enterprises’ goal is to satisfy the customer by protecting their commodities, and creating a long-lasting business relationship by providing the most elite and innovative fumigation services and products in the industry.

Central States Enterprises is also very self-conscious of the environment and the impact on the Earth - that’s why all their FMP paperwork and work orders are done digitally, they recycle all of their cardboard in house, and frequently use chemicals that are environmentally-friendly. They have also long used Eco2Fume and ProFume instead of Methyl Bromide - a known ozone-depleting compound.

Visit the Central States Fumigation and Services website, HERE.

the interview | Jan Vanbrabant, Chairman and CEO of the ERBER Group

Jan Vanbrabant was appointed Chairman and CEO of the ERBER Group in April of 2017. He has been the CEO of Biomin Asia since 2009 and has played a very important role in the development and the success of the Asian region as Managing Director Biomin Asia based in Singapore.
Dr Vanbrabant holds a master’s degree in Biotechnology and a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Ghent in Belgium, with fields of expertise in microbiology and biochemistry. From applied scientific research at the University of Ghent, Jan moved to the business world, where he has held positions in sales, marketing, and general management.

When did you first become interested in animal agriculture? Are you from a farming background or did you gain an interest in livestock and nutrition at university for instance?
I actually ended up in animal agriculture by coincidence, as I do not come from a farming background, nor did I study animal nutrition or veterinary science. I studied biotechnology and did a PhD in microbiology, after which I started working in human clinical diagnostics.
It was only later, that I got the opportunity to join our industry. Coincidently, this was at the end of the 90s, while I was doing my MBA and in the middle of the dot.com [internet] boom ... as you can imagine my fellow MBA classmates were not overly excited when I informed them I was joining a company active in the animal nutrition sector.
Before taking this decision, I had a deeper look into this business, and it was clear to me that agriculture and, more specifically, animal nutrition, had a lot of potential for the future. Global population keeps on growing, they need to eat and as part of the daily diet they need protein, which in most cases is and will be from animal origin. It also did not take me very long to understand that I joined a high-tech industry, where my biotechnology background was a good asset.
Looking back now, it is clear that I took the right decision at that time. Nowadays, when you ask expert advice on where to invest your money, most of the experts will tell you to invest in agriculture! This is the best proof.

Do you feel that your company is making a contribution to the world’s food supply? If so, how is that being achieved?
Yes, I do! Even more, we are making a contribution to a sustainable world’s food supply. In Biomin we are contributing to a more sustainable production of animal protein, that is safe and affordable. Together, with our other sister companies in the Erber Group, Romer Labs and Sanphar, active in food safety diagnostics and animal health. Biomin is the global leader in mycotoxin management, which is gaining importance with the growing challenge of mycotoxins, as a result of global warming.
Next to this, with our Gut Performance Programme, we help animal producers to stop using antibiotic growth promotors and move to antibiotic-free feeding, which is becoming standard practice in most of the world now.

Science and scientists seem to have a less authority and public confidence today than in the past. What has caused this and how do you see agricultural science in particular addressing negative public opinions and concerns now and in the future?
I would say the agriculture industry, including animal agriculture, has done an amazing job during the last decades in providing sufficient food to our growing population. This is something we should not forget, and we should be proud of.
The public opinion on animal production is highly influenced by NGOs with big financial support, that use every small opportunity they get to put us in a bad light. This can be animal welfare, food scandals or others. In every industry you will find individuals that don’t follow the rules, and by doing this can potentially cause a lot of damage to all the others, who want to do things right.
From what you see in the news on animal production, you sometimes have the impression that these questionable individuals are the rule rather than the exception. This is due to these NGOs that will use every small opportunity they get to show this. Here lies a great opportunity for us. Animal protein is a safe source of protein that is and will be essential to feed the 10 billion people that will be living on our globe in 2050. We have to make sure this protein is produced sustainable and keeping in mind the well-being of the animals, and we have to show this to the world.

What are the constrains to successful food production - namely, availability, safety and affordability - in meeting world demand by 2050 and how do we overcome them?
As I mentioned already earlier, in order to meet the world demand in 2050, the food of the future needs to be safe, affordable and most importantly produced in a sustainable way. I do not see many potential constraints if we do things right.
There are enough resources available, we just have to use them in the right way. We have to stop using antibiotic growth promotors, to tackle antibiotic resistance, and keep antibiotics for treatment, what they were developed for. We have to further increase production efficiency, thereby reducing environmental impact and as much as possible use renewable ingredients.

What impact can a company such as Biomin and Erber Group have in meeting these challenges, particularly in the developing world?
With Biomin and ERBER Group we are present in more than 120 countries in the world. As a group we have seen our strongest growth in the last 5 - 10 years in Asia and South America. Early October, we had our World Nutrition Forum in Cape Town, South Africa. This location was not coincidence, as we strongly believe that the explosive population growth that is expected on the African continent in the next decades, will lead to major challenges in the food supply there. We are increasing our business activities in Africa to help the producers over there to be ready for the future challenges.

