What's there at Yakult's factory? | Free Yakult drink?

'YAKULT' TOUR FOR FOOD SAFETY AND HYGIENE 

 Yakult plastic bottle on table : Photo by Gabriel Yuji on Unsplash

Assalamualaikum and hai to all... Yet another notes on yakult process when i go to the factory... just random things i post out... well enjoy i guess...

OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY TOUR PROGRAM

v: List the activities that you have done during the tour

Firstly, we arrived at the Yakult factory around 9.30 am. After entering the front door of the factory, we were met with our tour guide, who called herself as ‘kakak yakult’. At the lounging area in the first floor, we were briefed for about 5 minutes on what we will be doing for the day. After that, we start on to the second floor to see the process of making Yakult. The steps are as below:

1. Mixing of Raw Ingredients

Skim milk powder and sugar are dissolved in water to make sweet milky solution

2. Sterilisation

The milk solution is sterilized by ultra-heat treatment, destroying any bacteria present, then transferred to 6,500-litre culture tank via a closed system of pipes and valves

3. Culture tank

Temperature is reduced and adjusted to body temperature for the bacteria to grow. Live Shirota strain (which has been cultured in a ‘seed tank’) is added. The solution is allowed to ferment for few days until the number of Shirota strain reaches required levels.

4. Mixing and Storage Tank

The concentrate is transferred to a 12,000-litre mixing and storage tank, chilled to 2 degree Celsius. Sterilised flavour, vitamins, calcium and syrup are added. Prior to bottling, the concentrate is diluted with filtered, sterile water.

5. Injection Blow Moulding Machine

The plastic bottles are produced on site using polystyrene

6. Bottling and Packaging

The bottles are wrapped with individual labels, filled with Yakult, capped with a foil lid, sealed and transferred along a conveyor belt to the packaging facility. Single bottles are sorted into groups of five or ten ans shrink-wrapped in polypropylene film. It is then grouped together and wrapped again in polyethylene film, forming a ‘carton’ of 50 bottles.

7. Refrigeration Room

Finished products are kept refrigerated before delivery to stores.

8. Quality Assurance

Samples are collected for lab analysis throughout the production process. More than 200 tests are conducted for each batch of Yakult produced including tests to determine the number of live Shirota strain, check for potential contaminants, microbiological quality, tastes, tests on raw materials and environmental tests.

After the tour on the second floor was done, we were gathered in a lecture room for a bit of session with the ‘kakak Yakult’, where we were given a free bottle of Yakult to try. The session involved a bit of talk, questions and answers regarding the Yakult company.

The questions included ‘how long it can be keep outside’. The answers to that was, it is not a problem to keep Yakult outside of the fridge for a while, even up to 4-8 hours. The Yakult bacteria will start to become active at temperature between 15°C to 40°C and will slowly begin to die after that as they run out of nutrients to stay alive.

v  Explain the output that you have learnt. 

Yakult is a high quality probiotics in the form of a cultured milk drink. Yakult contains the probiotics bacteria “Lactobacillus casei Shirota strain” (popularly known as the “Shirota strain”). With over 30 billion live Shirota strain in each bottle, Yakult has among the highest concentration of probiotics compared to other probiotic products on the market.

The Shirota strain is scientifically proven to be among the “strongest” strains of beneficial bacteria, and has been shown to benefit human health.

When asked about the HACCP in their production, there were some points that were taken

1) Mixing of raw ingredients. -at this point, there were concerns of accidental mix of unwanted components (I.e hair)

2) Bottling and packaging. -at this point, it was the same as in mixing of raw ingredients.

Shirota-ism—The root of the business At Yakult, these ideas of Dr. Shirota are referred to as Shirota-ism and serve as the root of all of our business activities. Yakult’s Roots: Shirota-ism Yakult’s founder, Minoru Shirota, M.D. (1899-1982) Preventive medicine Emphasis should be placed on preventing illness, rather than on treating illness once it develops. A price anyone can afford The goal of providing as many people as possible with easy access to Lactobacillus casei strain Shirota, which protects the intestines A healthy intestinal tract leads to a long life Human beings take in nutrition through their intestines. Making the intestines strong leads to healthy and long lives

ENSURING THE SAFETY OF PRODUCTS

Yakult establishes internal product quality standards that are much more rigorous than standards set by relevant laws and regulations and employs HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) systems, ISO9001-certified quality management systems, and other quality management systems in connection with its efforts to provide products that are safe and of dependably high quality. These systems are not limited to spot checks and other kinds of inspections to confirm product quality.They have developed and installed diverse kinds of inspection equipment that enable them to undertake continuous quality monitoring processes and inspect entire production batches. Their highly sophisticated quality management systems are ensuring the safety of all their products. To verify that their plant employee technical education programs, facility management systems, food hygiene management systems, and other systems are functioning effectively, they autonomously implement audits on inter-unit, inter-plant, intra-company, and other bases as part of their efforts to discover and respond to problems as quickly as possible. Yakult Honsha operates one of Japan’s most-rigorous product safety systems focused on the detection of radioactive substances, which it uses to assess each blending tank or each production lot for each type of product during each day of production operations.

On their own initiatives, numerous Group marketing companies not included within the scope of the Yakult Marketing Group have been working to obtain ISO9001, ISO22000 (for food safety management systems), and ISO14001 certifications.

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