Innovation in Ice Cream – Incom Leone and CO2

Incom LEONE is one of the biggest ice cream and chocolate producers.

Born in Slovenia 30 years ago from the dream of an enlightened entrepreneur and grown exponentially, today the company is present in more than 35 markets worldwide. Every day Incom Leone produces and ships more than 2,5 million pieces of ice cream with a portfolio of over 1000 different products.

Its vision is to be recognized globally as one of the most innovative ice cream producers and trusted partners.  Its core competency is ice cream development, ranging from technical solutions to ice cream flavor, color, and texture innovation.

Having implemented its strategic transition to CO2 as main refrigerant, INCOM Leone can produce today innovative ice cream products in a more efficient way and with better quality. The advantage is an eco-friendly production which involves essentially zero emissions, energy saving, high productivity and the highest product quality.

Nowadays, ice cream producers commonly use HCFC (Freon) and Ammonia (NH3) as refrigerants. However, rising environmental sensitivity and respect for the planet pose this as a problem to the industry: the production and sale of HCFC (Freon) in Europe has been banned, with the objective to reduce within 2030 the amount of these gases in the atmosphere by 79% (with respect to the average 2009-2012). Ammonia presents no environmental problems but is highly inflammable and toxic; this implies extra expenditure for security and prevention.

Carbon dioxide (CO2), on the other hand, is safe (neither toxic, nor explosive, nor corrosive), is eco-friendly and highly efficient. Ice cream out of a CO2 freezer is drier than with other refrigerants, which translates into more flexibility for creating different shapes and new mixes – such as high protein and vegan ice cream. Due to its physical properties, it is at the same time more efficient as a refrigerant, and it reduces energy costs up to 35%.

Incom Leone has been one among the first of Teknoice’s customers to count on CO2 for its future. Starting with one line, and now implementing it in all its lines in the factory, today thanks to Teknoice’s CO2-based lines Incom Leone achieved the flexibility, fast response to the market and the efficiency to become one of the most innovative ice cream producers in the world.

For several years Teknoice has been working on CO2-based ice cream production lines. These solutions have been gradually refined and are now available as a complete range of continuous freezers, extrusion, and hardening lines. All of them running on CO2.