Food&Beverage Networker Issue 03/20

ISSUE 03/20 | €15

QUALITY FOCUS

A HIVE FOR HIGHER STANDARDS – OrgHive's blockchain for organic produce

GLOBAL PROGRESS TOWARDS THE ETHICAL EGG – The transition to cage-free

ALTERED STATES – Post-Covid consumer perceptions

THE FULL PICTURE ON QUALITY – Hyperspectral imaging

EDITORIAL | Sarah Pursey, Editor

GREATER EXPECTATIONS he Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted the status quo, accelerated trends and created a new landscape of consumer needs and opportunities for companies to build on,” remarked Adolfo Orive, President and CEO of Tetra Pak, at the launch of the aseptic packaging giant’s latest annual global research study. Exploring consumer perceptions within the food landscape, the 13th edition of the Tetra Pak Index – conducted in partnership with Ipsos – reveals that food safety is today a major issue for many consumers. Indeed, the 2020 Index reports a 10-per-cent rise in global concern about food safety and future food supplies.

Meanwhile, over half of consumers surveyed not only believe improving food safety to be the responsibility of manufacturers; they also see it as the number one issue that such firms must tackle now and in the future.

Similarly, a consumer study released by Bio-Mérieux and Mérieux NutriSciences looked to better understand consumer perceptions around food safety in the post-Covid-19 world (p14). Focused on France, India, China and the US, the study revealed heightened consumer interest in all areas of food safety, with increased emphasis placed on trust and confidence in relation to selecting food products, when compared with pre-pandemic times. Crucially, in all four countries, consumers aligned on three topics of extreme concern in relation to food safety – the presence of chemicals such as pesticides, antibiotics, and additives in food; the presence of bacteria such as salmonella and listeria; and the increasing incidences of food fraud.

Already a major problem pre-Covid-19, the latter area of concern has merely been compounded by the pandemic, which has served to complicate the food fraud challenge for everyone from border officials to procurement managers. With Brexit on the horizon, the UK undoubtedly faces a double whammy in terms of rising food fraud risk (p21). Elsewhere, China has long faced its own significant issues when it comes to food authentication, with various high-profile scandals serving to push ‘product safety’ and ‘quality of ingredients’ to the top of the list in terms of consumer

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concerns. Indeed, Chinese shoppers are now driving demand for transparency in the country, according to Mr Anastasios Papadopoulos, CEO of IMS – the VC firm responsible for incubating innovative startup OrgHive (p6). A blockchain-powered digital platform that helps Chinese consumers to instantly verify an organic certificate code before making a purchase, OrgHive aims to restore consumer faith in the authenticity of such products in what is today the world’s fourth largest organic market.

Certainly, the new trend towards ingredient traceability is a powerful component in strengthening consumer trust, while the more swiftly a firm is able to turn raw data into actionable insights, the better. With that in mind, the digitalisation of operations will clearly drive quality improvements for many firms going forward (p8), with a multitude of analytics offering enhanced visibility into raw materials and process conditions, thus supporting a fast track towards enhanced overall product quality. In tandem, cutting-edge inspection technology will become increasingly prominent in supporting the elevated levels of quality that today’s consumers demand, while dramatically driving down the cost and time of undertaking such meticulous monitoring tasks. One technology that holds immense promise in this respect is hyperspectral imaging (p10), which can detect everything from moisture distribution in bread, to multicomponent mapping in chocolate bars, to discolouration or mould in tree nuts.

Given the deep links that exist between health and the currently heightened issues of food safety and hygiene – connections that could well outlast the Covid-19 crisis – it seems clear that the food companies who are really serious about their longterm success will be those who can demonstrate the traceability and transparency of their products to prospective consumers. By investing in the technology and digital platforms capable of monitoring food safety both within their production units and throughout their wider supply chain, such firms will inevitably help enhance both quality of life and their own bottom line. o

Sarah Pursey EDITOR

Gemma Kent

ASSISTANT EDITOR

James Midgley Helena Haimes Karl Wright Matthew Spriggs

FEATURE WRITERS

Kelly Frosdick Leza Briggs

ADMINISTRATION

James Miles

ART DIRECTOR

Adel Mhiri

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR

Graeme Watts Gary Crooks Joshua Groom

SECTOR MANAGERS

Darren Fuller IT SUPPORT

Tel: +44 (0)1603 319450

Email: office@thenetworkergroup.com

www.fandbnetworker.com © Food & Beverage Networker 2020 No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form for any purpose other than short sections for the purpose of review, without prior consent of the publisher.

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ISSUE 03/20

CONTENTS

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Editorial Greater expectations.

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Business News Recent global developments in the F&B sector.

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Quality Series A hive for higher standards – Blockchain for organic produce.

Digital diligence – Digitalisation and food quality.

The full picture on quality – Specim’s hyperspectral imaging (HSI).

Sorting bulk material for a pure end product – HSI tech from Strelen Control Systems.

Altered states – Post-Covid consumer perceptions.

Quality news.

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Science & Technology Upending the ‘chicken or egg’ debate – Cellular agriculture.

Science & Technology news.

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New Products New product launches.

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Challenges Of Our Times

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UK faces a double threat – Brexit, Covid-19 and the rise in food fraud.

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Sustainability Global progress towards the ethical egg – The transition to cage-free eggs.

Sustainability news.

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Special Reports THAIFEX-Anuga Asia 2020 – Post-event report.

Nutraceutical & Functional Food Asia Pacific Summit – Pre-event report.

Fi Europe CONNECT 2020 – Pre-event report.

EquipHotel WEEK – Pre-event report.

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Events A round-up of F&B sector focused events for 2020 and 2021.

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60 FOOD PROCESSING

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THRIVING UNDER PRESSURE Hiperbaric

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HIGH FRYING PROSPECTS L&G Engineering

BAKERY

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WHERE BAKING TRADITION MEETS INNOVATION DEBAG Deutsche Backofenbau GmbH

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BAKED TO PERFECTION Fines d.o.o.

PACKAGING

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ITALY’S PACKAGING TECH INNOVATOR Fabbri Group

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NATURALLY NORDIC Nordic Paper

DAIRY

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PROGRESSIVE DAIRY PRODUCTION Arla Foods

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LITHUANIA’S DAIRY POWERHOUSE Pieno Zvaigzdes

BEVERAGES

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AN ITALIAN ICON

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Birra Peroni

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BUSINESS NEWS

APPLICATIONS OPEN FOR SMART LABEL, HOST INNOVATION AWARD 2021 ITALY: Dedicated to the most innovative products and companies in the HoReCa and Retail segments, the ‘Smart Label, Host Innovation Award’ returns next year as part of HostMilano – the world’s leading event in the hotel sector. And applications are now open for the prestigious competition.

Now in its fifth edition, the competition is aimed at all companies registered in HostMilano 2021, which runs from 22–26 October 2021 and is set to showcase the latest insights and innovations regarding equipment, raw materials, gear and semi-finished products.

Promoted by Host - Fiera Milano, in partnership with POLI .design

(founded by Politecnico di Milano) and sponsored by ADI (the Association for Industrial Design), the Awards recognise innovation in the field of professional hospitality.

With HoReCa arguably one of the most impacted market segments in the post-Covid world, it is anticipated that the companies set to participate in the new edition of the Award will put forward innovations that respond to the main issues faced by the sector during this challenging time.

More than 50 companies were awarded during the last edition of the event, selected from three different categories: Innovation SMART Label (dedi-

cated to products with a high innovation content), Green SMART Label (awarded to products that stand out for their energy efficiency), and the SMART Label (recognising products capable of determining significant evolutions in each respective reference sector).

The biennial HostMilano expo will showcase all facets of the HoReCa ecosystem, from raw materials to semifinished products, from machinery to

equipment, from furnishings to the table.

Until 30 April 2021, companies registered at Host Milano 2021 can submit an application for their own product or project under development, according to the methods indicated on the website www.polidesign.net. Each company may submit only one application.

The complete rules of the competition are available here: www.host.fieramilano.it

Coca-Cola FEMSA announces 4% drop in revenues for Q3 MEXICO: Coca-Cola FEMSA – the largest Coca-Cola franchise bottler in the world by sales volume – has announced results for the third quarter and the first nine months of 2020.

The Mexico-City-headquartered firm recorded a four-per-cent drop in its John Santa Maria Otazua, CEO of Coca-Cola FEMSA

total revenues for Q3.

Consolidated volumes decreased 4.1 per cent – a sequential improvement versus Q2, as most markets gradually reduced Covid-19 lockdowns and social distancing measures. Volumes increased in Brazil, Guatemala, and Uruguay.

Total revenues decreased by 4.0 per cent, while comparable revenues remained flat. Revenue management initiatives across Coca-Cola FEMSA’s operations and extraordinary other operating revenues related to tax reclaims in

Brazil were offset by unfavourable pricemix effects across the firm’s markets, coupled with unfavourable currency translation effects from most of its operating currencies in South America. It was mainly driven by a 16-per-cent unfavourable translation effect from the Brazilian real.

Operating income increased 1.5 per cent, while comparable operating income increased 7.1 per cent.

“Declining PET costs, favourable hedging initiatives, operating expense efficiencies, and extraordinary tax effects

in Brazil were partially offset by unfavourable price-mix effects, higher concentrate costs and the depreciation of most of our operating currencies as applied to the company’s US dollardenominated raw material costs,” the firm said in a statement.

Majority net income decreased 38.8 per cent, impacted mainly by extraordinary non-operating expenses of Ps. 1,813 million (US$86.5 million).

Excluding those effects, majority net income would have increased by 6.2 per cent, the firm noted.

GLOBAL SNACK SURGE DRIVES UP PEPSICO SALES BY OVER 5% IN Q3 GLOBAL: A global rise in demand for snack products has led to PepsiCo’s net sales surging by 5.3 per cent to US$18.09 billion in the third quarter of 2020. According to research data published by ComprarAcciones.com, the F&B multinational’s net profit increased by 9.1 per cent during the period, while its earnings per share (EPS) rose by 10 per cent.

