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Fruit ingredients company Petrow Food Group will make a ‘major investment’ in its Haverhill production facility in the UK, helping to boost the site’s processing efficiency and ensuring it meets the requisite standards of food safety.
The investment, totalling £850,000, will include the installation of what Petrow describes as “a high-tech nerve centre” that includes the latest technology – including an X-ray machine, flame unit, laser, throat metal detector and automatic packing unit.
The new line will be used for the processing of dates and other dried fruits, which are then supplied as ingredients for breakfast cereals, pickles, sauces, bakery products, confectionery and sweets. Petrow said the investment would “take automation and enhanced safety to new levels” at the Suffolk plant.
Petrow Food Group managing director Ian Tatchell said: “This complete processing line assures outstanding ease and reliability of operation to throw open more opportunities for customers. Automation maximises production efficiency while advanced quality control offers the safety, quality and throughput to take performance and competitiveness to the highest levels.
“This technology is the most advanced of its kind, fully justifying the investment. The processing line is highly intuitive and designed to satisfy the most rigorous standards in production, safety and hygiene while its sophistication combines perfect preparation of dried produce but outstanding ease, safety and reliability of operation.”
The complete processing line boasts automatic unblocker and vibrating belts to smooth out clumps of dates or fruit. A macerator removes pits before a flame unit rids the fruit of hairs. X-ray technology detects foreign bodies – specifically metal, ceramic and glass – while a throat metal detector optimises much higher sensitivity for the processing of bulk products.
Fruit is chopped and passed through a large tumbler, where it is powdered with rice flour to avoid further clumping. The fruit is then sorted to ensure it is the exact size specified by the customer, before the final range of capabilities weigh, fill and package the fruit in precise volumes according to customer stipulations.
Mark Kirkley, operations director for Petrow Food Group, added: “The new line has a maximum throughput of 1,200 kilos, enabling us to respond quicker to larger volume orders from customers. Automation increases operational efficiency to meet and exceed customer expectations on safety, quality and legality at a time when such concerns are rising across all sectors of the food industry.”
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