Got milk? We do! Today, we had the awesome opportunity to visit La Serenisima a manufacturing plant which produces all different dairy products. This plant is located in a region called General Rodriguez which is located outside the city of Buenos Aires. Our group had the pleasure of working with Matias, our bilingual tour guide for the site visit. His great enthusiasm and passion for his job (he literally told us he loved his job) brought incredible energy to the presentation as well as the tour of the factory!
The first part of our visit was a 15 minute film that provided great insight into the history as well as the current conditions of La Serenisima. The company was formed in 1929 by two Italians, Antonio Mastellone and Teresa Aiello. In 1960, La Serenisima started producing pasteurized milk. The year of 2009, La Serenisima celebrated 80 years of production. These are just a few key facts of La Serenisima's spectacular history. In addition to exploring the history, the film also discussed the cycle of business. First off, the milk starts off at dairy farms with cows. Then, the milk is transported to classifying plants. After that, the milk is brought to product plants where bacterial counts take place. La Serenisima strives for the best milk and that is why their milk has less than 50,000 bacteria per mL before pasteurization. After that, the milk is then moved to the stores. In addition to milk, La Serenisima produces all sorts of products such as ricotta, dulce de leche, apple juice, butter, yogurt, as well as soft, semi-hard and hard cheeses. Today, the company is owned 33% by the stock and the rest by family members. The film was a great way to introduce us to the company.
Once the film concluded, Matias took us on a tour of the factory. Outside on the plant ground, Matias showed us tanks where the milk is stored. In order to keep the milk cold, one inner tank holds the milk and then a second outer tank holds ice water. The first building we visited was where powdered milk is produced. Matias showed us a funnel like machine that created the powdered milk. Because milk is 87% water, the funnel machine is able to use heat (90 degrees Celsius) to create steam from the water and thus the remainder forms the powdered milk. La Serenisima recycles 30% of its water and part of that includes converting the steam back into water to clean the factory. La Serenisima has one of the five biggest powdered milk producing plants in the world is this can be partly due to the fact of their realization of the simple process of producing this type of milk. Another part of the factory we visited was the lab. This is by far the most significant part of the plant. The lab controls the products such as the color, substance, nutrients, etc. Additionally, the lab does checks on the products. Matias also informed us that Argentina is lacking in milk. The country of Uruguay is about 4 million people which is smaller than the city of Buenos Aires but they sell more milk! How crazy is that? This is due to the many problems in the supermarkets today in Argentina.
Our last part of the tour included getting samples of La Serenisima's products. We were able to try chocolate milk, banana vanilla milk, and yogurt. They were very delicious! We also received a goodie bag full of treats from the company including cream, apple juice, cappuccino, chocolate milk, and dulce de leche. It was a very cool experience to see how a company like La Serenisima works. Gracias Matias!
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