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According to Nielsen, PepsiCo’s performance coincided with a surge of 19.4 per cent and 16.1 per cent year-onyear in salty and sweet snack consumption, respectively.

Among the firm’s best-performing segments were Frito-Lay and Quaker Foods, reporting organic revenue growth of six per cent each.

It is noteworthy that in fiscal Q2

2020, PepsiCo had reported a 3.1-percent drop in its overall revenue. During that period, its North American beverage segment had dipped by seven per cent.

However, Frito-Lay sales for the same region grew by six per cent while Quaker Foods revenue soared by 23 per cent.

Overall, H1 saw a one-per-cent drop in beverage sales and an increase of three per cent in total group sales.

According to NPD Group, snack food consumption in the US rose by eight per cent in April 2020, while the number of snack eating occasions rose by 4.8 billion (plus one per cent).

UPCOMING CHANGES TO NESTLÉ S.A.’S EXECUTIVE BOARD

JACK DANIEL’S APPOINTS NEW MASTER DISTILLER USA: The Jack Daniel Distillery has announced that seasoned whiskeymaker Chris Fletcher will take over the reins as Master Distiller of the iconic Tennessee Whiskey brand.

Mr Fletcher, 39, had previously served for six years as Assistant Master Distiller, and will be responsible for the overall quality of Jack Daniel’s from grain to glass, for innovation across the process, and will also serve as a global ambassador.

In addition, Mr Fletcher will oversee the distillery’s new ‘Distillers in Training’ programme, which aims to recruit, teach, and mentor the next generation of whiskey-makers.

Born and raised in Lynchburg, and now carrying on a family tradition, Fletcher is the grandson of former Master Distiller Frank Bobo,

who served in the role from 1966 until his retirement in 1989.

“For the past six years, Chris has been right there and involved in every major distillery innovation, product and enhanced production process while ensuring our Tennessee Whiskey is of the highest character and quality,” said Larry Combs, Jack Daniel Distillery SVP and General Manager.

“Chris has whiskey-making in his blood, but he also has this incredible and unique combination of knowledge, expertise and creativity that will position us well into the future,” he continued. “Folks like Chris don’t come along every day, and backed by our tremendous senior leadership team, I have no doubt that he will flourish in this new role.”

SWITZERLAND: The Board of Directors of Nestlé S.A. has appointed Bernard Meunier – currently Head of Nestlé Purina PetCare EMENA – to succeed Patrice Bula as Head of Strategic Business Units, Marketing and Sales. Mr Meunier will assume this role in March 2021 and will join the Nestlé Group Executive Board. At that time, Mr Bula will retire from his position, after more than four decades with Nestlé.

Mr Meunier has himself worked for the corporation for 35 years, throughout which time he has held senior leader-

the Nestlé Coffee Brands group, to become a member of the Executive Board as of March next year. This decision reflects the strategic nature of his role, as coffee is deemed one of Nestlé’s major growth pillars. Mr Rennie has grown the business and strengthened Nestlé's leadership position in coffee. He launched a successful global partnership with Starbucks and has since extended the range of products at a rapid pace.

Commenting on the appointments, Mark Schneider, CEO of Nestlé S.A.,

Bernard Meunier, Nestlé’s incoming Head of Strategic Business Units, Marketing and Sales

ship roles in marketing, commercial and general management, including serving as market head in Hungary, the Russia & Eurasia region and the Iberia region.

As Head of Nestlé Purina PetCare EMENA, Bernard Meunier pioneered a digitally-powered, personalised pet care business model, driving significant growth. ‘His passion for brands and sustainability continues to inspire the business’, the firm said in a statement.

The Board of Directors has additionally appointed David Rennie, Head of

said: “On behalf of our Board of Directors and our Executive Board, I would like to thank Patrice for the tremendous job he has done over the course of 40 years at Nestlé. We are excited that, in Bernard, we have a successor who is a dynamic leader with the proven ability to grow businesses. We are equally delighted to welcome David Rennie to the Group Executive Board. With his strategic vision, ability to execute and stellar record of success in coffee, he will make a valuable contribution.”

VOG PRODUCTS COMMISSIONS NEW PURÉE PRODUCTION LINES AS PART OF MAJOR MODERNISATION ITALY: VOG Products, a major fruitprocessing outfit based in northern Italy, has just commissioned two new production lines for fruit purée, marking the latest step in the firm’s major facility modernisation project.

The careful handling of raw goods, alongside adherence to top-quality standards, have long been priorities at VOG Products – established back in 1967, and today processing and refining around 300,000 tonnes of raw fruit per annum in the heart of the Dolomite Alps.

To continue to uphold high standards, last year the firm embarked upon

a major modernisation project at its eight-hectare premises in Laives – situated in South Tyrol – that commenced with the installation of a fully automated plant for aseptic filling. This was followed in September 2019 by installation of a new optical sorting system in the low-temperature area, as the firm strove to guarantee maximum precision and quality to customers and ultimately, consumers.

Two new production lines for fruit purée were commissioned at the company’s facility In March 2020.

This arguably forms the centrepiece of VOG’s extensive investment

strategy. Alongside boosting capacity and quality in general, having the two separate lines enables VOG to ensure product safety in the processing of organic goods.

Additionally, raw goods are inspected by the optical sorting system to guarantee the highest quality standards in the purée segment.

The final measure in the investment programme will come at the beginning of 2021 with the renewal of the production line for fruit juice. “That will mark our achievement of the fourth and last step of our current infrastructure modernisation strategy,” advised Christoph

Tappeiner, CEO of VOG Products.

“Innovation and advanced development are, and will remain, major themes at VOG Products however, because they are essential to our effort to continue satisfying the market’s increasingly rigorous requirements in future while meeting top quality standards.”

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QUALITY SERIES | Blockchain for organic produce

A HIVE FOR HIGHER STANDARDS OrgHive, a blockchain-powered digital community platform, helps Chinese consumers to instantly verify the organic certificate code before making a purchase, thus overcoming the distrust of authenticity related to such products in what is today the world’s fourth largest organic market. Food & Beverage Networker gets the lowdown on this innovative new platform from Mr Anastasios Papadopoulos, CEO of IMS – the venture acting as an incubator for OrgHive, alongside other gamechanging projects. arnering traction from healthconscious consumers alongside helping international organic brands to enter China more efficiently and seamlessly, OrgHive (https://www.orghivemarketing.com/) is on course to become the biggest digital organic community in Asia. Yet Mr Anastasios Papadopoulos, who in 2016 founded Integrated Management Systems (IMS) – the firm responsible for the advancement of this innovative

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start-up – didn’t start out in the tech space. “I actually studied Law and Finance at HEC Paris, before kickstarting my career in mergers and acquisitions within the law firm Skadden Arps,” he tells us. “I was fortunate enough to work on several high-profile deals in the tech industry, and it was through those deals that I realised there were exciting opportunities to bring Silicon-Valley-level consulting to Asia.” And indeed, as Mr

Papadopoulos banked on the growing need for digitalisation from various enterprises, the demand for such services certainly seems to have presented itself, leading IMS to expand from a threeperson startup four years ago, to boast a workforce of more than 300 today.

With IMS, the entrepreneur’s goal was to set a new standard for technology services and – through the firm’s Venture Capital arm – partner with

industry champions to create gamechanging companies. “OrgHive is one of our most successful portfolio companies within IMS, and probably the one that I’m most proud of,” he remarks.

Cofounded in Hong Kong with Patrick Kaminski – an expert in the FMCG space who worked in China for more than 20 years, and served as top executive for German powerhouses Henkel and Beiersdorf – OrgHive’s mission is “to improve transparency in China’s food supply chain and promote healthier eating habits within Chinese consumers”, according to Mr Papadopoulos. Below, Food & Beverage Networker’s Q&A with the executive reveals more on the technology, its application and how it has been received in the market to date.

Q. (Food & Beverage Networker): How does the OrgHive platform work?

A. (Anastasios Papadopoulos): “OrgHive currently has the largest digital community of organic and natural consumers in China with more than three million monthly visitors to our platform and thousands of daily downloads of our scanning app.

“OrgHive is more than just a social and media platform that empowers consumers to make healthier, more informed lifestyle choices. Leveraging the power of blockchain technology, consumers can verify the authenticity of organic products

with a user-friendly WeChat scanning app (mini program).

“For brands, OrgHive is a powerful acquisition tool that transforms their ability to gain consumer trust, reach their target customers, and convert their audiences. Through ROI-driven features, OrgHive gives brands direct access to consumers through microsites (accessible via their own secure CMS), display banner advertising, article features, and product searches.”

Q. With which organisations are you collaborating in order to advance the OrgHive platform?

A. “We’ve collaborated with industry experts to build a solution that makes it easy for consumers to verify authenticity of a product’s organic certification. We’ve teamed up with Max Goldberg, founder of Organic Insider, to give our users insights of the organic market.

“Beyond that, we continue to collaborate with external partners to help position our platform for growth, and to penetrate the consumer and business communities.”

Q. Can you describe China’s organic market today and the key need that OrgHive addresses within that context?

A. “Health is certainly the new wealth.

The impact of Covid-19 on consumer buying behaviour was to accelerate the trend toward a more health-conscious life.

A growing segment of Chinese consumers are discerning, ingredient-conscious, and hungry for ways to simplify their decisionmaking when it comes to making better choices for themselves and their family.

Product safety and quality of ingredients are top concerns for consumers, yet many don’t know where to access reliable, objective information to help support their desires for better quality of life “OrgHive directly addresses these two consumer concerns with its platform

infrastructure. For example, our best-inclass AI algorithm helps match consumers with content that allows them to discover new brands and products, and understand how best to live the lifestyle they aspire to lead.”

Q. More broadly speaking, what other trends and opportunities can you identify?

A. “Consumers are driving demand for transparency, whether it’s from brands or governments. As they are increasingly aware of issues spanning safety, nutrition and sustainability, the demand for food traceability has increased accordingly.

OrgHive allows brands to respond to that rising need.

“Although the OrgHive authentication mechanism is focused on organic products, our community is also interested in broader lifestyle habits such as natural ingredients, healthy eating, or sustainability. OrgHive also caters to those brands.”

