Lactoferrin protein the big pink hope for South Australia's Beston Global Food; switching to value-added dairy
The pink extract from milk delivered to Beston Global Food Company's Jervois plant near the River Murray in South Australia was used to produce lactoferrin portein in power form. At right: Some of the cheeses produced by the company under the Edwards Crossing brand from its plants at Murray Bridge and Jervois.
Images courtesy Beston Global Food Company
Lactoferrin became the great pink hope for South Australia’s Beston Global Food Company, with its plant at Jervois near the River Murray getting the technology in 2021 to produce the dairy protein in power form.
The South Australian government invested $2 million in the $9.5 million project to produce lactoferrin, used in baby formula and other products, reaching values around $1,000 a kilogram. In 2022, Beston Global Food was extracting 50 kilogram of lactoferrin power from the 400,000 litres of milk delivery daily to the Jervois dairy factory originally started by the Cheso family and other Jervois Coop members in 1939.
Beston Global Food's lactoferrin project was part of shifting its focus towards becoming “Australia’s leading sustainable and value-added dairy company”. Amid significant cost pressures, Beston Global Food sold off its Provincial Food Group (PFG) meat and plant-based business in Shepparton, Victoria, in 2023 along with its water bottling production assets, land and water licences in Mount Gambier and its food-safety service Beston Technology. In 2020, it sold in dairy farms in Mount Gambier to Aurora Dairies.
Beston Global Food Company in 2015 started what became on Australia’s eighth biggest dairy companies with no milk (other than at its own farms), no operating factories, no brands, no market presence and no export licences. It bought rundown dairy production assets on the River Murray at Murray Bridge and Jervois that were in receivership and a group of dairy farms in South Australia’s southeast at Mount Gambier that had been taken repossessed by bankers.
Beston Global Food Company invested $26.5 million to fit out the derelict Jervois factory out with state-of-the-art technology sourced mostly from Italy to produce Beston’s Edwards Crossing premium quality mozzarella cheese, as well as byproducts including whey powder, cream and butter. Beston Global Food Company’s Murray Bridge factory produced a variety of products including Beston’s branded award-winning Edwards Crossing Cheese and Mable’s Cream Cheese product ranges, as well as hard cheeses such as gruyere and parmesan. It also produced dairy desserts from rice pudding to custard.
Led by master cheesemaker Paul Connolly, its dairy team won a swag of champion, gold, silver, bronze and other national dairy awards. The company supplied mozzarella cheese to food manufacturers such as McCains, and supermarket chains including Woolworths. Listed on the Australian stock exchange in 2015, Beston Food Global grew to claim it was the largest dairy processor in South Australia, producing more than 30% of the state’s milk production and making annual milk payments beyond $100 million to dairy farmers. Beston built up an export business and sold its products into countries including Thailand, South Korea, Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam but made a big switch away from relying on the China market.
In a strong move into the dairy protein market, including the valuable lactoferrin, Beston Global Food Company in 2019 installed and commissioned freeze drying and milling machinery at its dairy protein fractionation plant in Jervois. The plant could then produce lactoferrin at Jervois in powder form, rather than liquid, to be shipped interstate to third party contractors for more processing.
Lactoferrin dairy protein was used in infant formula to provide the bioactive properties imitating breast milk. It was also used in other dairy foods, medicines, cosmetics and oral hygiene products. It improved iron absorption and has antimicrobial and antibacterial activity.