The factory receives whey from the adjacent Royal A-ware cheese factory and processes it over various filtration plants. In short, it is split here into a protein and lactose stream. Due to the different steps in the filtration process, a range of protein products can be made, such as WPC, WPI, fWPC, and Lipid70. After filtration, the protein stream is dried and packaged. The lactose stream is evaporated, crystallized, and dried. The product can then be taken over to the mill to pack it or pack it as unmilled. 

 All the products made at Heerenveen meet our high-quality standards. The factory attaches great importance to continuous improvement to get the best out of the factory every day.  

We are really proud that we can produce our high-quality products in an efficient and sustainable way. 

The factory in Heerenveen was built in 2014 and is still relatively new, but this does not mean there aren’t plenty of opportunities to continue to improve on sustainability. There have been 750 solar panels added to the roof of the warehouse and in the next 2 years there will be another 3400 panels on site.

The site is also working on improving current installations, one of them being the recovery of more heat of the dryers, this will make sure the factory needs less gas and will emit less CO2. There is also a lot of water coming in with the whey, this is then removed from the stream on the filtration. Part of this water is being reused, so they need less water. 

Learn more about our sustainability approach here.

We have 75 dedicated people working at the factory 24/7, 365 days a year. 

Interested in working at Fonterra? Why not come and join our team; you, me, us together. Tātou, Tātou