Q. Looking ahead, what will be the overall strategy in terms of advancing the OrgHive platform?

A. “Orghive is unique in how it connects consumers to information. There’s a similar need to do so in other segments of the food industry – such as alternative protein, vegan or gluten-free. We’ve been approached by a number of companies from those verticals that want to be part of the OrgHive community too. Our goal is to become the largest social media platform for health-conscious individuals, and a unique place for brands to interact with those individuals.” o For more information on OrgHive, visit: www.orghivemarketing.com To learn more about other gamechanging ventures that IMS is helping to advance, go to: www.imanagesystems.com 7

QUALITY SERIES | Digitalisation and food quality

DIGITAL DILIGENCE Increasingly, the most progressive food and beverage manufacturers are turning to digitalisation to maintain optimum quality standards, writes Laura Stridiron, Senior Product Manager at AspenTech. any food and beverage manufacturers today are looking at how they can best make use of digitalisation to drive operational efficiencies. Yet it is equally if not even more crucial that they focus on the role digitalisation can play in optimising overall product quality and thereby delivering a competitive edge.

Maintaining optimum quality standards is among the most important – and also most difficult – challenges facing manufacturers across this sector. While quality control has defined processing parameters of variables, including temperature, time and good manufacturing practices

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(GMPs), there are stricter regulatory requirements resulting from sources like the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) in the US, and a new trend toward ingredient traceability as a key component to strengthening consumer trust.

Adding to the challenge, some factors impacting food quality are hidden.

Even with specifications defined within a product formulation, minor variations in processing may arise. These differences can steer production off-course.

In spite of traditional means of recording process data, quality compromises may arise from: minor, but acceptable dis-

crepancies in raw material properties; variations in procedures; or changing environmental conditions.

Without understanding the exact variances (not always visible to humans), production cannot easily forecast the outcome or effectively compensate, potentially resulting in an expensive defective batch.

Seeking new insights

Often, an organisation’s existing data is crucial to improving their confidence in data. Especially in the food and beverage industry, mountains of data exist to comply with food safety tracking requirements. Yet

inherent knowledge of those employees who are intimately familiar with the ins and outs of the process.

While they may not have been the creator of the product itself, they are familiar with how to execute on the product formulation given the surrounding circumstances. Even with sophisticated tools gathering and organising key data, a challenging task remains: Analyse the data to determine how best to adjust the batch process for each variable and accomplish an improved orders outcome. With many data visualisation and analysis techniques, it may still be a complex challenge for operators, engineers and analysts to sift through data patterns and identify how best to adjust processes.

Delivering enhanced production supply quality

information like maintenance work orders and compliance reports typically reside elsewhere in an organisation, potentially separated from related material.

This division of data means past efforts to mine it may not have yielded notable results. As digital transformation efforts increase, some businesses are looking to this historical information to give them an insight into how to enhance quality moving forwards.

So what is the first step in leveraging past production data to provide insight?

With traditional data analytic methods, many businesses have to hire data scientists to conduct complex analyses.

However, in addition to being unrealistic for most organisations, this approach ignores the other subsets of data in companies’ hands: the ‘hidden factories’ or

The more quickly you can turn raw data into actionable insights, the better – particularly if you can do it without teams of new resources. Multivariate analytics software can help solve your process and product quality issues, which could likely result in greater customer satisfaction.

These tools can help optimise production by: reducing off-spec product; minimising product rework needs; enabling more proactive schedule changes; and decreasing lead time for customer orders outcome.

AspenTech’s Aspen ProMV is one such solution, specifically designed for use by those most familiar with the process, rather than data scientists. One international food manufacturer uses it for maintaining quality while increasing supply chain flexibility. This company traditionally tested incoming raw materials as its primary method for predicting overall product quality – yet that methodology was

resulting in unreliable outcomes and an unacceptable level of off-spec product.

Having multiple raw material suppliers for each ingredient of a specific product, the customer was faced with a dilemma on how to best pre-determine the outcome of final product quality.

With the availability of historical data of the product’s raw material lots and variable processing conditions, Aspen ProMV was utilised to develop a comprehensive data model that correlated these two factors. The data associated with the model revealed two raw materials had no significant impact on final quality, while three others did. Therefore, the manufacturer was able to determine where to focus their raw material specification efforts to eliminate future off-spec product and adjust their manufacturing process to improve overall quality. By using Aspen ProMV, the customer could scale the same modelling technique across their whole product line. This helped them avoid raw material combinations that would have led to future poor final quality – ultimately avoiding potential customer satisfaction issues. Moreover, Aspen ProMV provides continuous monitoring to alert when potential combinations of process conditions could result in off spec product based on the raw materials in use.

It may be just a single example, but it nevertheless clearly illustrates how ultimately, for food and beverage companies, utilising multivariate analytics as part of a digitalisation strategy to gain enhanced visibility into raw materials and process conditions supports a fast track to improved product quality overall. o To learn more, visit: www.aspentech.com

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QUALITY SERIES | Hyperspectral imaging

THE FULL PICTURE ON QUALITY Established a quarter of a century ago, Finland-headquartered Specim has evolved to become the world's leading hyperspectral imaging (HIS) camera manufacturer for machine builders and integrators. Food & Beverage Networker explores Specim’s considerable offering for the F&B sector, and how its technology is empowering food processors to glean fast and accurate intelligence to improve quality and safety, to increase value, and to make sustainable choices across their operations. ood quality and safety issues have garnered much attention in recent years, more often than not for the wrong reasons. Consumers are highly aware of the effects of food quality and composition not only on an individual’s nutritional health but also on their overall well-being. Ethical questions of food production have risen to the fore, whilst food allergies and intolerances have proliferated.

Even amongst consumers not severely impacted by such allergens, decisions to go gluten- or lactose-free, for example, are becoming more mainstream propositions.

Aside from consumer demand for higher standards, food producers themselves obviously have a legal obligation to control the quality and safety of their produce.

Sophisticated analytical methods are required to support the development of new products that meet both consumer

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and statutory requirements, while also delivering an enjoyable sensory experience.

In food manufacture – perhaps more than any other industry – rapid methods are required to monitor and control production, to ensure consistent quality and to provide safety assurance. Thus, the food production process control has to work effectively with very short response times.

Failure to respond quickly to any faults in the production process may result in wasted product and lost sales, and could potentially endanger customer safety – all of which can escalate into big financial losses for the business concerned, and health issues for consumers.

Enter ‘spectral imaging’, a rapidly growing inspection method for industries benefiting from machine vision solutions.

It provides valuable information by identifying materials based on their chemical

properties, not available with other camera technologies. Objects with similar looks but with different chemical composition can be reliably identified and sorted with a hyperspectral camera. This makes spectral imaging the most powerful inspection method in many applications. In the food sector, the benefits are manifest for the processing of a wide variety of produce – from meat, fish and poultry, to dried food (nuts and cereals), fruits, berries and vegetables, food packaging (heat seal inspection), and seed and grain. As a pioneer in this area, SPECIM has served all of these areas with its state-of-the-art spectral imaging solutions.

It began with “the passion for light”, as the founders put it, “and the desire to use the light to see the invisible and change the world for better”. Some 25 years ago, Esko Herrala, Jukka Okkonen and Timo

Hyvärinen held a meeting that would mark the inception of a new company, Specim.

The Finnish firm would later go on to become one of the pioneers in the field of spectral imaging. Today, a quarter century down the line, the company is a renowned global trailblazer in hyperspectral imaging technology, employing 70 people in Finland, US and China.

Hyperspectral imaging also offers a solution to complex, multicomponent product analysis, which is difficult to do with nonimaging techniques.

SPECIM, as a pioneer in the field, has been providing hyperspectral sensors for the last quarter of a century, with the food sector one of the dynamic firm’s focal areas in terms of applications.

Changing the way we see the world

Moisture distribution monitoring in bread

A number of technologies and methods exist in the world to monitor the quality of food production processes. Unfortunately, many of them require laboratory analysis – a labour-intensive and often slow process.

Indeed, such lab analysis might take hours or days or weeks – from measuring the food sample to receiving the analysis result, while possible destruction of the sample during this process poses yet another challenge.

Shortwave infrared (SWIR) spectroscopy offers a fast, non-destructive method to inspect and monitor food quality, and is well established in the food industry for laboratory and online use. This technique allows determination of the composition of samples (e.g. moisture content, protein content) as well as physical characteristics (e.g., the particle size of ground particulate materials). Many relevant chemical bonds in food samples absorb light at particular wavelengths in the SWIR (900 – 2500 nm) range. These absorption features reveal the chemistry of the sample and can be detected by spectroscopy. The method is ideal for analysis of the average composition of homogeneous samples such as flour. For more complex products, the disadvantage of spectroscopy is that it only provides information on one single point in the sample at a time.

However, hyperspectral imaging (HSI) combines spectroscopy with imaging ability. This technique offers the possibility for simultaneous pixel-by-pixel analysis of composite or heterogeneous foods. As an imaging technique, hyperspectral imaging doesn’t require contact with the food, nor does it destroy or contaminate the sample – and with a good calibration model, the analysis result can be provided in real time.

Measurements of individual absorbance bands or calibrations for full spectra provide information on composition, which can be mapped within the image to measure the distribution of components such as moisture or fat.

Moisture distribution is an important attribute in many food products, such as bread, as it affects texture and conditions favourable for microbial activity. Moisture can change over shelf life and is therefore associated with product freshness.

Distribution is not always uniform, yet this is difficult to detect without an imaging technology.

Image 1 shows moisture distribution in a fresh slice of white bread, from a study

by UK firm Campden BRI – which utilises SPECIM’s state-of-the-art hyperspectral imaging technology. First, a calibration was built, and then this model was applied to real samples. The purple and blue colour in the image indicates low moisture content, while yellow and red colour indicates

Multi-component mapping in chocolate bars

Another example where HSI can prove highly useful is in analysing the composition of multi-component products like chocolate bars. Since hyperspectral imaging provides pixel-by-pixel information on a sample, it is ideal for multi-component product composition mapping.

