About Land O’Lakes:
Land O’Lakes, Inc., one of America’s premier agribusiness and food companies, is a member-owned cooperative with industry-leading operations that span the spectrum from agricultural production to consumer foods. With 2018 annual sales of $15 billion, Land O’Lakes is one of the nation’s largest cooperatives, ranking 216 on the Fortune 500. Building on a legacy of more than 97 years of operation, Land O’Lakes today operates some of the most respected brands in agribusiness and food production including LAND O LAKES® Dairy Foods, Purina Animal Nutrition, WinField United and Land O’Lakes SUSTAIN.
Open Innovation Challenge:
Reduced conversion cost of liquid milk to dried milk powder
Reason for Seeking External Partnership:
Current spray drying methods are capital intense and require high energy usage/operating costs. Milk is comprised of 87+% moisture, which typically requires large separation, evaporation, drying steps to reduce moisture to 3.5% in the milk powder.
Scope of Solution Space:
- What is ‘in’: Different processing technologies to convert liquid milk to powder, final milk powders (skim, buttermilk, whole) should match current compositions and properties; alternate uses for the separated and/or evaporated moisture; evaluation of high concentration methods / processes
- Must-haves: total cost of ownership not to exceed a conventional liquid-to-dry powder system for equivalent scale or throughput
- Nice-to-haves: more environmentally-friendly, sustainable solution in conversion and/or in the usage of the liquid stream(s).
Innovation Solutions Not of Interest:
Must not produce powder that has measurably different functional characteristics (solubility, wettability, dispersibility, flowability, bulk density, etc.)
Proposal Response Date Deadline:
April 30, 2019
Contact:
To submit your proposal online, click the link below:
Open Innovation Submission Form
To submit your proposal in a PDF document, click here.