Working posture analysis of sweet whey powder handling at CV Cita Nasional warehouse using OVAKO Working Posture Analysis (OWAS)

In this 4.0 industrial era, some material handlings are still conducted manually by human. One example is in the warehouse area of CV Cita Nasional, a milk processing factory in Kopeng, Central Java. Workers are repetitively unloading a 25 kg sack of sweet whey powder from truck to warehouse area. Therefore, this study was carried out to investigate the musculoskeletal disorders risks on that workers manual handling activity. The OVAKO Working Posture Analysis System (OWAS) was chosen to be applied in the evaluation steps. For each activity in the unloading process, OWAS score category of 3 (improvements are necessary as soon as possible) were resulted on lifting, 2 (improvements are necessary in the long-term future) on carrying, and 3 on lowering the load. Consequently, a trolley was then designed to minimize the risks. The trolley was designed based on Indonesian anthropometry dimensions. Applying this proposed tool, lifting and lowering activities were then categorized in OWAS score of 2, whilst carrying was resulted in OWAS score of 1 (improvements are not necessary). This applied study was valuable in order to minimize the musculoskeletal disorders risks on such manual material handling activity, not only in the current workplace, but also in similar situation of industries.

Comparison of different methods for microencapsulation of probiotics

At the Department of Food Technology at Fulda University of Applied Sciences different methods for microencapsulation of Lactobacillus reuteri DSM 20016 were investigated. The aim of these studies was to develop a process to stabilize the probiotic bacteria for storage and to prevent them from the gastric conditions, to ensure that a satisfactory amount of the probiotics could reach their target location, the human intestine. Drying processes like spray drying and freeze drying were tested as well as fluidized bed granulation with optional Wurster coating using different auxiliary materials. As encapsulation material maltodextrine, sweet whey powder or gummi arabicum were used. The coating experiments were performed with an aqueous shellac solution. In the performed studies the fluidized bed bottom spray granulation with an additional Wurster coating turned out to be an encouraging procedure to keep the probiotics in a stable form resistant against gastric conditions. The survival rate in the simulated gastro-intestinal passage could be increased up to the sevenfold amount of the untreated bacteria.