Certain quality attributes like fat, moisture or crystalline sucrose have clear spectral features in the SWIR range. By calibrating against reference samples, quantitative measurements can be made. Fully quantitative measurements require a development of separate calibrations for each component. This is appropriate for applications requiring regular analysis of the same type of sample. However, for shorter term applications, or where reference samples are unavailable, useful comparative information can be obtained even without a full calibration. A comparative study of commercial chocolate bars is a good example of this. A full calibration would require access to reference samples of each type of component material.

However, by instead mapping the strength of particular absorbance bands, a useful comparison can be made.

Image 1

Image 2

high moisture content. Indeed, it is easy to see that the moisture level increases rapidly towards the centre of the bread slice, while the outer crust has a very low moisture level.

Based on Campden BRI’s studies, hyperspectral imaging can be also applied to detect moisture migration in composite products, which are traditionally more challenging than one-component products.

Image 2 shows maps of three absorbance bands. A band for CH2 is typically associated with differences in fat content, another is characteristic of the presence of crystalline sucrose, and an OH absorbance band is typically associated with differences in moisture content.

Regions high in fat are shown in red, while crystalline sucrose and moisture are shown in green and blue, respectively. ‡ 11

QUALITY SERIES | Hyperspectral imaging

Specim's 'founding fathers': Esko Herrala, Timo Hyvärinen and Jukka Okkonen

Combinations of components are shown as mixed colours. Nuts are shaded red indicating high-fat content, caramel appears blue or purple indicating high moisture content with varying fat content.

Chocolate appears in green, yellow or orange, indicating varying combinations of fat and crystalline sucrose; it can be seen that these differ between these commercial products. For more detailed analysis, or for online inspection, a quantitative calibration for these properties could then be developed, as for the example of moisture in bread.

Optical inspection for optimal nut quality

Another strong area of interest in terms of food applications is the optical inspection of nuts. Nut processors work hard to find ways to ensure as high-quality products as possible and that way increase the products’ value. This means finding and removing all foreign material (including shells) and low-grade products during the process.

Specim’s cameras help to ensure the highest quality in any type of nuts – almonds, cashew, walnuts, pistachio, peanuts, and so on. The company’s technology allows collection of the data at industrial speed from hundreds of wavelengths, reaching a 100-per-cent inspection rate instead of just one point. The data can be used to detect, for example, discolouration or mould, and to identify and remove foreign objects like shell pieces, wood or stones, and insects (see below).

Indeed, Specim’s FX10 and FX17 cameras offer the required speed and flexibility for industrial sorting. They are non-invasive and non-destructive, and

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their 224 bands allow adaptive configurations for identifying different types of contaminants. Their high spatial resolution allows accurate detection of objects as small as one millimetre.

Improving quality and safety of meat

Specim’s equipment can also play a star role in improve the quality and safety of meat projects – a segment of the market that arguably has the highest risk of quality issues and contamination. Indeed, the reliable inspection process of raw meat, poultry and fish is a necessity, in order to guarantee that such products are high quality, safe and in compliance with the strict safety requirements.

By defining meat’s chemical quality – lean/fat content, protein, water, tenderness – alongside detecting foreign materials (such as bone, cartilage, plastics, wood, rubber, metal, or parasites – see below), Specim FX cameras can reveal much more than traditional colour and filter cameras or point spectrometers.

Regarding specific quality control and sorting processes, Specim FX Cameras can help you perform precise and reliable chemical grading and foreign material detection based on all materials’ unique and distinctive spectral signatures. They also replace visual inspections and time-consuming lab tests with a non-invasive, real-time inspection. Not only do such camera’s cover 100 per cent of the product stream, but they can also detect a range of characteristics simultaneously with a single camera – now and in the future.

Utilising such equipment also avoids any extra cost by meeting legal prerequisites for the amount of fat, protein

and collagen in tandem with the quality and safety inspection.

Driving up quality, driving down waste

Specim has always been at the forefront of developing spectral imaging technology from big and expensive equipment into smaller, faster, easier to use and more affordable cameras. As a result, such kit is now increasingly used in many different areas, from laboratories to fields and factories. All of the original founders are still involved in the day-to-day operation, believing in the technology and the products as strongly as ever.

Specim’s ‘founding fathers’ – Jukka, Esko, and Timo – can reflect on their company’s history with pride. Over the past 25 years, Specim products have been inside an Egyptian tomb, determining the authenticity of a Monet painting, and studying plants in African deserts. The team also achieved one important milestone it had set itself early on: to bring the technology to industrial use. Today, the cameras are also doing less glorious but equally important work on production lines, ensuring the quality and safety of a wide array of products.

“We are proud of what we have achieved together with our partners and customers over the years,” enthuses Tapio Kallonen, Specim’s CEO. “We believe that hyperspectral imaging will take its place as a standard technology to machine vision solutions, and our aim is to make it easily accessible to also completely new user groups that are out there.”

Certainly, the food industry continuously reveals new use cases for HIS, and Specim remains leader in helping the sector’s players adopt and integrate such technology. Wide-scale success in this endeavour will not only enhance product quality control, but will also drive a dramatic reduction in waste, alongside establishing more efficient processes as the standard, in turn leading to a more sustainable society. o

QUALITY SERIES | hyperspectral imaging

NEW TECH SORTS BULK MATERIAL TO ACHIEVE A PURE END PRODUCT Strelen Control Systems GmbH – a technology-software expert in image processing and automation – has developed an array of solutions for F&B inspection, analysis and quality control over the past decade. Utilising hyperspectral technology, the company’s latest product, Safe-Ident Sort, is able to detect and separate nuts from unwanted by-products and foreign objects, helping food processors to achieve a pure end-product. t takes just seconds for a hyperspectral camera to distinguish a brown shell from a brown nut and then send a signal for the foreign body to be ejected.

This guarantees that the consumer does not come across disturbing shell residues in end products such as muesli, cookies or chocolate.

Strelen Control Systems GmbH – a Frankfurt based business that has been active in the field of digital image processing in combination with AI for over a decade – has developed and applied hyperspectral technology in its new product Safe-Ident Sort to detect and separate nuts from unwanted by-products and foreign objects. Remarkably, the system is even able to detect quality defects on good products – for example, areas of mould, drying of the product, or residues on its surface.

A conveyor belt feeds the unsorted bulk material past a hyperspectral camera, which continuously generates images and passes them on to the in-house developed image processing software. After the software has analysed and evaluated the image data, ejection nozzles are activated at the right moment via a high-speed control system to remove NIO portions of the product with a burst of compressed air.

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brown – as in nuts and their shells – is virtually impossible to achieve with such a camera.

In contrast, a hyperspectral camera covers 250 spectral bands – the wavelengths ranging from visible to near infrared. This enables the camera to recognise individual spectra of light. It can thus distinguish whether the same brown tone is produced from one wavelength or several superimposed wavelengths. Since the hyperspectral camera can only record the light spectra that are emitted by the illumination and reflected by the inspected product, special lighting is required.

In the new Safe-Ident Sort technology, four halogen lamps provide indirect, continuous and complete illumination for the corresponding test area via a reflector screen.

The IO parts of the nuts to be processed (almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews, macadamia, peanuts and more) each have clearly identifiable spectra. The software analyses the images of the hyperspectral camera at lightning speed, detects the faulty spectra and can thus clearly identify each particle and assign it to the category IO or NIO. In order to guarantee the

purity of the end product, the sorting system only recognises faultless parts as IO and rejects all parts that do not match.

32 high-precision nozzles ensure grade purity

In order to remove faulty parts and foreign bodies, the conveyor belt ends at a deflection roller and the bulk material falls over an edge. While falling, one or more of the 32 installed high-precision nozzles eject a precisely targeted stream of air catapulting the NIO components from the trajectory into the reject container.

The good parts then fall freely into the receiving container. The air blasts from the nozzles are triggered by a high-speed control system (PLC), which in turn responds to commands from the image processing software.

The system can be quickly and easily adjusted to different products. No conversion or exchange of components is necessary, only a parameter change in the software programming.

The result is a fast, reliable and flexible sorting of any kind of bulk material – and, most importantly, the ultimate outcome is a pure end-product. o

What makes a hyperspectral camera special?

Like the human eye, an ordinary RGB camera works with the three basic colours: red, green and blue. By mixing these colours, all the hues of human vision can be represented. But the necessary distinction between slightly varying shades of 13

QUALITY SERIES | Post-Covid consumer perceptions Many established consumer insights have been upended this year, as the world continues to be impacted by the pandemic.

Following their recently released report, BioMérieux and Mérieux NutriSciences outline how consumer perceptions around food safety have altered since the onset of Covid19, and what this means for industry players in terms of recalibrating their operations and new product developments to accommodate such shifts.

ALTERED STATES e all know that understanding your consumer inside and out is crucial to the success of your products and brand, but the pandemic has rocked the world to its core, and the consumer profile you once knew may well have changed dramatically as a result.

All the needs, wants, values and priorities of our consumers have been thrown up into the air, and as they fall back down, how they settle will mean possibly re-evaluating product launches, brand values, and all manner of communication to your most important asset – your post-Covid19 consumer.

A recently published international consumer study released by Bio-Mérieux and Mérieux NutriSciences looked to better understand consumer perceptions around food safety since Covid-19, and whether their level of confidence in the food they eat has altered, as well as any changes they’ve made to eating habits. This study was carried out on consumers across France, India, China and the US, although the results were indicative of similar studies done on Australian consumers.

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Trust and confidence is now paramount

The results overall showed a heightened consumer interest in all areas of food safety, and an increased importance on trust and confidence in the food consumed, when comparing this year to 14

pre-pandemic times.

Across the four countries surveyed, consumers had differing criteria for defining the safety of the food, and identifying the best guarantee of safety of the food they buy. In France, 72 per cent placed most importance on origin and traceability of a product and ingredients.

In China, 49 per cent chose product composition (ingredients and additives), whilst in India and the US, 60 per cent and 54 per cent respectively chose the expiry date as the best guarantee of food safety.