Will science, rather than politics, play a greater role in helping food producers meet consumer demands in the second half of this century?
Interesting question! During my talk at the opening of the World Nutrition Forum, I touched on this topic also. For sure, science will help the food industry meeting consumer demands. In order to achieve this, they will need the support of politics. Nowadays we see more often that politics or politicians are the unpredictable factor in all this.
The current situation in Africa is an interesting example of this. It was mentioned more than once during our WNF 2018, and also during the Africa Focus satellite symposium that Africa can supply enough food to feed the growing population on this continent.

Milleral company profile

IMAS was established in 1989 as one of the daughter companies of İttifak Holding, which is one of the most dynamic groups of Turkey which operates in 20 sectors with more than 100 facilities.

IMAS, using MILLERAL TM for turnkey flour milling systems, performs manufacturing, marketing and service after sales processes in international norms with its professional and experienced staff.

IMAS has strengthened its corporate structure with positive values day by day. With its strong capital, problem-solving professional staff, nearly 20-year corporate memory and its specific projects about the future of the sector; IMAS manufactures not only machines but also technology, quality, confidence and comfort for its customers.

IMAS quality in milling diagrams, projecting, manufacturing and montage, - turnkey systems in general- also demonstrates itself with the quality awards its customers receive. IMAS has the knowledge, experience and responsibility for new technologies, manufacturing pace and standardisation, minimising manufacturing costs, meeting immediate support necessities and corporate continuity.

High interest of İMAS to the good and new has been the base for the R&D department, which is furnished with intellectual staff and high technology. CE, TSEK and ISO 9001:2000 certificates have been awarded to İMAS products, which have passed through sensitive tests of R&D to the manufacturing line.

With its competitiveness conforming to international business ethics, İMAS has exported his machines to many countries in a wide range of geographical region.

IMAS, one of the powerful representatives of manufacturing and marketing its own technology of İttifak Holding, has added new-design millennium roller mills to its line with his patent.

“Automatic Grain Moisture System” and “Air Stabilisation System” made by IMAS have been the “firsts” in Turkey.

IMAS is aware that an effective human resources management is needed to manage manufacturing and marketing activities globally. This awareness has gained team-mates to IMAS that are happy to be a member of this team.

All human beings and natural environment are as important as corporate shareholders for İMAS. With this approach, İMAS takes care of the environment for the processes of the flour mills that establishes, in addition to the consideration of nature in his own manufacturing process.

Visit the website HERE

Early international milling exhibitions

by Mildred Cookson, The Mills Archive, UK

Mildred Cookson

We see and read today in Milling and Grain reports of international exhibitions visited around the world. Although today their focus is on modern milling equipment, their purpose has always been the same, to attract the owners of mills to see how they can improve their output and keep up with the times.
Keeping up is nothing new. In fact, in the first year of publication of The Miller in 1875, we read about the International Milling Exhibition in Vienna in the August of that year. As well as showing off the latest milling machinery, the event was noted for the weather, a steady downpour of rain. However, "inside the building order reigned instead of chaos, and along with the sounds of music were only to be found and heard the sober broadcloth and the earnest murmurs of those whom business, and not pleasure, had attracted to the scene".

The report commented that the excellence of Hungarian flour and Vienna beer was proverbial and, making due allowance for the climatic advantages, "some praise is due to the machinery by which this degree of excellence has been obtained".

There were around 150 exhibitors. The first seen on entering featured a centrifugal bolting machine by Nagel & Kaemp of Hamburg, which depended on centrifugal force for its effect. Within the outer cylinder, which was covered with silk gauze of different meshes and revolved slowly, was an inner one moving with great velocity. This second, inner cylinder was fitted at its periphery with zinc vanes, which took up the meal and flung it against the inner sides of the outside cylinder. Every particle of meal went in a spiral line with the coarser portions, not finding any opening in the silk gauze, passing on until they fell out at the end of the cylinder.

Read the full article in Milling and Grain magazine online, HERE.

November 23, 2018

Millling and Grain December 2018

Back issues available

November 22, 2018

First Latin American poultry nutrition conference sponsored by Nutriad

Multinational feed additives producer Nutriad, supported the first Latin American Poultry and Nutrition Conference (LPN) held in Miami, USA as a premium sponsor. The event attracted more than 1,500 industry professionals representing broiler and egg production companies from Mexico, Central America and South America, as well as feed producers and academics.

Technical workshops allowed for interactive sessions on the key topics that challenge the poultry industry in the Americas and beyond. Nutriad was present with senior commercial and technical management and once more confirmed its' commitment to the Latin American poultry industry.

