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Family Frozen Fruit Firm Stay competitive With Buhler Sortex
Bühler’s SORTEX technology has enabled a family business based in Murcia, south east Spain, to remain competitive in the frozen fruit and vegetable market in the face of increasing quality control and food safety demands.
Samafru, which specialises in deep freezing and distribution, was looking for new technology to help bring its processes into line with its competitors. Following a recommendation from neighbouring fruit and vegetable manufacturer, Congelados El Padeneo, the family run firm decided to opt for Buhler’s SORTEX E1D technology.
Samafru’s owner, Antonio Sarabia commented: “After getting in touch with different technology suppliers, we decided to install a new SORTEX E1D sorting machine. The combination of technologies in SORTEX machines has improved our standards through more rigorous optical sorting measures, for better subtle defect and foreign material removal.”
Less than a month after installation the success of the first sorter, which was placed on one of the frozen lines at Samafru’s Murcia plant, led the company to commision a second E1D for a further line, doubling their optical sorting capacity.
SORTEX machines combine high resolution bichromatic cameras, enhanced InGaAs technology and PROfile shape technology to detect even the most subtle colour and shape defects as well as extraneous vegetable matter (EVM), such as seeds and stalks, and foreign materials (FM).
Mr Sarabia continued: “Since last August we have further increased the quality of our products without any additional cost to our customers. In addition, we have been able to reduce labour costs along the production line by 66% and been able to increase return on our incoming products by 1.5%.
“As an added benefit we’ve been pleasantly surprised by the power of the shape recognition technology. Thanks to the SORTEX E1D machines, we are able to quickly identify when there are problems at the cutting stage of our process lines, particularly in the case of peppers, as we find that rejection rates increase significantly.”
Mr Sarabia concluded: “We found that the E1D is ideal for our needs as it is compact, precise and easy to use. In addition we appreciate the post-sale technical service offered by Buhler’s Spanish team with six technical engineers based locally if we encountered any problems.”
The SORTEX E range was designed to bring the benefits of large sorters like the SORTEX K to processors with restricted space, whilst still delivering high quality inspection for discoloured or misshaped product, subtle blemishes, FM and EVM. Like all SORTEX machines, the SORTEX E1D combines bichromatic cameras, InGaAs technology, PROfile shape technology, and fast, precise ejectors to ensure accurate elimination of contaminants.
Star Refrigeration has completed a refrigeration plant upgrade for frozen food and catering specialist apetito at its manufacturing facility in Trowbridge, Wiltshire.
Star undertook a major overhaul of apetito’s existing refrigeration system to boost reliability and reduce equipment downtime. By updating the plant control system and replacing ageing components, Star has also improved energy efficiency and reduced running costs for apetito.
For over 50 years, apetito has provided frozen food and catering solutions to care homes, local authorities and hospitals. The award-winning company also provides a frozen meal home delivery service across the UK via the Wiltshire Farm Foods franchise network.
Originally installed by Star in 1995, apetito’s bespoke ammonia LPR (Low Pressure Receiver) system features four refrigeration plants providing multi-temperature cooling. The system supplies over 800kW of cooling for blast freezing and chilling, production areas, a cold store and series of chill stores at the Trowbridge manufacturing facility.
Star was awarded the apetito contract following a competitive tender process. The Total Solution project was completed over 15 weekends, with all work taking place outside factory operation periods to prevent any disruption to production. Star acted as Principle Contractor throughout the project, with Star Technical Solutions (STS) acting as co-ordinator for CDM (Construction Design & Management) regulations.
Operations Manager Andy Bone of apetito says: “Star Refrigeration worked closely with apetito throughout the project and a carefully phased programme of work ensured there was no disruption to production. We’re confident that the plant upgrade and new energy enhancing control system will enable us to operate more efficiently, with less production downtime and lower running costs.”
The apetito cooling plant upgrade included the removal of evaporative condensers and associated ducting from inside the factory. Star replaced these condensers with 10% larger models to reduce compressor power consumption. The new condensers are supported on a steel frame outside the building with access gantries for ease of maintenance.
The project included the replacement of an obsolete control system with a new Star PLC control system. This provides apetito with the very latest refrigeration management system, with broadband enabled remote monitoring.
Star also fitted its energy efficient Aether control system to optimise condenser fan operation. This computerised PLC motor and pressure control system features a night-time function to reduce fan speed and noise to help meet the site’s environmental requirements.
Star was also responsible for installing a new water treatment system for the condensers and a new ammonia detection system. A new corridor cooling/dehumidifying system was designed to reduce moisture ingress to the cold store and increase operational efficiency.
Following the completion of the upgrade project, apetito is now benefiting from Starcare, Star’s planned, preventative maintenance (PPM) programme for refrigeration plant operators. This pro-active PPM programme ensures optimum long-term performance and reliability, to increase energy efficiency and reduce lifecycle costs.
Ishida Multihead Weighing & Batching Line Provides Sophisticated Solution For Healthy Farm
Healthy Farm, one of the leading producers of high quality food products in Russia, has recently invested in the first Meyn-Ishida poultry processing solution in the Ural region.
With a total capacity of two 6,000 birds per hour processing lines Healthy Farm doubles her current production capacity to 152,000 birds per day. This increased capacity in combination with a state-of-the-art multihead weighing and batching line will allow Healthy Farm to further strengthen their market position. Healthy Farm was previously known as Ural Broiler.
Meyn will install a complete new processing line and will also extend the existing line installed by Meyn in 2009. The new universal multihead weighing & batching line from Ishida will provide a sophisticated solution for all steps in the packaging process.
Healthy Farm’s CEO Mr Evgeny Sergeevich Narukov said: “With previous Meyn projects, we already dramatically reduced labour costs and increased the quality of our final product. Now with Meyn-Ishida we will also be reducing our give-away and increase product reliability considerably.”
At the moment, Healthy Farm is building additional housing capacity. The renewed high-tech plant will be running by the end of 2012.
Healthy Farm manages its own broiler breeding facility and parent stock and is market leader in the Ural region. With the new name, Healthy Farm emphasises its high ecological compatibility of products and sustainable perspective in doing business. Consumers can find Healthy Farm products in retailer chains, supermarkets, smaller food shops as well as in Healthy Farms own sales points. Besides the Ural region, Healthy Farm also focuses on the Siberian region of Russia.
With this investment, Healthy Farm anticipates to future growth, with export as one of her long-term goals.
Meyn-Ishida combines the highly sophisticated expertise of Meyn in poultry processing, with the unique know-how and experience in weighing, grading and end-of-line equipment from Ishida to offer a full range of wall-to-wall solutions. The strategic alliance has already been awarded several high value international contracts, including fully integrated plants in Saudi Arabia (Almarai), Russia (Miratorg, Valujki, Tambov), Chile (Ariztia) and Poland (Wipasz).
Bühler’s SORTEX technology has enabled a family business based in Murcia, south east Spain, to remain competitive in the frozen fruit and vegetable market in the face of increasing quality control and food safety demands.
Healthy Farm, one of the leading producers of high quality food products in Russia, has recently invested in the first Meyn-Ishida poultry processing solution in the Ural region.