Ballantyne products start life in the greenest pastures…

As the imagery of the Front Cover reinforces, every Ballantyne cheese powder and speciality ingredient is crafted from prime Australian dairy produce. These quality ingredients are processed in state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities to precise formulations. Add Ballantyne’s reputation for customer service plus the capability to tailor-make products to customers’ needs and it is easy to see why so many top food manufacturers specify Ballantyne Food Ingredients.

As well as being sold in Australia, the Ballantyne food ingredient range is exported in increasing quantities to more than 70 countries throughout the world. These markets are developed via a network of agency support along with Ballantyne’s own presence at major events such as Food Ingredient China held Shanghai in March and Food Ingredients Asia, being held in Bangkok in September this year.

Products cover an enormous range of cheese powders, dairy preparations, cultured dairy powders and high fat powders. Within this range are many variations; in the case of cheese powders for example, the choice includes cheddars, gouda, parmesan, blue vein, feta, camembert, swiss and ricotta. In addition, there is cream cheese as well as yoghurt and sour cream powders.

Cheese pastes too!
Then there are Ballantyne’s cheese paste products. The success of the launch of Romano cheese paste has led to a new Cheddar variety, which is proving to be extremely popular. These two flavours will shortly be joined by a Blue Cheese paste.

In fact, Ballantyne’s GM of Food Ingredients, David Gill acknowledged that production capacity for cheese pastes had recently to be increased six-fold to meet customer demand.

Research program pays dividends
In 2006, Ballantyne was a recipient of the Federal Government’s Food Innovation Grant (FIG) scheme. David Gill has reported some encouraging feedback from customers on the research to date.

“The reaction to our cheese flavour enhanced developments has been incredibly positive. Customers are very enthusiastic about the results. So much so that the company plans to fully commercialise the work within the next few months,” he said.

Working to mitigate the effects of drought
We are all too aware of the impact of recent drought in Australia and New Zealand and the resultant increase in prices of dairy products. To try and minimise the effects on customers, Ballantyne has, over the past two years, been working to reformulate products and reduce the costs of ingredients. Using Ballantyne’s in-house technology and skills, the program has yielded encouraging results and is now an ongoing initiative.

Two popular applications using Ballantyne ingredients are shown below.

Financier Cup Cakes*

Ingredients

40 g Ballantyne Cheddar Cheese Powder T1 (Product Code 28024)
130 g Egg whites
75 g Castor sugar
50 g Almond meal
50 g Icing sugar
50 g flour
130 g Butter, melted

Preparation

1. Sift the cheese powder, icing sugar, almond meal and plain flour together
2. Heat the butter until slightly brown in colour
3. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add castor sugar whilst beating
4. Fold dry ingredients into beaten egg whites
5. Fold melted butter into mixture
6. Spoon or pipe mixture into patty cases
7. Bake for 12–15 minutes on 175oC (347oF).

Alfredo Pasta Sauce*

Ingredients

12.82 g Ballantyne’s Cheese Powder
8.98 g Uncoloured whey powder
5.13 g Wheat starch powder
2.57 g Skim milk powder
2.57 g Maltodextrin powder
2.05 g Salt
0.77 g Hydrolysed vegetable powder
0.10 g Food acid (lactic acid)
0.01 g Onion powder
60.0 g Cold full cream milk
260.0 g Hot water
20.0 g Butter
95.0 g Pasta (Durum wheat semolina).

Preparation

1. Combine all the dry ingredients and sieve
2. In a medium saucepan, bring the full cream milk, water and butter to the boil
3. Add the dry ingredient mix and pasta, and return to the boil. Simmer uncovered for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Sauce will thicken on standing.

* starting formulations only

Ballantyne
Tel: (03) 9690 1766
Email: sales@ballantyne.com.au
Web: www.ballantyne.com.au