Image credit: Nutriad

Well known researchers presented the various technical workshops. Guilherme Bromfman, a mycotoxin specialist for Nutriad spoke on "The impact of Mycotoxins in Antibiotic Free Production". In his presentation Mr Bromfman highlighted that most problems that poultry producers face when trying to remove antibiotic growth promoters (AGP) from the diet, can be directly influenced by a mycotoxin contamination and overall grain quality.

The various studies presented by Mr Bromfman, showed that the quality of raw materials used in AGP diets, should be carefully selected and monitored, as low-quality grains can have lower nutritional value and can cause an impact on weight gain and feed conversion.

Mycotoxins, when present, play an important role in the deterioration of the intestinal health of animals, even more so in production free from growth promoters, since these can affect the gastrointestinal tract in different ways: increase the impact of the coccidia, negative effect on the intestinal mucosa, increased colonisation of pathogens, impacting the absorption of nutrients from the intestinal microflora imbalance and a deregulation of immunity and efficiency of vaccines.

"We are proud to be premium sponsors of the 1st LPN. It further confirms our commitment to the Latin American poultry industry, in supporting an event that brings industry professionals and researches together in an exchange of information aimed at improving nutrition and health standards across the industry, against the backdrop of changing consumer preferences and increased government regulation", Mr Bromfman said.

"We believe that Nutriad can support finding solutions for today's and tomorrow's challenges, however we can only be truly successful if we manage to combine insights, experiences and knowledge across the entire chain."

Visit the Nutriad website, HERE.

Mühlenchemie engages in research at the Canadian International Grains Institute

In research conducted at the Canadian International Grains Institute (Cigi), Mühlenchemie, an internationally acknowledged expert on flour treatment, tested the use of enzyme systems and other additives in the production of pasta.

The main objective was to gain a deeper insight into the effects of enzymes and other flour improvers at short mixing times. The tests were carried out on Cigi's pilot pasta plant under the overall control of the applications technologist Ulrike Thomas and Dr Lutz Popper, Mühlenchemie's scientific director.

In research conducted at the Canadian International Grains Institute (Cigi), Mühlenchemie tested the use of enzyme systems and other additives in the production of pasta
Image credit: © Alle Rechte vorbehalten / Mühlenchemie

A not-for-profit institute providing pre-market and in-market technical support for the Canadian grain sector, the Canadian International Grains Institute provides independent know-how to millers and end-users on the processing of Canadian cereals.

During the project funded by Mühlenchemie, the pasta specialists from Cigi and the flour experts from Mühlenchemie sought to determine what effects enzyme systems and other additives achieve at short mixing times. Numerous tests showed that the improvement systems are effective but have to be modified, as compared to systems for long mixing times.

"This cooperation with Cigi helped Mühlenchemie towards a better understanding of the effects of our enzyme compounds under different mixing conditions", Dr Lutz Popper explained. "This is valuable information for developing the new product range "EMCEpasta", which is intended to meet the special requirements for pasta processes with short mixing times."

Mühlenchemie is hoping to continue such an exchange of information with Cigi to benefit other applications, too.

For more information visit the Mühlenchemie website, HERE.

Bühler–KSU Executive Milling Course offered hands on milling training

For the second time this year, milling professionals gathered at the Kansas State University IGP Institute for the Bühler–KSU Executive Milling course that took place November 5–9, 2018.

Generally focused on Bühler equipment and grain milling practices, the course also touched on wide variety of topics including wheat variety usages, machine and flowsheet technology, cleaning, milling and product systems, along with performance factors that may influence the milling process.

Carl Hahn, Bühler Training Centre instructor, shows participants how to properly adjust the Buhler Sortex Colour Sorter
Image credit: KSU IGP

This training is geared for mill owners, directors and managers in the milling industry, but milling experience is not required. The most recent offering had a broad range of industry experience among the participants.

"We had individuals from backgrounds of human resources, wheat buyers, a corn miller and even somebody from a cosmetics company. There was a large amount of discussion throughout the course, and everyone seemed to get the most out of it," says Jason Watt, Bühler Instructor of Milling Throughout the week-long course, the 11 participants visited the Hall Ross Flour Mill to gain an in-depth, hands on look into mill machinery, systems, processing and handling.

Mr Watt explains that he and Carl Hahn, flour milling expert from the Bühler Training Centre in Uzwil, Switzerland, saw deep interest by the participants during the hands-on milling experiences as participants took the theory from the classroom and applied it in the mill.

The IGP Institute offers several other training courses in the flour milling and grain processing area. Trainings are also offered in grain marketing and risk management, and feed manufacturing and grain quality management.

To learn more IGP Institute courses, visit the website, HERE.

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