Blendhub Corp opens food tech centre in Mexico with pilot plants for cheese and dairy applications
It recently opened a food tech center in Mexico, with pilot plants for developing cheese and dairy applications with local industries and entrepreneurs and in a few months, its first PPB (Portable Powder Blending) will be fuly operational in LATAM.
First portable factory
PPB is an engineering company within Blenhub Corp., which has designed and patented the first portable factory for blending powdered products.
Henrik Stamm Kristensen, CEO/president, Blendhub Corp. told FoodProductionDaily the PPB factory is a modular unit concept delivered in a 40 foot container, ready to plug in and produce anywhere in the world.
“The way food powder blends are formulated and delivered to market is changing very fast both in B2B and B2C marketplaces,” he said.
“Food powder blends will no longer have to be produced by a supplier with years of experience but can now be installed and fully operational in any part of the world in less than six months.
“Individual formulators and new companies can create open model food products with complete track and trace as alternatives to historic IP protected black box formulations.”
Powder processing plants
According toKristensen, food powder blends are still operated in the same way as 50 years ago. A few big branded corporations with big central food powder processing plants and internal formulation experts produce about 10% of the world's food.
“Thousands of SMEs and local/regional producers supported by many smaller technology providers produce around 90% of the world's food. Most of these food products are being supplied as “black box” formulations,” he added.
“We believe these business models are dying fast. It makes no sense the production of food powder blends involves central facilities in far away countries, with the subsequent contamination costs because of the transport of raw materials and finished products.
“Our concept of PPB allows positioning the production closer to raw materials or distribution channels, positively impacting in the reduction of the carbon footprint associated to transport in our sector.
“The plant has been designed with all environmental considerations, evaluating the potential impacts associated to the activity, including air pollution, liquid waste, scraps, noise and odors.”
Digital and data processing
Kristensen said trends like digital and data processing have speeded up change like never before. Consumer understanding and demands are forcing companies to be more real and committed to things like ethics, sustainability or transparency.
“In the food business there is a mega trend based on food safety through transparency, collaboration, and sustainability,” he added.
“We will announce our new business model to stakeholders in the agrifood value chain next month and we have signed an agreement with Lucta Group to strengthen our collaboration in LATAM (Latin America).
“Lucta and Blendhub Corp. are building on our similar set of values, and these value aligned collaborations are a part of our future co-creation strategy.”
