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KNOW-HOW
IN NORMANDY, AT THE ELLE & VIRE® DAIRY IN FRANCE, HIGH-QUALITY UHT CREAMS ARE MADE BY A TEAM SPECIFICALLY FOR PASTRY & COOKING CHEFS. AN EXPERTISE THAT GOES BACK OVER 50 YEARS.
hen you arrive at the front of the building, the first thing that strikes you is the scent in the air—a heady aroma that instantly reminds you of the welcoming smell of milk being heated in a saucepan. You slip on a gown, shoe covers and a cap. You open the door to the UHT lab. First, you hear the sounds: The quiet drone of the machines, the discreet hum of discussion between the employees. Then you see the lab. The huge vats that reach right up to the ceiling; the long metal pipes that snake along the walls. The constant buzz of people moving around, calmly and purposefully. The atmosphere here is peaceful and calm; everyone is perfectly in tune with their job—and not least Michel Baudry. This imposingly tall man in his white gown is the process manager of the UHT Cream Processing Facility. He is 56 years old, 32 years of which—over half his life—have been spent working at Elle & Vire®. You can see that he feels completely at home here in the heart of the Condé-sur-Vire Dairy. He has spent several decades working for a department whose history boasts numerous innovations, starting with the construction of a facility producing bottled sterilised milk at the time of the development of UHT, in 1972. The Dairy’s very first long-life products were produced here, as was UHT cream, back in 1975. Having grown in step with its innovations, this dairy department is currently staffed by 170 full-time employees. Cream doesn’t wait. Freshly delivered milk even less so.
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the cream’s taste and quality right up to the final stage in the process: packaging the UHT cream. Once packaged, the cream can be transported for several weeks, overland or by sea, to over 120 countries. This may seem simple, but extending the shelf life of a cream without the use of additives, and facilitating its preservation while ensuring it remains intact and natural, is a lengthy process that requires a high level of precision and professionalism: UHT technology or the art of exporting Normandy know-how and expertise worldwide... How long does the whole procedure take? "It takes less than 2 days from delivery of the milk to the dairy up to packaging of the cream!" states Michel Baudry. The result? An unadulterated product that leaves the dairy with its original taste intact. Taste... Taste, as always, is the key factor.
A SINGLE CREAM, A RANGE OF CREAMS,... TRADITIONAL MODERN, MODERN TRADITIONAL!
DAIRY EXPERTISE, A PRODUCTION PROCESS WITH MYRIAD SPECIAL FEATURES...
In terms of deliveries, the Condé-sur-Vire dairy plant is currently supplied by no less than 400 producers. The milk is collected every second day and delivered within a few hours. This short producer-to-plant time demonstrates the proximity between the Normandy farms and the dairy. After analysis, the milk is pasteurised to eliminate all the micro-organisms that are harmful for humans. This is the stage that produces one of the special features of Elle & Vire® UHT cream, as explained by Michel Baudry: “We treat the cream directly using a special process: the injection and immediate removal of steam. This evaporates any milk odours resulting from the cows’ diet and ensures the cream’s constant level of quality, whatever the time of year”. It also preserves the taste. The milk then goes through a skimmer, where the centrifugal force separates outs the cream: milk to one side, cream to the other. The cream is then stored in a sterile vat, another special feature of Elle & Vire® cream: “An 8h delay in sending the cream to be packaged generally means having to run a second sterilisation cycle. At Elle & Vire®, we prefer to store the cream in sterile vats in order to avoid this second cycle as it gives the cream a cooked or caramel-like flavour and a brownish tint that alters its components and, above all, its taste”. In this way, we preserve