Plants and the production cycle
Centrale del Latte di Torino & C. operates in the broad and diversified dairy product market to which it has recently added a new area that includes packaged food products in the fresh-ultra-fresh segment, such as eggs and salads.
Milk control he Company directly controls all phases of processing the raw milk, purchased from carefully selected supplier farms (about 110, located mainly in the province of Turin) that are periodically inspected by Company employees who check the health of the cows, hygiene conditions in the stables and milking facilities and the quality-origin of forage and feeds.
Periodic checkups The quality of the end-product largely depends on meticulous checks at the source that are made both when the milk is collected from supply points - these are also subjected to rigorous periodic checkups - and before and during operations to transfer the food from milk trucks to the silos at the Centrale.
400 analyses daily Thanks to a tried and tested and top quality internal laboratory structure, an average of 400 analyses and chemical-bacteriological tests are performed daily on the milk.
Together these checks constitute the Companies HACCP system, an integral part of the ISO 9002 certified quality system.
.By means of a wide-ranging and diversified investment programme today the control of all phases of milk processing at the Centrale's plants - pasteurisation, standardisation, homogenisation for fresh pasteurised milk, sterilisation of long shelf-life (UHT) milk - is managed by a sophisticated computer and software system that enables the Company to achieve absolutely top-level qualitative and quantitative results in its reference market.
Refrigeration chain There is also a specific programme for maintaining the refrigeration chain which includes refrigerated cells, refrigerated trucks and refrigerators used by customers.
Centrale del Latte di Torino & C. S.p.A. production takes place in three plants, located in Turin, Carmagnola (Turin) and Rapallo (Genoa).
The Turin plant The Turin plant, situated in the centre of the city in Via Filadelfia, extends over an area of around 20,300 sq.m (of which 11,500 are covered) and employ a total of 99 blue-collar and white-collar workers
It has a silo capacity for milk of more than 750,000 litres.
The milk packaging lines include 3 Tetrarex packagers for fresh milk in 1 litre, 1/2 litre and 200 ml cartons, 1 line for 750 cl glass bottles and 4 Tetrabrik packaging lines for UHT milk in 1 and 1/2 litre cartons.
Completely computerised process control Using a process controller it is possible to continuously monitor whether mechanical and pneumatic devices (valves, pumps, etc.) reach and maintain the planned positions or state during the production cycle and, in the event of anomalies, block the functions or signal the breakdown to the operator so it can be righted. This ensures maximum efficiency of plant functioning and so guarantees the integrity and constant quality of the product.
EDP Centre The EDP Centre at Centrale controls not only supply of raw materials and production, marketing, sales network, accounting and internal personnel presence.
It is also linked to an ultra-modern sales recording system by means of latest-generation portable terminals on board each of the sales vehicles.
Annually abut 48 million litres of product leave the Turin plant, subdivided in 24 product types and 23 formats/packaging under 6 different brand names.
The Carmagnola plant The Carmagnola plant extends over an area of 6,950 sq.m (of which more than 2,000 are covered) and a total of 8 blue-collar and white-collar employees are involved in the production process.
It has a milk storage facility with a capacity of 12,000 litres.
The packaging lines are for yoghurt - 1 line for 125 g cups and 1 for 500 g cups.
Only yoghurt Only yoghurt is produced at the Carmagnola plant.
Piedmontese milk only The milk - already analysed, pasteurised and homogenised in the Turin plant, and supplied by Piedmontese producers only - arrives at the Carmagnola plant ready for processing.
The plant has benefited from much attention and specific investment: in particular a sophisticated filtering system has been installed so that air within the facility is purified to avoid contamination between the environment and the product.
The plant produces 750 tonnes of yoghurt annually.
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