What all consumers did agree on though were three topics of extreme concern in relation to food safety – the presence of chemicals such as pesticides, antibiotics, and additives in food; the presence of bacteria such as salmonella and listeria; and the increasing incidence of food fraud.

What this means for your NPD process

been of high importance to consumers in many markets around the world. But the change is that consumers – now more than ever before – are making brand and product choices based on higher levels of information, to give them a level of trust and confidence in the food they consume.

Moving forward, successful food companies will show traceability and transparency to their consumers by investing in blockchain technology, whole genome sequencing, and digital platforms monitoring food safety across the manufacturing sites. They will invest in and promote to consumers their commitment to food safety, which will also be well received in markets across the globe. Those already highly regulated markets like Australia will benefit from their already established reputation as producing ‘clean and green’ products with a high value and safety offer. o

In the future, consumers would be willing to change certain consumption habits such as being open to new packaging, shopping more frequently to reduce the need for preservatives in products, and buying imperfect fresh food that doesn’t have the usual shape and/or colour. They are also home cooking more, and consuming much less processed foods. They are eating more cereals and vegetables, and eating more food that can improve the immune system.

So what does all of this mean for your NPD process? Food safety has always

Mérieux NutriSciences has been working with Australian businesses for decades to ensure the safety and quality of their products.

Providing a unique suite of services, assistance is available at every step of the product lifecycle. Its Safety HUD program offers tailored monitoring of food fraud and safety alerts worldwide in real-time, and its partnership with Crystalchain offers a complete blockchain food traceability solution to further build trust with Australian consumers.

Visit: www.merieuxnutrisciences.com/au

QUALITY SERIES

DALTERFOOD INNOVATIONS BOOST STANDARDS IN PARMIGIANOREGGIANO SUPPLY CHAIN

ITALY: Animal welfare certification and digitised milk collection via the implementation of a ‘Milk Trace’ app are just two innovations to have recently come out of DalterFood Group, which continues investing to ensure that high standards prevail throughout its PDO Parmigiano Reggiano supply chain.

The projects involved the cheese factories located at Canossa and Cigarello – the latter being the biggest mountain cheese factory in the area.

DalterFood Group has been awarded voluntary supply chain certification for animal welfare, following the protocol created by the CReNBA, the Italian National Reference Centre for Animal Welfare. Given the lack of a European

animal welfare standard, the CReNBA-produced assessment handbooks for dairy cattle welfare form the reference document in Italy for this subject.

To be awarded this voluntary certification, which proves the use of milk from cowsheds that comply with animal welfare requirements, the farms selected by DalterFood Group had to pass an exam covering four macroareas of their business: company and staff management, facilities and equipment, animal living conditions at livestock farms, and biosafety.

The complex nature of this certification means it encompasses the activities of everyone in the production chain of this famous Emilian cheese: from 40 livestock farms to two cheese factories where it is processed, continuing on

with maturing rooms where the PDO Parmigiano Reggiano slowly matures, and then on to cutting, portioning and packaging at the Sant’Ilario d’Enza factory, right up to the end product storage warehouses where it waits to be shipped out to Italy and around the world.

“Animal welfare certification is an important recognition, and adds value to our farmers’ work, without whom we would have never been able to achieve this result,” remarked Alberto Viappiani, CEO of DalterFood Group. “At the same time, this certification also rewards the hard work which our group has put in to the supply chain, investing in cheese factories and human resources, with a truly unique approach in the PDO Parmigiano Reggiano sector.”

Another innovation that DalterFood Group has adopted to revolutionise the supply chain of this prestigious Italian cheese is ‘Milk Trace’ – an app on the

Android OS platform to trace milk collection, from the livestock farms to the two dedicated cheese factories. Each driver is given a smartphone and a portable printer and, during their two daily milk rounds, they collect information, updating the company database in realtime, which is used for administrative procedures relating to deliveries and all company reporting.

“Our digital system to manage the flow of milk collection through a mobile app is one of the most comprehensive and effective ones around, and means we have continuously up-to-date information in real-time”, added Mr Viappiani.

“The benefits obtained by the company are linked to process efficiency, which is now monitored day by day. It is another guarantee for the consumer of instant and accurate data traceability, which proves our group’s commitment to food safety.”

Krones employs deep learning for advanced empty bottle inspection GERMANY: Krones – a leading technology provider in the beverage and liquid-food space – has for the first time employed deep learning technology for enhanced automatic image detection.

The resultant Linatronic AI innovation drastically reduces both waste of material and commissioning times, the firm said “Anyone who works with empty bottle inspectors knows that not every bottle that the inspector rejects actually has a defect. In most cases, it might simply be water droplets or a bit of foam still clinging to the bottle after cleaning,” Krones said in a statement.

“Since conventional systems can’t always distinguish these from contaminants or damage with 100 per cent certainty, they tend to err on the side of caution and reject the container. As a result, in every production shift, countless perfectly usable bottles land in the trash, never to be seen again.”

To address this challenge, Krones’ new Linatronic AI employs deep learning software to automatically detect and classify anomalies, making it much smarter and more efficient than its conventional peers.

Deep learning is a technology that enables machines to do what we humans do naturally: learn from example. However, the one big difference is that a machine can use this ability many times more efficiently than can humans.

The foundation for deep learning is an artificial neural network (ANN). The ANN can be described as a complex system of multiple consecutive filters.

The images captured during the inspection process are fed through these filter layers, one after the other. Each layer extracts a different characteristic of the image. Since one filter’s output becomes the input for the subsequent filter, the complexity of an image’s char-

acteristics can be increased almost infinitely. The chain ranges from simply identifying dark or light pixels all the way to classifying very specific objects such as water droplets.

To ensure that the Linatronic AI applies these filters with the necessary precision in practice, it is trained ahead of time with pre-classified example images. In this way, its neural network learns to filter out and interpret the relevant image characteristics. Linatronic AI’s neural network was continually fine-tuned using thousands of example

images until it could accurately distinguish water droplets from other anomalies – with a reliability rate of over 99.9 per cent.

As a result, material wastage due to false rejects is no longer an issue; the time-consuming process of configuring the inspector during commissioning is also a thing of the past, while the neural network does not require manual calibration to local conditions. “Instead, the Linatronic AI is delivered fully trained and ready to start work,” a spokesperson for the firm stated.

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SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY | Cellular agriculture

UPENDING THE ‘CHICKEN OR EGG’ DEBATE Which came first? The chicken or the egg? If VTT’s cellular agriculture technology is anything to go by, the chicken could soon be taken out of the egg-production equation entirely. Food & Beverage Networker explores this recent winner of the European Association of Research & Technology Organisations (EARTO) Innovation Awards 2020 and finds that the Finnish research institute’s technology could hold the key to a secure and sustainable food future. ood production accounts for up to 25 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions and around 75 per cent of clean water consumption. In the decades ahead, the world’s population will continue to burgeon, and in tandem with the planet’s mounting climate change dilemma, this presents a considerable challenge in terms of both food security and sustainability. In response, researchers across the world are focusing their efforts

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on alternative means of food production, and one of the most promising could be so-called ‘cellular agriculture’ – that is, food production based on microbial and cellular systems.

Indeed, VTT scientists who have just developed a safe, environmentally sustainable and cost-effective method for mass production of high-value proteins – such as egg white – without using animals, forecast that cellular agriculture could lead to

disruptive change on a scale comparable to the agricultural revolution from the 1700 to 1900s.

Microbes and bioreactors Vs. fields and livestock

Cellular agriculture uses microbes and bioreactors instead of fields and farmed animals. Meanwhile, the ingredients used are simply water, glucose, various minerals, and Trichoderma reesei fungus – the latter

for large-scale (more than 300,000 litres) industrial production. The cost to produce egg white protein by cellular agriculture is competitive, when compared to the production costs of egg proteins from chickens. On the other hand, egg protein prices have been forecasted to increase, while fluctuation in egg prices has also raised concern in the food industry.

As a key partner in the cellular agriculture domain, VTT is currently developing the microbial production technology along with several leading start-up companies, and with long-term research and licensing agreements. So far, the expected financial and commercial demand for cellular agriculture globally is extremely high. “This is not only about chickens or about eggs; it is about creating completely new businesses to disrupt the food industry,” says Emilia Nordlund.

A new era of novel functional proteins

VTT’s foamed egg white

producing proteins from the former components. This biotechnical method can be compared to beer production, in which microbes produce alcohol with the help of sugar. In addition, the rennet used in cheese-making is currently produced by a corresponding biotechnology method.

The novel bioprocess developed by VTT is based on harnessing the Trichoderma reesei fungus, and offers a safe way to produce food proteins without the farming of livestock. The technology would eliminate the risk of salmonella and exposure to antibiotics (which are linked to livestock rearing), alongside contributing to food chain sustainability by reducing dependency on the farming of animals.

other than agricultural,” advised Emilia Nordlund, Research Team Leader at VTT. So far, the production method has been tested by VTT in a 300-litre bioreactor, from which it can easily be scaled up for larger production units, according to Christopher Landowski, leader of VTT’s protein production team.

Cost-competitive with egg prices

The production cost of the egg white protein produced by this method is estimated to be less than €10 per kilo and is suitable

VTT has comprehensive expertise in the production of various proteins by microbes – and led by Christopher Landowski, the team is also developing novel enzymes and biomaterials. For the food protein production, VTT has studied not only the egg proteins, but also other animal-based food proteins. In VTT’s trials, manufacturing of milk proteins in the microbe-based bioprocesses has also been evaluated, for example.

In the future, by applying biotechnical methods the properties of the egg white proteins can be further modified to improve their baking and foaming properties. The new technologies provide an opportunity to create novel functional proteins that can provide new eating experiences and sensations to the consumers – and an entirely new landscape of possibilities for the food industry. o

75% less GHGs emitted, 90% less land used

“The first calculations done by the University of Helsinki showed that producing egg-white protein in a cell factory generates around 75 per cent less greenhouse gases and uses 90 per cent less land than rearing chickens. The big change in land use is based on vertical rather than horizontal expansion. This frees up land for returning it to a natural state or a use 17

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Aleph Farms unveils prototype of first commercial ‘cultivated’ steak product ISRAEL: Aleph Farms Ltd is heading towards the transfer of its commercial product – thin-cut beef steaks – into a proprietary platform suitable for mass cultivation. The move paves the way for a widely available, sustainable, slaughter-free product with the same flavour, texture and nutritional attributes of meat.

