Fruit juice and smoothie maker Fruitapeel has invested £2.3m in high pressure processing (HPP) technology, after growing its business to a turnover of £9.3m in five years.
From April, HPP facilities will be available alongside the manufacturer’s existing operations at its facility in Wales. The company will install the Hiperbaric 420, the world’s second largest HPP machine from the leading manufacturer of technology in the sector.
The award-winning equipment features a 420l capacity, 380mm-diameter vessel and eight high pressure intensifiers that allow it process more than two tonnes of juice every hour. Its manufacturer, Hiperbaric, has claimed that the machine is “the most reliable and highly productive from a new generation of industrial” HPP machines, achieving substantial efficiency and economy improvements for the food industries.
Fruitapeel said that switching to HPP, which allows key nutrients to be retained that would be lost through pasteurisation, will lead to longer shelf life for its products; significant reductions in costly waste at store level; and as fresh a flavour on the last day of the product’s life as on the first.
Fruitapeel sales and marketing director David Taylor said: “With the introduction of this superb technology, it means that we are now able to offer our customers even more options for products, allowing us to take the juice directly from fruit, bottle and HPP it all on one site, giving it significantly longer life and better taste and quality as well as saving them money.”
Managing director Terry Haigh added: “We are about to embark on a new chapter of the business with new technologies and innovation that will allow us to lead the field in development and processing of juice and smoothies. Welsh government support has been essential in the growth of Fruitapeel Ltd at Llantrisant over the last few years and we look forward to continuing the great relationship we have with them and further growing our business by taking it to the forefront of juice and smoothie making in the UK.”
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