Innovations in dairy processing across the Middle East are offering valuable lessons for South Africa, showing that practical upgrades can significantly reduce emissions, water use, and product loss without requiring major capital investment.
A new dairy processing impact assessment by Tetra Pak, a global food packaging and processing company, reveals that producers can cut emissions by up to 49% while also reducing water use and product losses simply by upgrading existing processing lines.
The study, which examined four major processing line types, chilled pasteurisation, chilled fermented, ambient UHT indirect, and ambient UHT direct, found that average reductions of 47% in greenhouse gas emissions, 45% in water use, and 57% in product losses are achievable.
These figures are conservative, as they exclude additional savings from reduced water consumption and product loss.
It is explained that the findings are particularly timely for South Africa’s dairy sector, which is grappling with rising input costs, an unreliable energy supply, water scarcity, and the ongoing threat of foot-and-mouth disease.
The company details that the study emphasises solutions that can be implemented on existing equipment, allowing producers to benefit from efficiency gains without a full capital overhaul.
Three categories of upgrades drive the results:
Electrically powered heat pumps replace or reduce fossil fuel-based boilers and chillers, cutting fuel consumption and heat-related emissions.
Integrated process efficiency solutions, including OneStep Technology for UHT milk and yoghurt, combine multiple production steps, reducing electricity and steam use.
Filtration and recovery solutions, including cleaning-in-place recovery systems and water filtering stations, cut product loss and water consumption across production lines.
South Africa’s abundant solar resources give one particular upgrade local relevance. Solar thermal collectors can generate industrial process heat, replacing fossil fuel-based heating.
“In a country with some of the world’s highest solar irradiation levels, where energy costs and supply reliability remain daily concerns, this is a practical option,” the study notes.
Roberto Franchitti, Executive Vice President, Processing Solutions and Equipment at Tetra Pak, said: “For many dairy producers, improving efficiency while managing costs is a daily challenge. Our study shows that practical improvements to existing lines can reduce energy, water, chemicals and product loss, helping customers strengthen performance and lower total cost of ownership without major disruption.”
Globally, rolling out these upgrades could deliver carbon savings of up to 12.7 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent per year, the equivalent of removing three million cars from the road. Water-saving solutions could reduce dairy production line water use by up to 455 million cubic metres annually worldwide.
The study also warns that most processing lines in operation today are older than the 2019 baseline used in the assessment, meaning actual savings could exceed headline numbers.
Maintaining efficiency gains requires consistent technical support, especially in South Africa, where processing equipment often operates under load-shedding conditions and technical capacity on the ground is sometimes stretched.
“An upgrade not properly maintained loses its gains,” the study cautions.
For producers investing in efficiency improvements, the quality of ongoing support is as critical as the upgrade itself.
Saturday Star