The Israeli firm launched a prototype of its commercial product at the recent Asia-Pacific Agri-Food Innovation Summit in Singapore, as part of a virtual cooking demonstration hosted by Aleph Farms’ resident chef and VisVires New Protein VC. Aleph Farms’ unique platform for cultivating steaks from the non-GMO cells of a living cow effectively mirrors the natural process of tissue regeneration processes that occur in the animal’s body, but outside of it and under controlled conditions. The process is designed to use a fraction

of the resources required for raising an entire animal for meat, and without antibiotics.

To successfully grow whole pieces of meat (as opposed to minced meat product), the company mimics the extra-cellular matrix found in animals with a plant-based matrix that enables the cells to grow and form structured tissues of meat. Its ‘cell-banks’ yield an unlimited source of pluripotent, nonGMO cow cells’ for growing large quantities of meat without the dependency on living animals.

Aleph Farms has designed patented tissue cultivators to facilitate the biological process occurring in vivo, providing the warmth and basic animal-free elements needed to build tissue in nature. This includes water, proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals.

The firm’s beefed-up proof-ofconcept, which was first released

back in 2018, increases the size of its slaughter-free product, and sees it adapted to fit controlled, automated bioprocesses, in order to ensure economic viability in large-scale production.

The move marks a major leap in Aleph Farms’ goal of making cultivated meat widely available in the global community. The company is currently transitioning its commercial products to its pilot plant (BioFarmTM), with its launch of the pilot planned for the end of 2022.

“One of the big challenges of cultivated meat is the ability to produce large quantities efficiently at a cost that can compete with conventional

meat industry pricing, without compromising on quality,” said Didier Toubia, Co-Founder and CEO of Aleph Farms.

“We have developed five technological building blocks unique to Aleph Farms that are put into a large-scale production process, all patented by the company.”

Backed by some of the world's most innovative food producers, including Cargill, Migros and the Strauss Group, the Israeli company recently received top accolades for its contribution to the global sustainability movement from the World Economic Forum, UNESCO, Netexplo Forum and EIT Food.

Power-free cooling discovery could prove a revelation for cold chain USA: Engineers at MIT have developed a new two-layered material that could provide extended, power-free cooling to preserve the freshness of perishable goods.

Inspired by the thick coat of insulating fur that helps camels remain cool in the scorching desert environment, the new MIT-developed system uses a two-layer material to achieve a similar effect. The material’s bottom layer (substituting for the camel’s sweat glands) consists of hydrogel, a gelatine-like substance that consists mostly of water, contained in a sponge-like matrix from which the water can easily evaporate. This is then covered with an upper layer of aerogel, playing the part of fur by keeping out the

external heat while allowing the vapour to pass through.

Hydrogels are already used for some cooling applications, but field tests and detailed analysis have shown that this new two-layer material – just one centimetre thick – can provide cooling of more than 7ºC for five times longer than the hydrogel alone (more than eight days versus less than two).

The system, the researchers say, could be used for food packaging to preserve freshness and open up greater distribution options for farmers to sell their perishable crops. In addition to providing cooling, the passive system, powered purely by heat, can reduce the

A close-up of MIT researchers’ two-layer passive cooling system, made of hydrogel and aerogel.

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variations in temperature that the goods experience, eliminating spikes that can accelerate spoilage.

Research Scientist Nicola Ferralis explained that such packaging materials could provide constant protection of perishable foods or drugs all the way from the farm or factory, through the distribution chain, and on to the consumer’s home. In contrast, existing systems reliant on refrigerated trucks or storage facilities may leave gaps where temperature spikes can happen during loading and unloading. “What happens in just a couple of hours can be very detrimental to some perishable foods,” he said.

The basic raw materials involved in the two-layer system are inexpensive – the aerogel is made of silica, which is essentially beach sand, thus both cheap and abundant. However, the processing equipment for producing the aerogel is large and expensive, meaning that aspect will require further development to make it commercially viable. Nonetheless, at least one startup company is

already working on developing largescale processing for use of the material to make thermally insulating windows.

The hydrogel material is composed of 97 per cent water, which gradually evaporates away. In the experimental setup, it took 200 hours for a 5mm layer of hydrogel, covered with 5mm of aerogel, to lose all its moisture, compared to 40 hours for the bare hydrogel. The two-layered material’s cooling level was slightly less – a reduction of 7ºC (12.6ºF) versus 8ºC (14.4ºF) – but the effect was much longer lasting. Once the moisture has gone from the hydrogel, the material can be recharged with water so the cycle can begin again.

Especially in developing countries where access to electricity is often limited, such materials could be of great benefit, said MIT postdoc Zhengmao Lu. “Because this passive cooling approach does not rely on electricity at all, this gives you a good pathway for storage and distribution of those perishable products in general,” he said.

Kingsland Drinks expands portfolio with RTD pre-mix cocktails UK: Manchester-based Kingsland Drinks – one of the UK’s leading independent drinks companies – has launched a range of gin and vodka pre-mixed cocktails.

The four-can range, Mix Up, includes a classic gin & tonic, as well as a diet tonic offering, a strawberry-infused ‘pink’ gin & tonic, and a refreshing vodka, lemonade & lime.

The firm said its new ‘spirit mix in a can’ range is aimed at shoppers looking for a value, on-the-go drinks experience that doesn’t skimp on quality. The all-vegan range is also a lowcalorie offering at under 60kcal per can.

According to a recent study undertaken

by Kantar, this year the pre-mix category has grown in the UK by more than two million shopper occasions, to become the second largest alcohol occasion after single spirits.

“With consumers increasingly shopping to ‘stock up’ their cupboards, we’ve seen the premix cocktail category grow due to the demand for multi-buys,” observed Nathan McGivern, of Kingsland Drinks. “Much like shopping for beer, pre-mix consumers are looking for the convenience of having their go-to spirit combination in the fridge for when they fancy one.”

The drinks are currently available in 250ml cans, retailing in the UK at Co-Op, Nisa and Costcutter stores at an RRP of £1 per can.

Earlier this year, Kingsland Drinks dramatically expanded operations at its Manchester site with a new £1.2 million canning line, as the firm made its first foray into another emerging growth segment – the canned wine market.

NEW PRODUCTS

Paradise Fruits debuts new indulgent flavours @Food Matters Live GERMANY: Paradise Fruits Freeze Dried – a global supplier of natural food ingredients – has introduced a variety of new indulgent flavours to its ‘Crunchy’ range.

Launched during this year’s Food Matter Live virtual event, the leading ingredients producer showcased its new indulgent Crunchy flavours – salted caramel, cappuccino, caramel, toffee, honey, maple syrup and vanilla.

Manufactured through a special freeze-drying process, the firm’s Crunchy inclusions are available in bespoke shapes and can be cut into sizes from 1–10mm. The range can be tailored to suit the specific cus-

innovative Smoothee Drops – a range of naturally healthy, fruitbased snacks. Made using a gentle, low temperature production process that preserves the fruits’ natural goodness, the Drops can be supplied as single fruits or in combination with yoghurt, vegetables or added sugar. Boosting a product’s functionality and health benefits, Smoothee Drops can also be fortified with Vitamins, Omega-3 and Proteins.

Besana spreads clean label message with new nut butter line

ITALY/SWEDEN: Family-led Italian firm Besana – a major processor of nuts, seeds and fruits – is bringing its own line of nut butters to the Swedish market. Made entirely from nuts or seeds, and with no artificial ingredients, the new range encompasses four varieties – cashew butter, almond butter, seeds mix butter, and a nut mix butter – and will be sold under the Garant brand.

Besana has spent the past

CHAM FOODS LAUNCHES INSTANT PULSE AND GRAIN SOLUTIONS FOR RTE MEALS ISRAEL: Tel Aviv-headquartered Cham Foods Ltd has launched a line of dry, ready-to-eat (RTE) pulses and grains for instant meals and soups.

According to the firm, its new line of high-quality, non-GMO, conventional or organic legumes and whole grains maintains the full flavour and texture of grains and legumes. And while most

tomer tastes and requirements, including bespoke flavour combinations, strengths and 100-per-cent pure fruit mixes, as well as ‘out-ofthe-box’ possibilities.

“Our new indulgent range of Crunchy inclusions are perfect for use in sweets and snacks, as they are natural, lower in sugar than traditional ingredients, functional, full of flavour and give consumers the opportunity to enjoy a luxury treat, but without feeling guilty afterwards,” noted Richard Horsley, UK Sales Director for Paradise Fruits by Jahncke.

During the event, Paradise Fruits Freeze Dried also showcased its

pre-cooked legumes and grains undergo long, multi-step preparation that leaves them overcooked and looking ‘smashed’, Cham Foods instead “combines traditional methods with sophisticated technologies” to overcome challenges in crafting freeze-dried prepared ingredients, so as to preserve nutritional value.

year developing the nut butter range in response to growing consumer demand for healthy alternatives to more traditional spreads. It even overcame the challenges presented by Covid-19 to carry out meticulous internal and external panel tests, resulting in a product that it says meets the needs of the modern-day consumer. “With a high protein content, it is naturally rich in precious nutritional elements and totally

Cham’s advanced freeze-drying and pre-drying processes effectively preserve the products without added ingredients, and mean they enjoy a long shelf-life at ambient temperatures. The end product is about 30-per-cent of its original weight, and retains the original colour, shape, flavour, and nutritional value far better than with any other drying method, the firm said.

“Our RTE precooked pulses and grains can easily be integrated into any

free of preservatives, colourings and artificial flavours,” described Vittoria Calcagni, the group’s PR manager and fourth generation member of the family-owned business.

