Roller dried infant food from buffalo milk--project costs.

An important processing stage in the manufacture
of infant foods from buffalo milk [cf.
this Journal, 3 (1958), 289], is the drying of
the milk, since the quality and cost of the
finished product depend on the drying method
employed. Two common methods employed
in the manufacture of dried milk are the
roller drying and spray drying methods. In
this article the relative merits of the two
methods with respect to quality and characteristics
of the ñnished product and the
specific advantages of each method are discussed,
and the project costs for a plant with a
roller-drying unit capable of producing half a
ton infant food per day are presented.
The only drawback with the roller drying method
is that the milk powder produced is slightly
less soluble than the one obtained by spray
drying; it has, however, a number of other
advantages. The initial investment on plant
and equipment is relatively lower and space requirements
are less. The plant could be used
in places where milk is available in moderate
amounts, and its operation is simple. In addition,
the keeping quality of the final product is
better than that produced by spray drying.