RANDBURG, SOUTH AFRICA — MC Mühlenchemie is opening its third location in Africa with labs and a technology center, providing the capacity to develop and produce individual system solutions for improving, standardizing and fortifying flours and baked foods.

The new Stern Ingredients South Africa in Randburg near Johannesburg has 400 square meters of space plus the equipment for flour and grain analysis. In the trial bakery, processes can be simulated, and the effects of enzymes and other ingredients tested. 

Equipment includes a spiral kneader, sheeters, deck ovens and convection ovens. The custom solutions developed here are produced in an attached plant, so customers can take delivery and put products to use quickly. To improve collaboration with mills and bakeries, and to facilitate technology transfer, Stern Ingredients South Africa has set up a training and education center at the location.

With this new location plus the existing ones in Lagos, Nigeria, and Nairobi, Kenya, MC can perform the entire value addition chain in flour improvement and fortification on site, from sourcing, rheology and analytics to application development and production for African mills and bakers.

The subsidiary is led by Jannes Peemoeller, MC’s area sales manager for the South African market, who will build a team of experts in technology, consulting and production in Johannesburg. They will be in close contact with the MC location in Nigeria, with its baking technology facility, and the one in Kenya, which also has a rheology and analysis laboratory. 

For sharing knowledge, communication with the central “Futuremakers” Stern-Technology Center in Ahrensburg near Hamburg, Germany, remains of key importance. Here, more than 100 scientists and applications technologists work on tailormade solutions to the needs of the worldwide milling industry. Stern Ingredients South Africa will start with applications for flour, baked foods and vitamin enrichment. Use of its facilities by other units of the company group is planned for the future.

Peter Steiner, global head of Business Unit MC Mühlenchemie, said, “the growing population and rising prosperity in Africa place high demands on food production. The dynamism and diversity of the continent, and the volatility of global raw materials markets, call for individual and flexible solutions for the production of flour, the staple food.