The products are suitable for vegans and those on lactose-free diets, while the packaging used on the new product line is 100per-cent recyclable As a leading supplier of nuts and dried fruits, Besana Group is already active in Scandinavia, and has worked with Axfood to supply the retailer’s premium branded range Garant for the past four years.

Ms. Calcagni revealed Besana is now working on new recipes with a view to expanding the range as early as next spring.

instant hotpot, saving time and labour for both food companies and consumers, taking the instant meal concept to new heights,” said Moran Avni, VP of Business Development of Cham Foods.

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CHALLENGES OF OUR TIMES | Brexit, Covid-19 and the rise in food fraud

UK FACES DOUBLE-THREAT OF RISING FOOD FRAUD The UK’s food sector is predicted to see a rise in food fraud off the back of Brexit and Covid-19, and should be moving to protect itself against such risks now, with quality assessment and analysis technology likely to be key tools in the fight against unsafe and subpar products and ingredients. aced with the dual-pronged threat of rising food fraud due to Brexit and Covid-19, Britain’s food industry must maintain its investments in proven systems of quality control and product testing in order to guard against this serious challenge to standards and integrity across the sector.

Technology firm Elementar UK is calling for businesses along the food supply chain to take proactive measures to

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address the growing influx of fake, adulterated and fraudulent food products that have been flooding the market over the last six months, as criminals take advantage of the widespread global disruptions caused by the worldwide pandemic.

Europol ops reveal extent of danger

Over the summer, Interpol and Europol co-ordinated Operation Opson IX, during which more than US$40 million of poten-

tially dangerous fake food and drink were seized, with 19 organised crime groups disrupted and 407 individuals arrested.

The items seized included cheese that tested positive for E.coli bacteria, meat from illegally slaughtered animals and 6,500 litres of expired drinks.

Of particular concern was the fact that many of the activities uncovered demonstrate that the Covid-19 crisis is providing ideal conditions for these criminals to

Products falsely claiming to be organic go on to be sold at higher prices. In a summer 2019 Europol-supported sting, more than 90,000 tonnes of suspicious organic products were checked, after which nine individuals were arrested by the Spanish Guardia Civil (SEPRONA).

operate. For instance, seizures of expired food items – or foods where the expiry dates had been altered – were significantly higher than during previous operations.

Another example was a seized shipment of seafood that was being smuggled through under the falsified declaration of being ‘personal protective equipment’.

Europe-wide systems of food standards regulation and quality control could create uncertainties that might be exploited by fraudsters. With no post-Brexit trade deal yet established between the UK and EU, and the current transitional agreement expiring on 31st December 2020, this ambiguity looks set to persist for some time.

Lockdowns impact quality checks

In recent months, organisations including Lloyd’s Register, the Food Authenticity Network Advisory Board, and Food Standards Scotland have all warned that the current pandemic is greatly increasing the risk of food fraud.

National lockdowns have disrupted regular business processes, meaning that quality checks may not be taking place across the supply chain as expected; at the same time, budget-conscious consumers may be becoming less discerning about from where they source their food, giving fraudsters another leg up.

Brexit could compound the problem

For businesses in the UK, this threat could now be compounded by the forthcoming impact of Brexit. A newspaper investigation in August 2020 revealed that funding for the National Food Crime Unit has risen from £420,739 (US$552,440) at its creation in 2015-16 to more than £5.7 million (US$7.48 million) in 2020-21, in large part due to a need to prepare against “any risks or opportunities presented by the UK’s exit from the EU”.

Concerns have persisted for months that the UK’s break from established

“Unprecedented challenges and an uncertain future”

“At the moment, the food industry is facing unprecedented challenges and an uncertain future,” observed Mike Seed, IRMS sales and product manager for Elementar UK. “With all of the disruptions to busi-

ness processes and forward planning, it is unsurprising that food suppliers are finding it harder to detect examples of fraud and maintain their quality control standards; however, it is crucial to their future success that they are able to solve this problem.”

With both of these factors conspiring to exacerbate the risk posed by food fraud to the industry, Elementar UK is calling on companies to ensure their approach to quality assessment and analysis of food products remains robust, throughout their supply chain. This can be achieved, at least in part, by making sure that their quality control labs are equipped with the technology needed to root out subpar ingredients and keep their customers safe. ‡

In Lithuania, customs seized some 335,000 counterfeit sweets packaged in a way to attract the attention of one of the most vulnerable consumer groups – children.

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CHALLENGES OF OUR TIMES | Brexit, Covid-19 and the rise in food fraud

Technology is key to combating food fraud

Stable isotope analysis is one of the most powerful methods available to the food industry for combating food fraud in all its forms, according to Mr Seed.

“By analysing the unique chemical signature or fingerprint of each food product, labs can gain important insights into their origins, properties and production methods, making it

much easier to identify evidence of fraud and adulteration,” he advised.

“These methods can be used to identify whether meats and fruit juices are really from their stated places of origin, or to find evidence of illegal additives and chemicals in products such as honey and wine. Such techniques can also be used to assess a product’s specific quality, such as protein or fibre content,” he told us.

“With so many modern stable isotope

analysers being designed to offer efficient, automated performance, it is vital that food analysis labs make sure they have the right equipment in place to carry out this essential work as smoothly as possible,” Mr Seed urged in closing. “At a time when other parts of the supply chain are facing such disruption, these labs can play a major role in overcoming the current challenges, simply by equipping themselves to deliver timely, accurate results.” o

Experts from Europol’s Intellectual Property Crime Coordinated Coalition (IPC3) supported the Italian NAS Carabinieri and the Tribunal of Darmstadt in Germany in the arrest of 20 individuals and the seizure of 150,000 litres of fake olive oil.

The criminals, who raked in up to €8 million every year in criminal profit, modified the colour of low quality oils to sell them on the Italian and German markets as extra virgin olive oil.

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SUSTAINABILITY | The Kids Food Pouch Recycling Programme

SHARING THE RECYCLING RESPONSIBILITY B Corporations Ella’s Kitchen and Danone Yogurt are partnering with TerraCycle to provide a UK-wide recycling solution for all baby food and yogurt pouches. The scheme calls on other F&B brands to join as co-sponsors and share the recycling responsibility. he UK’s number one baby food brand, Ella’s Kitchen, has announced its collaboration with Danone Yogurt and TerraCycle to launch the ‘Kids Food Pouch Recycling Programme’. Together, the organisations have called on other food brands that use flexible pouches across the UK to join them in their mission to ensure less packaging goes to landfill.

The Kids Food Pouch Recycling Programme launched in early November with approximately 500 public drop-off points around the UK – run by community recycling champions. It effectively offers a nationwide recycling solution for all baby food and yogurt pouches, as any brand of pouch will be accepted.

Ella’s Kitchen and Danone Yogurt are inviting other food brands to become cosponsors to increase the number of public drop-off points. By signing up, each brand would take responsibility for 100 drop-off points – and over the next three years, the scheme aims to expand by adding a number of new core partners. Their ambition is for all brands that have food pouches to help grow the programme and ultimately come together, across different categories, to tackle issues like product packaging and recycling.

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Consumer demand, environmental need

The Kids Food Pouch Recycling Programme builds on the brands’ own current schemes – EllaCycle and The Danone Yogurt Pouch Recycling Programme. Ella’s Kitchen was one of the first brands to partner with TerraCycle in the UK and created EllaCycle in 2010.

To date, EllaCycle has recycled over four

million pouches – and, despite Covid-19, saw a 90-per-cent increase in the number of pouches recycled from FY19 to FY20, showing the ever-increasing consumer demand for recycling solutions.

However, there is still more that needs to be done. Growing awareness of the negative environmental impact of plastic pollution and waste demands a response from businesses worldwide. Ella’s Kitchen and Danone Yogurt said they are taking the unique step of collaborating in order to share responsibility and do more to address this issue together.

Collaboration – not competition – is key

Ella’s Kitchen, Danone Yogurt and TerraCycle are all members of the UK Plastics Pact and committed to tackling the UK’s plastic pollution and waste problem. As certified B Corporations, Ella’s Kitchen and Danone UK also believe strongly that businesses should be the drivers of positive change, and that collaboration is key to making that change happen.

“If we are going to have any chance of tackling the environmental challenges our planet faces, from plastic pollution to climate change, then we need to work together,” remarked Mark Cuddigan, CEO of Ella’s Kitchen. “Every food brand should have their own recycling scheme, but individualism is getting in the way of the bigger picture – we need to be fostering collaboration not competition to make the most impact,” he stressed.

“The Kids Food Pouch Recycling Programme is by no means the only solution. At Ella’s Kitchen, we are committed to making our packaging widely recyclable by 2024 and to tackle the problem we all need to push for long-

term, kerbside recycling. Our mission has always been to give little ones the best start in life. We need to work together now to leave the planet in a better place for future generations.”

Creating new recycling points across the UK

“As certified B Corps, it’s important we work together to use business as a force for good, in this case leveraging our collective strength to support recycling systems in the UK,” commented Adam Grant, Regional VP of Danone Essential Dairy and Plant-Based in the UK and Ireland. “We recognise our responsibility for reducing our impact on the planet. That’s why our Danone Yogurt pots are already 100-per-cent recyclable and contain 30 per cent recycled PET. It’s also why we’re exploring alternative packaging solutions by offering our Danone Yogurt in a refillable glass jar through Loop’s zero waste shopping platform.”

Mr Grant urged other B Corps and food brands to join Danone, Ella’s Kitchen and TerraCycle in extending The Kids Food Pouch Recycling Programme, so that recycling points can become available for more families around the country.

Laure Cucuron, GM for TerraCycle Europe, remarked how great it was to see the two partners working together to create more opportunities for consumers to recycle. “We hope more brands who use pouches will see this as an opportunity to join the Kids Food Pouch Recycling Programme and work with Ella’s Kitchen and Danone to grow the initiative and offer their consumers a more accessible recycling solution in the UK.” o 23

SUSTAINABILITY | The transition to cage-free eggs

GLOBAL PROGRESS TOWARDS

THE ETHICAL EGG A new report from Compassion in World Farming highlights global progress in sourcing cage-free eggs, despite the impact of the pandemic on food supply chains. espite the impact of the Covid-19 crisis, companies and producers continue to make progress on their commitments to source only eggs from hens that are cage-free by 2026 or sooner, according to Compassion in World Farming’s annual EggTrack report.

