IPPE 2014
Tomra: ‘People expect their food to be perfect’
Tomra specializes in optical-based technologies that scan for properties including color, shape, density, fat and moisture content. While IPPE attendees are focused largely on meat and poultry operations, Tomra machines can be used for tomatoes, fruits, peanuts, greens and applications beyond the food industry (i.e. mining).
High standards
Tom Krueger, technical sales manager for process equipment and analytics, Tomra, told FoodProductionDaily.com food firms must ensure their product is of top quality and as defect-free as possible, thanks to exacting customer standards.
“The food you buy today is of much more uniform quality than it was back in the day,” he said. “People expect their food to be perfect.”
Optical sorting technologies, Krueger added, are suitable for nearly any type of food product. It can be used to remove shells from nuts, under-ripe berries from blueberries, or contaminated spuds from a batch of potatoes, etc.
Meat analysis
The machines highlighted in Tomra’s IPPE booth include the QVision 500 fat analyzer. The system’s transflection technology penetrates into the meat to measure fat, moisture, protein and color, in real time.
The QVision 500 can be used for fresh or frozen ground meat of any grind size (including mechanically separated product), diced meat, small pork trim and more. Krueger told FPD the machine improves upon the reliability and consistency of competitive sorting technology by analyzing all of the product, rather than relying on batch samples.
Another benefit of the machine, Krueger added, is sanitation; it has no horizontal surfaces where moisture can gather and it never comes in direct contact with meat.
“The design is open, so all surfaces can be visually inspected and sanitized, using high pressure water, without disassembly,” he added.
