Yogurt Cup Packaging: How the SDH-R Fills Greek, Skyr & Fruit Layers
From thick Greek yogurt to smooth fruit-flavoured varieties — the SDH-R fills, seals, and caps dairy cups at 30 per minute with dairy-grade hygiene.
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This page explains how the SDH-R handles the product on the line. For configurations, pricing and a quote, see our yogurt filling machine page.
The yogurt segment demands exceptional hygiene, precise fill weights for retail compliance, and the ability to handle viscosities ranging from pourable liquid yogurt to ultra-thick Greek strained yogurt. The SDH-R's servo-driven piston filler adapts stroke length and speed per product, while the 304 stainless steel construction and integrated CIP system meet the sanitation requirements of HACCP-certified dairy facilities.
Why Dairy Producers Choose the SDH-R
Dairy-Grade Hygiene
Full 304 stainless steel construction with integrated CIP (Clean-in-Place) system. Tool-free disassembly for daily sanitation. HACCP and BRCGS audit-ready.
Variable Viscosity Handling
The servo piston adapts to thin drinkable yogurts, standard set yogurts, thick Greek strained yogurt, and ultra-thick skyr — all on the same machine.
Fruit & Topping Layer
Multi-station filling enables yogurt base + fruit compote + granola topping in a single pass. Create premium layered products without manual labour.
Temperature-Controlled Filling
Jacketed hopper options maintain product temperature during filling — critical for live-culture yogurts that must stay below 4°C throughout packaging.
SDH-R Configuration for Yogurt
Products We Fill
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How the SDH-R Fills Yogurt
Fully automatic process from empty cup to sealed product — no manual labour required
Cup Denesting
Empty cups are automatically separated from a nested stack and placed into the rotary table carriers. The pneumatic denester handles round, square, and rectangular cups from 2oz to 32oz — ideal for the standard yogurt cup formats your customers expect.
Servo-Driven Filling
The volumetric piston filler draws a precise dose of yogurt and dispenses it into the cup. Servo control adjusts stroke length and speed per recipe, maintaining ±0.5% fill-weight accuracy across production runs. The PLC stores recipes for quick changeovers between product variants.
Membrane Heat Sealing
Roll-stock film is drawn across the filled cup and heat-sealed to create a tamper-evident, airtight membrane. Sealing temperature, pressure, and dwell time are individually controlled to match your specific film and cup material combination.
Snap-On Lid (Optional)
A pick-and-place mechanism applies a consumer-friendly snap-on plastic lid over the membrane seal. This two-barrier system provides both tamper evidence and reclosability — the standard expected by grocery retailers and foodservice distributors.
MAP Nitrogen Flush (Optional)
Modified Atmosphere Packaging replaces oxygen in the headspace with food-grade nitrogen immediately before sealing. For yogurt, this typically extends refrigerated shelf life from 7–10 days to 30–45+ days — a requirement for most retail distribution channels.
Yogurt Cup Filling Machine Setup: Texture, Fruit Layers and Seal Integrity
A yogurt cup filling machine has a job that is harder than it looks: deposit a cultured, shear-sensitive gel into a pre-formed cup without breaking its body, then seal the cup before whey, fruit syrup or splash reaches the flange. On the SDH-R that comes down to three decisions matched to your product: how the piston feeds and doses, how many fillers sit on the turret, and how the cup is closed.
Protecting body in stirred, Greek and skyr yogurt
Stirred, Greek and skyr-style yogurts are thixotropic. Shear thins them, and they rebuild body only slowly once they are in the cup. Every pump transfer, long hose run and recirculation loop costs viscosity you will not fully recover, and over-sheared yogurt is more prone to syneresis, the pool of whey that appears on the surface after a few days in the cold chain. We recommend a short feed to the hopper, keeping product cold from the separator or cooling step to the cup, and letting the servo-driven piston filling machine station run a slower discharge profile for thick strained yogurt so the deposit lays down instead of splashing.
