The rapid rise in the popularity of Greek yogurt is apparent to anyone who has seen the yogurt aisle at the grocery store recently. Showing no signs of slowing down, the USDA recently awarded a contract to supply high-protein Greek-style yogurt in the National School Lunch Program. Whether it’s the perceived health benefits of this type of yogurt or the pleasing thick texture, people are choosing Greek yogurt over regular yogurt in droves.

Both regular and Greek yogurts are made the same way with milk and bacteria cultures. Where they differ is that Greek yogurt is then strained to remove the liquid whey from it. With that, it takes roughly four times the amount of milk to make an equivalent amount of Greek yogurt as for regular yogurt. This straining creates Greek yogurt’s thick texture that people prefer over regular yogurt. There is nearly twice the amount of protein in Greek yogurt as regular yogurt, so there is basically twice the amount of solids in it.

Rumor has it that cleaning tanks with Greek yogurt residue is cumbersome, to say the least. The head of Alfa Laval Tank Equipment, Bob Delaney, discovered this fact when he finished a container of Greek yogurt and left the dirty spoon out for his wife to clean. To make a long story short, she was less than thrilled with the cleaning process. However, this incident inspired Bob to challenge the North American Tank Competency Center, part of the Alfa Laval Group, to find the best way to clean a Greek yogurt tank in a typical manufacturing setting.

The team chose to compare a static spray ball, rotary sprayhead, and a rotary jethead to find out how well they clean Greek yogurt residue from a tank. All three devices are available in 3-A SSI-compliant versions. However, the three machines use differing technologies to clean tanks.

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