Founded in 1982, Bentley Instruments is one of the world’s leading developers, manufacturers and international distributors of instruments for the analysis of milk and dairy products. The company continues to innovate in order to meet new demands for quality, health, and nutritional requirements. Interview with Pierre Broutin, General Manager/Western Europe.

What impact do new consumer demands have on the dairy industry?

Faced with new consumer demands concerning health, nutritional requirements, and the need to meet the criteria of sustainable development and animal welfare, the market is actually obliged to evolve. This is what is happening at present with an increasing segmentation of the market in order to optimize the value of the raw material and its by-products according to their composition, and to optimize the management of the farms.

What does this mean for Bentley Instruments?

We have anticipated this movement. Our market is evolving according to the needs of the dairy industry, in particular with regard to the valuation of the chemical composition of milk and dairy products and the control of their hygienic/sanitary quality. In this context, we continue to develop new applications to allow a very fine analysis of the samples of milk and dairy products that we analyze and an optimal valorization. Traditionally, it was customary to analyze the six main parameters of milk (MG, MP, Lactose, Urea, FPD, Somatic Cells). Now, we can analyze up to 64 parameters simultaneously in less than a minute, at a maximum analytical rate of 600 samples/hour and at a very competitive cost compared to traditional methods. This allows us to better respond to the new challenges we have just mentioned for the optimal management of farms and the quality control of milk before unloading in factories up to finished products. It also makes it possible to better orient the genetics of the farms in order to produce milk that corresponds to the current expectations of consumers and the industry.

This requires a strong R&D policy…

This is essential and is in the DNA of Bentley Instruments. For example, we have developed several innovative methods for the determination of bacteria and somatic cell content in raw milk. The BactoCount IBCM 3.0, which has just been certified by MicroVal to ISO 16140, allows the hygienic quality of raw milk (total flora and/or somatic cells) to be determined in two minutes before unloading and processing in plants. It is now the fastest method on the market (the reference method takes 72 hours) to detect potential contamination before unloading and to optimize the milk according to its quality. It also provides a quick return on investment by reducing operational costs and truck downtime. We have also developed the BactoCount IBC 3.0 for inter-professional milk payment laboratories, a fully automated version that can analyze up to 200 samples/hour and is also ISO 16140 certified.

What are your ambitions for the coming years?

Our activity is entirely focused on the dairy industry and we are the only ones in this case. From our branch office in France, we now cover 20 countries including all of Western Europe, Northern Europe, North Africa, Israel and export to over 35 countries. Our ambition is to make Bentley Instruments the number one player in the dairy industry. We are currently the second largest supplier of combination systems and bacteria counters to central milk testing laboratories and the third largest to the industrial sector. We are constantly gaining market share and this goal should become a reality within 5 to 10 years. We have the resources and the teams to achieve this in terms of analytical solutions and automation, but also thanks to our service teams, which allow us to quickly assist our customers and partners in case of malfunction.