Producing perishable foodstuffs hygienically

By Dieter Conzelmann

Organic products have become a focus in our society. Customers diets are becoming increasingly healthier and include more and more organic food, that is an easily-identifiable market trend. According to a representative study by the German Federal Ministry of Food, around 53 percent of Germans purchase organic products at least occasionally. The term organic is legally defined by the EU and requires, amongst other things, that the product contains less food additives in direct comparison with conventional foodstuffs. But when foodstuff producers dispense with preservatives during production, the danger that products become contaminated with bacteria increases. The solution here must lie in designing all machines that come into contact with perishable foodstuffs ergonomically and in such a way that the bacteria are not allowed for and that are easy to clean.

In the unpacked foodstuffs sector most competitors offer checkweighers with single motorised conveyors, so already at the transitions from feeding belt, weighing belt and discharge belt, there can be hygienic problems. In these areas, parts of the foodstuff fall from the belt drive and collect in hard-to-reach parts of the system. The Bizerba Checkweigher CWP Neptune weighs and sorts unpacked foodstuffs and is perfectly suited to the requirements of perishable foodstuffs thanks to its hygienic ergonomics. It has been designed in compliance with the hygienic design criteria of the European Hygienic Engineering and Design Group (EHEDG) and only requires the use of one single drive belt. This belt is the widest part of the system. Should parts of the product fall off the belt, they cannot finish up either in another part of the machinery, or back in the production stream.

Underfilling is illegal and damaging to a company's image, but even slight overfilling adds up to substantial costs during the course of a year. Therefore the checkweigher can easily be combined with the Bizerba software statistics.BRAIN. The company can make sure that no packaging leaves the factory that does not have the correct weight. At 15,000 finished packs per day and 200 production days per year, overfilling of only seven grams adds up to 21 tons per year. At a cost price of one euro per kilo the give-away adds up to €21,000 per year. The combination of software with control scales results in an effective instrument for process opimisation.

In the production stage products and finished packaging are checked - depending on the customer's demands either by sampling or to 100 percent. During the entire processes the production personnel executes the computerised quality checks themselves. The scales operators receive a direct alarm signal in the case of possible flaws and can immediately intervene in the production process. Online monitoring permits the person working in front of the PC in the control centre to visualise the process online. In the case of large amounts of data, a histogram provides an immediate overview of distribution and outliers without having to analyse long sequences of numbers. High-level quality management of the products can be guaranteed in this way. This will be beneficial to the company's image and will increase customer satisfaction as well as customer loyalty.

The checkweigher can be governed with the terminal GT-12C. From touchscreen with colour display to user-friendly user interfaces: the operating terminal is clearly structured and child's play to operate. It practically explains itself. This is necessary nowadays as no one has more time to battle with complicated technology. Information is communicated through simple graphics. Softkeys can be stored with self-explanatory images or icons. As a result, the user quickly and intuitively becomes confident with all functions. From colour scales in the background to the corporate logo the screen can be configured specifically to client's needs.

Biography

Dieter Conzelmann, Director of Industry Solutions Market at Bizerba, studied information technology in Stuttgart/Esslingen and began his employment at Bizerba GmbH & Co. KG in 1989 as a development engineer. Since 1999, he has been responsible for managing the industry solutions division, since 2008 he has also been responsible for the business management of Bizerba Solutions Inc. in the US.