WAVERLY, N.Y. - One of the
world’s largest mozzarella cheese
manufacturing facilities is in
Pennsylvania or just over the
line in New York, depending which
side of the plant you happen to be
standing on.
At the facility operated by
Leprino Foods Company under a 20
year lease agreement from
Eastern Milk Producers, officially
in Waverly, N.Y., up to two million
pounds of milk can be processed
per day. Leprino also has the
“recipe” for over 100 different
Five silos, different than the ones normally found on dairy
farms, are used to store the milk that tankers bring to the
cheese plant. The silos have a combined capacity of 2.8
million pounds of milk.
Six cheese vats, used on a rotating sequence with a
combined capacity of 285,000 pounds of milk per rotation,
are used to coagulate the cheese through a series of heating
and cooling after the addition of rennen.
Separators at the Leprino plant are used to remove cream
from the whole milk and standardize the milkfat content of
milk used in the cheesemaking process.
Mozzarella Cheese Keeps Leprino Smiling
kinds of mozzarella.
The manufacturing process
begins with the arrival of the milk
truck to the plant. Prior to
unloading, the trucks are weighed
and a sample of milk is taken. For
cross-checking and verification,
the sample is split for analysis by
Lepnno’s lab and by Eastern’s lab.
Eastern’s sample goes direct
from the truck to testing by the
Charm II milk analysis equipment
for, antibiotic testing. When the
sample of milk is found to be free
of contaminants, the trucks are
permitted to unload, usually within
15 minutes. The samples are also
checked for milkfat content, cell
count and added water.
Most trucks deliver two routes
per day and are unloaded using
two pumps with a capacity of 250
gallons per minute. The milk is
pumped into one of five silos.
These silos have a combined
capacity of 2.8 million pounds and
are emptied and sanitized on a
rotating schedule of every 48
hours.
From the silos the milk travels to
the pasteurizer and milk separator
which have a capacity to process
117,000 pounds of milk per hour.
Pasteurization heats the milk to
164°F. for 16 seconds to destroy
pathogenic and spoilage
organisms. Separators remove
cream from the whole milk and
standardize the butterfat content
of milk used in the cheesemaking
process.
The separator works on the
principle of centrifugal force, with
the heavier component spinning to
the outside.
A by-product of the separating
process is sweet cream. Ap
proximately 73,000 pounds of sweet
cream is produced daily and sold
to various markets in the tri-state
region for use in such products as
butter, ice cream and packaged
sweet cream.
The milk from which the sweet
cream has been subtracted is
transferred to one of six cheese
vats used on a rotating sequence
with a combined capacity of
285,000 pounds of milk per rotation.
At these vats the start of the actual
cheese production begin.
Cultures, rennen and vinegar are
added at this point to coagulate the
homogenized skim milk. Through
a series of heating and cooling
processes the end product
resembles a hard jello. Blades cut
the jelled product to allow excess
water (whey) to drain.
After draining is completed, the
product is at the cheese curd stage
and at the stage where the flavor of
the cheese can be adjusted in
accordance with customer
specifications.
Once the specification are met,
the cheese is poured into loaves
and enters a brine tank where
natural salts of the cheese are
formed.
The packaging process requires
that each individual loaf of cheese
be quality inspected by hand,
placed in a barrier bag, passed
under a metal detector, and sealed
using a cryovac type process.
Once sealed, individual cheese
loaves are again inspected for
packaging quality and deformities
prior to the final boxing process.
Prior to entering the cooler, each
individual box of cheese is then
weighed and marked with a special
coding system that permits use of
a computerized inventory control
system and the Quality Control
Department to monitor cheese
production through final
disposition.
Cheese is stored in a 1,200,000
pounds cheese cooler that is
maintained at 35°F. and is used to
age the cheese for the first five to
seven days after packaging, in
accordance with customer
specifications.
The cheese processing depart
ment further processes a large
portion of the manufactured
cheese into sliced, diced or
shredded products. The processing
lines have a slicing capacity of
15.000 pounds per line and a dicing
or shredding capacity of 115,000
pounds per line. By operating two
dice lines and one slicing line on a
two shift operation allows Leprino
to have a combined capacity of
245.000 pounds of production per
day.
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Block cheese for dicing or
shredding is pre-blended on tables
in the processing area. The cheese
is then unwrapped, cut into
Following a drying process, whey is packaged in 50 pound
bags. Ernesto Dela Osa Cruz, of the whey bagging depart
ment, expresses his opinion of Leprino Foods.
smaller chunks, conveyed to the
dicer where it is diced or shredded
to customer specifications. It is
then blended, boxed, and check
weighed.
To assure that all finished
products meet our customer
specifications, the cheese is
continually tested throughout the
manufacturing process as well as
during frozen storage.
All tests such as chemical
composition, melt characteristics,
body and texture are designed to
assure the customer that the
cheese will meet their specs and
make exactly the type of pizza they
Whey, formerly a waste product of the cheese making
process, is now an important by-product economically. Dried
whey and dried whey products are stored in the dried goods
warehouse which has a capacity of 1.2 million pounds. Whey
is used in the confectionary, health food and baby food in
dustries.
want to sell in their restaurants.
While the cheese process ends
with shipment of the finished
product to the customers, the plant
continues to process by-products of
the manufacturing process. The
largest by-product is whey.
The Whey Department produces
primarily two whey products,
sweet whey powder and whey
blends. The unprocessed liquid
whey is first pumped over a wire
screen to remove the remaining
cheese curd and then processed
through a separator to remove any
remaining milkfat. This milkfat is
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