School of Animal and Range Science has five year project called Haramaya Camel Dairy Project in collaboration with the Danish institutions (i.e. Copenhagen University, Denmark Technical University and Christen Hansen Company in Denmark). The project is funded by Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA).  The School has recently obtained donation of latest Dairy technology equipment through this project that are time saving, high precision and environmental friendly. The donation obtained worth 4.8 million Birr.  The major equipments received include MilkoScan™ FT1, ICINAC, ReoRox G2, Micro stable Texture Analyzer, Ultra-High speed centrifuge, spectrophotometer, Kjeldhal Digester and distiller.

These equipments are used to undertake extensive research on camel milk by our MSc and PhD students in Dairy Technology.

I, MilkoScan™ FT1 – Milk analyzer using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR)

MilkoScan™ FT1 is a dedicated liquid milk analyzing device that allows to have full proximate composition of milk as well as to evaluate milk abnormalities with less than 5 minutes in automatic duplicate sampling all at once. This instrument works with the IR technology which minimizes the use of dangerous chemicals to generate the proximate composition of the milk sample. It can also be used for other liquid or semi-solid viscous products in percussion conditions.

II, ReoRox G2 

ReoRox G2 is patented and devoted technology for measuring the visco-elastic properties of samples from free oscillating Bobcups. It is newly developed machine that can analyze the visco- elasticity property of the food at a different temperature range. The thermal detector equipped machine can detect the environmental temperature as well as can adjust the temperature of analysis to the desired point. The method is extremely precise while being more gentle to the sample, making the technology suitable also for weak clots. ReoRox G2 additionally reports both viscosity and elasticity in true SI units (mPa.s and Pa) making comparisons of results more reliable.

III, iCinac ™  Fermentation Control System

ICinac is the 4th generation instruments developed in French. It is the only system dedicated to continuously monitoring the acidification activity of lactic fermentation and which simultaneously observes the change in pH, temperature and redox potential of one or several samples. ICinac has no real equivalent on the market, is very useful in research & Development, to test, control and validate starter cultures during the development of numerous, increasingly sophisticated products, as well as in process control and quality control. It is intended for the dairy industries (yoghurt, cheese, specialties, etc.) as well as any industry requiring continuous and multi-channel monitoring of pH: chemistry, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, agri-food (beer, spirits, meat, etc.).

IV, Micro stable  TA-XT Plus Texture Analyzer

The TA.XT plus Texture Analyzer is Stable Micro Systems’ flagship texture analyzing instrument designed to measure food structure in food engineering process. TA-XT Texture Analyzer is commonly engaged to measure and quantify fundamental, empirical and imitative tests in both compression and tension, covering those relating to texture analysis, materials properties as well as effects of rheology of solid, semi-solid, viscous liquid, powder and granulate materials. It is machine is dedicated to analyze any physical product characteristic such as hardness, fracturability, adhesiveness, gel strength, extensibility of foods, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, gels, adhesives and other consumer products.

V, Gel Doc™ EZ System

This gel image acquisition latest and compact system is designed to yield publication-quality images and analyzed results with just the push of a button.  It is flexible to the uses as a result of its four different type of specific gel tray which any interested can use those specific trays to acquire image of different samples. Provides analyzed results including relative molecular weights, bands quantitation, excel reports, PDFs, and more in a matter of minutes. With this system one can obtain results faster without spending time on various steps in image acquisition and save valuable bench space using this compact system. It condenses 2 hr Coomassie protocol into a 5 min stain-and-image step with this stain-free gel imaging system.

VI, FT20 CHEESE VAT

A 10 liter capacity stainless steel jacketed cheese vat. It is equipped with thermometer and pH registering device (requires PC). Those facilities on the FT 20 cheese Vat make it idea and suitable for cheese making for investigation (research) purpose at small scale level. It can be used to make all the known type of cheese. FT 20 stainless steel cheese vat is economical with raw materials and provides 1kg batch of any type of cheese which is sufficient for sampling.