Leprino Foods - Lemoore, CA - Dairy Creameries on Waymarking.com

This creamery, like many others, fell victim to the overzealous leveraging of the Winn Brothers when they purchased Knudsen Dairy Products and Foremost Creamery production facilities back in the 80's. Previously Foremost Dairy (and way back in 'the day' known as Golden Valley Creamery), this creamery was purchased by Leprino Foods (privately owned by the Leprino family) that fateful day in 1986, just one day after the failed Knudsen Corporation proclaimed bankruptcy and dissolved their short-lived empire.

In '86 there were about 50 employees at this plant. Today over 250 people work 7-24 to produce diced, frozen mozzarella cheese from 3 million pounds of milk a day. The cheese is shipped by rail and truck throughout the country to be used by all major pizza companies, as well as many other prepared foods manufacturers.

While the curds are used to make the cheese, the whey (of 'curds and whey') is sent to a separate part of the plant where it is evaporated and dried into powder. This by-product of cheesemaking - Lactose and Protein powders - has become a huge industry in itself. Whey protein is used in everything from yogurt to those expensive body building supplements. Lactose, while less desirable, is also used by many prepared food manufacturers. At the back loading area, you will often see containers being loaded with powder products that are transported to the docks in Oakland, CA to be shipped to many places around the world via huge cargo vessels.

Tours are not allowed here due to the secretive nature of their production techniques, so I'll quickly take you virtually through the process.

Milk is transported from the local dairies (some which now house over 20,000 cows - mainly holstein) in food grade tankers that carry approximately 50,000 pounds of milk. The tanker is weighed as it arrives at the plant (this is part of determining how much to pay the dairyman) and tested for temperature, antibiotics and aflatoxins. (Rarely, but milk can be degraded if there is indication on the dairy's or tanker's temperature chart that the temperature has exceeded the acceptable degrees, or definitely if there is any trace of antibiotics in the milk).

The milk is stored in those huge silos that you see towering over most every creamery. There the milk is constantly agitated and temperature controlled while it is stored there for no more than 72 hours before being pumped to and through a filtering and then pasteurization process and into 'production'.

A highly computerized closed vat system receives the pasteurized milk and over a period of approximately four hours turns the raw milk into -- what else -- curds and whey! (this process includes stirring, addition of rennet (to thicken), cutting (into curds), heating, and more stirring and heating. Curds are sent through a chilling tank and then a heating tank, being agitated the entire time, while the whey is separated off and as it exits the vats is sent to the powder department for that part of the process.

Cheese, at this point, is pumped through mixers which may add flavors and ingredients to extend the production volume, and where at a high temperature it is 'blended' until it can be extruded (looks like toothpaste at this point) into the brine tank. Much like a 'ribbon' of cheese, here it 'floats' down a long enclosed tank filled with very cold briny water that chills/hardens the cheese so it can be cut and diced at the other end.

Once it leaves the production area (after travelling through the brine tank) it enters the 'processing' department where it is cut into large chunks, and then into very small 'diced' pieces and conveyed up the belts into a large flash freezer where it is instantly frozen as it falls and is captured on conveyor belts below. These conveyors carry the cheese out of the freezer where it can be spray-treated (for preservation or enhancement purposes) before it spills over into the hoppers and down to fill the endless supply of plastic lined boxes that pass beneath. Visual inspection occurs at every stage of production, but the final visual inspection of the cheese happens here, as workers fold the plastic in the box, readying it for taping and palletizing.

The warehouse receives the sealed boxes of cheese where they are mechanically stacked on pallets, identified with tags and carried off on forklifts into the volumnous freezers that will hold the cheese prior to shipment. Four truck bays and two railcar loading platforms are constantly in use carrying frozen cheese between the warehouse and trucks and rails that will transport it to the customer or other storage facilities.

Are tours available?: no Does the Dairy Creamery have a website?: [Web Link] Type: Still Operating

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