South Australia-based Beston Global Food’s lactoferrin factory in Jervois will begin using new equipment in a few weeks, lifting annual lactoferrin capacity from 3t to 25t. In the first stage of commissioning Beston produced lactoferrin with a purity of more than 95%, but with the new equipment the extraction process will be further refined, optimising lactoferrin yield. In the second stage, Beston will extract lactoferrin from skim milk, scrapping technology previously used which produced lactoferrin from whey derived from the company’s mozzarella cheese production.

Beston is hoping to add another 10m litres to its 146m litre milk pool next season, which will enable the company to produce about 20t of lactoferrin in 2021/22.