Choosing a filler layout
Typical SDH-R filler layouts for yogurt cups
| Yogurt format | Filler layout | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Plain Greek or skyr tub | Single volumetric piston filler | Discharge speed on thick product; clean flange |
| Fruit-on-the-bottom cup | Fruit preparation first, white mass second | Large-bore valving for fruit pieces; a clean layer line |
| Yogurt with honey or sauce swirl | Piston base plus peristaltic pump | Sauce viscosity and drip control |
| Yogurt with seeds or crunchy topping | Piston base plus garnish filler | Moisture migration softens toppings within days |
Fruit preparations containing whole berries or fruit pieces need large-bore valving so the pieces pass without being sheared or bridging the valve. For cups with granola or several distinct layers, our parfait cup filling machine page covers deposit order and layer definition in more depth.
Sealing, shelf life and allergens
Whey and fruit syrup are the usual causes of a failed membrane seal on yogurt: a few drops on the flange and the heat seal channels or peels weakly. A suck-back nozzle stops the post-fill drip, and seal temperature, pressure and dwell are stored per recipe, so a change of film or cup material does not mean re-tuning by trial and error. Optional nitrogen flushing reduces residual oxygen to 0.3–0.4%, which helps slow mold and oxidation in fruit-added cups. Many yogurts already rely on their acidity for a long refrigerated life, so size the benefit with your own shelf-life trials; our MAP cup filling machine overview explains the system.
Milk is a major allergen in the US, Canada and the EU, and granola or nut toppings add wheat, tree nuts or soy. Schedule allergen-containing toppings last in the day, then use the CIP system and tool-free strip-down for a verified clean before the next run, documented under your HACCP plan or FSMA preventive controls (21 CFR Part 117). When you are ready to size a line, send your product, cup size, target cups per minute and options through our yogurt line quote request; we reply within about 24 hours.
Yogurt Cup Filling & Sealing Machine — Frequently Asked Questions
The SDH-R yogurt cup filling machine starts from $45,000 USD in its single-filler configuration, which suits plain Greek yogurt, skyr or natural yogurt tubs. The price rises with a second or third filler for fruit or sauce layers, nitrogen MAP flushing, plastic lid placement, labeling and custom cup tooling. Send us your product, cup size and target cups per minute for a configured yogurt line quote.
The SDH-R runs up to 30 cups per minute on a dry cycle. With real yogurt, output is typically 18–25 cups per minute, depending on viscosity, cup size, fill weight and how many fillers and closing options are active. Thick strained Greek yogurt in a 16 oz tub generally runs slower than a softer stirred yogurt in a 4 oz cup, so we estimate your rate from your product details.
Standard SDH-R tooling covers 4 oz, 8 oz, 10 oz and 16 oz cups, which match common single-serve and family-size yogurt formats. Custom tooling extends the range from 2 oz to 32 oz in round, square or rectangular pre-formed cups. The standard fill range is 50–500 g, so fills above 500 g, such as a full 32 oz tub, are confirmed with our engineering team before quoting.
No. The SDH-R is a rotary cup filling, sealing and lidding machine for pre-formed cups and tubs; it is not a bottle filler. It can fill thin, pourable yogurt into cups and seal them with a membrane, using a suck-back nozzle to prevent drips, but bottled drinkable yogurt and kefir need a dedicated bottle filling and capping line.
Changeover between yogurt SKUs on the SDH-R takes under about 15 minutes when the cup size stays the same. The operator recalls the stored recipe on the HMI, which sets piston stroke, fill speed and seal parameters. Switching flavors also means purging or cleaning the product path, and moving to an allergen-containing topping requires a full CIP wash and a verified clean, which takes longer.
Each SDH-R yogurt cup filling machine is designed and built in Calgary, Alberta, carries a 12-month warranty and is delivered 8–12 weeks from order confirmation. Support comes from our service centers in Alberta, New Jersey and California. The machine is built in food-grade 304 stainless steel, is CE marked and UL listed, and uses FDA-compliant food-contact materials.
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