Several French companies are poised to enter the U.S. market with processing, packaging and quality control equipment. Some state-of-the-art processing technologies are listed below.

• Goavec Engineering (AleHon, France [goavec@unimedia.fr]) offers custom-designed vessels ranging from 26 to 66,000 gallons which are available in atmospheric and aseptic designs for ultra-clean processes. Goavec's Robostar cookers range from 60 liters (16 gal.) to 1,000 liters (260 gal.) and use Wonderware (Irvine, CA) In-Touch visualization software. Goavec Bactosas systems incorporate a "white room" attached to the top of the tank allowing for a sterile environment within a regular processing room.
• Arcil (Chatou, France [Fax: 33 01 30 71 30 40]) is a subsidiary of Danone and a leader of form/fill/ seal systems. With a range of cup sizes from 25 gm to one kilogram, its ultra-clean equipment design includes no drive systems below the plastic web and fillers located outside the machine. This allows laminar airflow in the filling area, easy access to components and hygienic operation.
• Biocom (Les Ulis, France [exec@biocom.fr]) offers rapid, automated analysis of biological samples to detect and quantify cell and bacterial content in milk and food samples. The company has several products including the Asterias System used in Europe for milk payment, based on quality parameters including fat, protein and microbial counts. Using DEFT (Direct Epifluorescence Technique) the system processes up to 240 samples per hour (24 samples per membrane). It aids in HACCP plans by reliably detecting and quantifying total flora in real time. The Galactis system analyzes the composition of milk and milk byproducts to measure fat, protein, lactose, total sugars, total solids, organic acids as well as somatic cells for raw milk inspection using infra-red (IR) technology.