Malt Products Expands Innovation Capabilities with Lab Mashing Equipment
New equipment allows food and beverage customers to efficiently experiment with new ingredients and formulations
Malt Products Corporation (MPC), a manufacturer of malted barley extract and other natural, nutritious sweeteners, expanded its customer service portfolio by adding to its research and sampling capabilities. Now fully operational, the company’s Mashing Device LB Electronic from Germany-based equipment manufacturer Lochner Label and Technik GmbH precisely replicates MPC’s automated production mashing process, allowing food and beverage sector customers to experiment with new ingredients and formulations efficiently and cost-effectively.
At MPC’s Dayton, OH manufacturing facility, the Lochner lab masher is paired with a custom-built lab scale system for a microcosm match of large-volume mash filtration. For the company’s food and beverage industry customers, this opens up a world of potential for product innovation, allowing them to try new recipes and ingredients expediently and inexpensively.
The system also expedites scalability: By conducting such exacting lab-scale testing, MPC is able to limit the amount of production trials required with new and emerging raw materials, and more quickly move into commercial-scale manufacturing. This helps meet often conflicting customer demands for innovation and speed to market.
The lab masher is an integral part of a five-year, $50 million investment by MPC, beginning with the 2015 expansion of its state-of-the-art brew house and addition of a Meura mash-filter, expanded laboratory, research and development and customer application capabilities. These investments are in response to increasing demand for non-GMO and natural, nutritious ingredients.
Malt Product Corporation offers a portfolio of natural sweeteners whose diversity is only enhanced by the mix-and-match options afforded by the Lochner lab masher. MPC supplies molasses, rice syrup, tapioca syrup, agave and honey, as well as two signature product lines of malt and oat extract:
MPC's MaltRite™ portfolio of malted barley extracts comprise multi-functional ingredients that act as natural humectants (moisture absorber), and enhance browning (maillard reaction), fermentation, body and viscosity. Malted barley extract offers distinct flavor profiles and various health-related benefits pertaining to probiotics, plant-derived proteins and sports recovery. With a nod to the “good for you” ingredient trend, malted barley extract’s natural origins make it particularly “pantry-friendly.”
Another pantry-friendly product line, MPC’s OatRite™ extracts are made from minimally processed whole grain sprouted oats, producing a syrup with a mild sweetness and pleasant oat taste and aroma. Naturally high in protein, minerals, soluble fiber and antioxidants, the non-GMO extracts offer not only nutritive benefits but many functional assets including browning (maillard reaction), crystal control for frozen products, improved texture and extended shelf life. These characteristics make them ideally suited for cereal and granola, breakfast bars, pancakes, cookies and a wide variety of baked goods.
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