Quality vs quantity? How food businesses can increase margins and reduce risk

Quality vs quantity? How food businesses can increase margins and reduce risk

The below article written by By Karel Strubbe has been submitted to PotatoPro by Tomra Sorting Food.


Multiple solutions, not a single

Manual sorting alone cannot possibly generate foreign material-free products. Within sorting and grading systems for vegetables, fruit or potatoes, automated harvesting systems mean an average of 100 tonnes of produce passes through the process per hour. The reality is that human eyes aren’t able to pick up on all foreign objects among these large volumes, so it needs to be a machine-led exercise.

Still, it is not simply a case of replacing manual labor with sorting technology. Instead, businesses must implement a multi-step process to eradicate the risk of unwanted materials finding their way through the supply chain, and invest in high-quality systems to ensure no defective materials are generated by the chain – a bolt which has come loose somewhere during the process from processing equipment, for example. This means effective sorting at every stage of the supply chain and processing line – during harvesting, processing and packaging.

Fruits such as strawberries and raspberries are becoming a part of everyday diets, leading to an increase in investment to develop and improve small format fruit grading machinery.

With frozen fruit, some of the colour in the product may be lost and replaced with a white frosting caused through the exposure to negative temperatures. However, if there is already a discolouring to the fruit pre-freezing, the end product could look unappealing and unappetising to a consumer.

A solution here is to incorporate sorting and grading systems at the very start of the process, meaning any defects or potential foreign objects can be removed before the fruit gets frozen. As well as reducing the risk of poor quality, this also brings down the energy consumption levels, as the damaged fruit isn’t being unnecessarily frozen.

Future innovations

To maximize the supply chain efficiency and reduce the number of incidents when it comes to food quality and foreign objects, continuous developments within the industry are required.

The future of food quality is coming from a connected supply chain, with the internet of things meaning that machines are able to interact with one another and share data with owners. Through enabling the communication of in-depth data between growing, sorting and distribution technologies, the condition and journey of a product can be optimized across the whole supply chain.

Taking contaminated lettuce as an example, this advancement is allowing food manufacturers to go back through each stage of the product’s journey and identify not only where the issue occurred, but which time of day and what growing location. Innovations such as the internet of things (IoT) and the Cloud solutions will soon be able to monitor, optimize and trace every step in the supply chain. As investigatory technology becomes more advanced, these innovations will allow growers, packers and processors to directly pinpoint issues, then provide an efficient and effective solution that ensures an increased quality of end products.

Ensuring quality, safety and quantity work in harmony

In reality, technological innovations have made it feasible for supply chains to be able to handle large throughputs whilst maintaining high levels of quality and safety.

There’s no denying that there is a greater requirement from customers for increased quantities of produce to meet consumer demands in the marketplace. It isn’t a case of neglecting quantity for quality and safety – it’s about those three aspects working parallel with another to deliver the best end product possible. The processing power, width and capabilities of the sorting machine have been adjusted to address huge throughputs, adhere to strict quality regulations and operate as safely as possible.

Take a field of crop as an example. Previously when the crop had been impacted by adverse weather conditions, the decision may have been made not to harvest the plot at all due to the potential poor quality of produce.

However, with the automated high throughput sorting machinery of today, the field can still be harvested and the premium produce can be retained, with the less premium or defective produce repurposed or removed from the chain in its entirety. This, in return, works from both a quality and quantity standpoint – all the produce is being used to its best purposed within the supply chain.


Keeping those who matter on side

Quality, quantity and safety are key to keeping consumers happy. With incidents such as foreign objects, defects and unappealing products, sensor-based sorting and grading systems are more important than ever to help growers, packers and processors ensure high quality products, optimize yields and maximize profits.