Cooling equipment experts Starfrost partnered with Mackie’s of Scotland to install highly efficient freezing technology to improve and expand ice cream production at its real dairy farm in Aberdeenshire.

With an impressive and inspiring goal to become the most environmentally friendly company in the UK, Mackie’s of Scotland has invested £4.5 million in new technology and development of its dairy. The recent freezer replacement project from Starfrost forms part of the large scale green initiative implemented by Mackie’s of Scotland.

The Helix spiral freezer is a low carbon design that uses eco-friendly C02 as a refrigerant, which has no impact on global warming or ozone depletion in comparison to HCHC’s, and provides a reliable and future-proof solution for the dairy as CO2 is unaffected by HFC restrictions.

In addition to the energy efficiency benefits, the spiral freezer installed at Mackie’s has enhanced the quality of the ice cream produced at the dairy. Blind taste trials were conducted by Mackie’s own board of research developers, the team compared ice cream frozen by both the Starfrost Helix spiral freezer and the previously used freezing system. The Starfrost freezing system scooped up success in the trials with a unanimous vote based upon taste and texture of the ice cream.

Yzanne, Project Manager of Mackies of Scotland, talks about the freezer project and the benefits the Helix spiral freezer has made to production:

“We have been excited about implementing this innovative technology, we had a much needed requirement to increase freezing capacity of our ice cream to meet increasing demand and took the opportunity to explore equipment that would further improve processes within the dairy. The importance of consistent, rapid freezing is fundamental to the quality of frozen products, therefore the freezing system and the technology we selected was vital.”

“The new Starfrost system means that we now have the most efficient spiral freezer design combined with high performance freezing. The results are improved texture and consistency of Mackie’s of Scotland ice cream, as proven in our taste trial results.”

The Starfrost Helix spiral freezer has provided the dairy with energy efficient freezing technology that meets the ice cream producers long term plan while delivering product quality results. The energy saving design of spiral freezer allows Mackie’s production team to freeze at precisely correct temperatures and control the airflow of the system, using only required refrigeration and power.

The spiral freezer features a dual drum for maximum processing capacities and is designed to freeze over 40 2 litre tubs of ice cream per minute, with an ability to process varying sizes of product which provides Mackie’s with opportunities to develop and diversify production in the future.