According to the 2020 report – the first to expand beyond the US and Europe to include global company commitments – 134 of 210 (63 per cent) of companies tracked made progress towards meeting their cage-free commitments. Of those 210 companies, 80 operate globally, 57 operate only in North America or the US, and 73 operate only in Europe.

For the first time, EggTrack provides a true ‘birds-eye’ view of the global egg market and shows that the rise in

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demand for cage-free eggs is growing globally – and having a notable impact on the market.

Global cage-free commitments

Since 2016, the number of companies with global cage-free commitments has grown from five to more than 37. This list includes global giants like Unilever, Nestlé, Grupo Bimbo, Compass Group, Aldi Nord, and Aldi Sud. Impressively, Italian family-owned pasta giant Barilla has already met its global cage-free commitment – in July 2019 – meaning higher welfare standards for the nearly two million hens producing approximately 24,000 tons of eggs for the Group’s operations.

At the same time, a significant number of multinational companies such

as internationally recognised brands like McDonald’s, Subway, Walmart and Burger King, have committed to eliminate cages in some regions although have yet to extend those commitments across their entire global supply chains. “Laying hens experience the same physical, behavioural, and psychological distress of being caged wherever they are reared,” said Compassion in World Farming in a recent statement.

“We therefore look forward to these global giants extending their cage-free commitments soon.”

EggTrack’s annual progress reporting

Compassion in World Farming launched EggTrack four years ago to monitor food companies’ progress towards their commitments to purchase 100-per-cent cage-free

eggs. Companies were selected based on their size, egg footprint, market influence and commitment deadline and were asked to publicly disclose or update their cagefree percentage this year ahead of 31 July 2020. All information in the tracker is based on companies’ publicly disclosed information, as public progress-reporting demonstrates that a company holds itself accountable to the commitment it makes.

“EggTrack, with its annual progress reporting, enables Compassion to offer timely help, advice and support for companies making the transition to cage-free systems, for all eggs, including the often forgotten ‘ingredients eggs’,” said the NGO in a statement.

Egg Track’s company highlights for 2020

• General Mills increased its global cage-free sourcing from 40–55 per cent • Danone increased its global cage-free sourcing from 43–88 per cent • Aramark, Sodexo and Compass Group all reported global and US progress across all egg types: shell, liquid and processed • McDonald’s is reporting 100-percent cage-free shell eggs in Europe. The firm has achieved cage-free status on both shell eggs and egg product/ingredients in four European countries (UK, Germany, France, and the Netherlands), although it does not yet have a global cagefree commitment.

• Subway is reporting 100-per-cent cage-free for both shell eggs and egg products/ingredients in Europe, although it does not yet have a global cage-free commitment.

• Barilla is the only company to have met its global cage-free commitment, in 2019.

Fairburn & Son in the UK) reported progress for the first time in 2020.

EggTrack also highlights major progress in Europe, with companies such as Costa Coffee, Hilton Worldwide and Gruppo Cremonini beginning to report, while Greggs, Starbucks and Aldi Nord are nearing completion of their current cage-free egg commitments.

Slow progress for some firms

However, while many companies have stood by their commitments, others are falling behind. In Europe, at least 19 companies have transitioned less than half of their supply, three of which have transitioned a quarter (or less) of their supply.

Despite the slow progress of some companies, 42 per cent of 2025 commitments are being reported on (versus 30 per cent last year).

While some companies have missed deadlines, they can at least be given credit for still reporting what progress they have managed to make. Others have omitted their cage-free commitments from the public domain entirely – either as a result of an intentional retraction or an inadequate prioritisation of animal welfare commitments during website updates and changes.

Accelerating the transition

With fewer than five years to meet a 2025 cage-free commitment deadline (2026 for some businesses in the US), Compassion in World Farming has urged companies to speed up their rate of transition. However, the NGO has also cautioned firms to steer clear of opting for systems that are not

future-proof or which pose a risk to a truly cage-free future. “‘Combination’ and ‘limited access’ systems, which are marketed by manufacturers as ‘cage-free’ and endorsed by some industry groups, represent high risk. These systems have internal partitions and doors which, when closed, turn back to a colony cage, and are operated at very high stocking densities. They limit hen movement and cannot be considered as truly cage-free,” the organisation stated. “Companies must do their due diligence to ensure these systems are not used and instead invest in well-designed, spacious aviary systems that meaningfully improve the lives of laying hens.”

Dr Tracey Jones, Director of Food Business at Compassion in World Farming concludes: “It has never been clearer that the future of egg production will be – and must be – cage-free. This year’s EggTrack report shows that although progress has been made – which is remarkable against the backdrop of the Coronavirus pandemic – there is still considerable work to be done, especially as we increase our focus at a global level and track commitments for all egg types, not just shell.

“Companies are leading the way on a cage-free future, but building a supply chain capable of meeting the 2025 demand for cage-free eggs will take time and co-operation between producers and purchasers,” he stressed in closing. “It also requires investment into well-designed systems if we are to deliver the expected welfare benefits that can stand the test of time for consumer acceptability.” o www.ciwf.org.uk

Last year, Italian pasta giant Barilla became the first firm to achieve its global cage-free commitment

Promising rise in reporting

In Europe, EggTrack has seen an increase in companies reporting on their transition to cage-free eggs (as part of a global or regional commitment), from 57 in 2018, to 83 in 2020. Of that 83 firms, 53 reported fully against all relevant egg types (shell, liquid and processed), and 30 reported progress for only part of their commitment.

Nineteen companies reported meeting European commitments this past year including Unilever, Caffè Nero and Groupe Holder in France, while 15 (including Bennet, Groupe Avril, and LJ 25

SUSTAINABILITY

Altia to launch world’s first vodka made from regeneratively farmed barley

FINLAND: Koskenkorva Vodka Climate Action – the first product developed in the long-time collaboration between leading Nordic drinks brand company Altia, farmer Jari Eerola and the Baltic Sea Action Group (BSAG) – is on course to become the world’s most sustainable vodka when it launches next year, as the first vodka made entirely from regeneratively farmed barley.

“We don’t want to do our work at the expense of our planet,” stressed Pekka Tennilä, CEO of Nasdaq Helsinki listed Altia.

“Sustainable barley farming is one of the ways we aim to honour this goal, as barley cultivation is one of the major factors contributing to the carbon footprint of our products. Our collaboration with BSAG has given us access to the most up-to-date research findings and best practices.”

More broadly speaking, Koskenkorva Vodka’s production is based on the circular economy. The distillery has a 99.9-per-cent recycling rate, and even the husks of the barley left over from vodka distillation are used to power the distillery’s own bioenergy plant.

In addition to grain spirit, the Koskenkorva plant produces starch and raw materials for animal feed – and the CO2 generated in the process is collected and used in greenhouse cultivation. Koskenkorva’s

investment in the circular economy led it to be awarded the Green Company of the Year accolade by the Spirits Business.

All the barley used in the production of Koskenkorva Vodka Climate Action was farmed earlier this year at the Setälä-Eerola, which adheres to BSAG’s guidelines on practices for regenerating agriculture: soil coverage is maximised on fields all year round, crop rotation and minimum tilling is applied, and organic fertilisers are used.

“Koskenkorva Vodka Climate Action is an important innovation for us, because it takes the brand another step closer to its goal of being the world’s most sustainable vodka,” noted Suvi Reinikkala, Marketing Director of Spirits at Altia, who added that the new spirit will be available in early 2021.

NESTLÉ INVESTS $30M IN FUND TO HELP ACCELERATE SHIFT TO FOOD-GRADE RECYCLED PLASTICS USA: Nestlé has announced a US$30 million investment in the private equity fund of circular economy investment firm Closed Loop Partners, in order to lead the shift from virgin plastics to the use of food-grade recycled plastics in the US. The new investment is the first to utilise Nestlé's packaging venture, the Closed Loop Leadership Fund – established earlier this year, as part of the firm’s overall investment of up to CHF 2 billion (US$2.18bn) to accelerate the development of innovative sustainable packaging solutions.

This initial investment, which will help upgrade US recycling infrastructure and secure access to food-grade recycled plastics, is one of many solutions Nestlé is exploring to address the global plastic waste challenge, said Véronique Cremades-Mathis, the firm’s Global Head of Sustainable

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Packaging. “It will help create a more sustainable recycling system and, at the same time, assist us in achieving our commitment to reduce our use of virgin plastics by one third by 2025. This is particularly important as increasing the use of recycled plastics could substantially reduce the environmental impact of our packaging.”

Closed Loop Leadership Fund was created to acquire companies along the value chain with a view to building circular supply chains. The private equity fund invests in firms that aim to increase recycling rates in the US and keep valuable materials in packaging supply chains by integrating and improving all aspects of supply chains – from access, collection and sortation to processing.

According to the country’s Environmental Protection Agency, the US recycling rate for all mate-

rials, including plastics, is currently around 25 per cent. “It is important that we do our part to help keep recyclable materials out of landfills, and increase recycling rates in the US – and this investment is a significant move in that direction. It is also a critical step in our effort to secure access to highquality, food-grade recycled plastics which can be converted into new packaging material for use across our product portfolio,” said Steve Presley, Chairman and CEO of Nestlé USA. Through its acquisitions, the Closed Loop Leadership Fund' aims to increase recycling rates by an additional 25 percentage points in areas serviced by the portfolio companies.

SORMA GROUP INTRODUCES NEW ECO-FRIENDLY PACK WITH ‘BREATHABLE’ WINDOW ITALY: Sorma Group – a leading provider of packaging, packaging materials and packaging equipment for the fruit and vegetable sector – is to introduce 100-per-cent paper packs featuring a cellulose mesh window. The window will enable the product inside to ‘breathe’, thus prolonging shelf-life and ensuring good visibility.

“With this new packaging line, we are enhancing and completing our range with a focus on environmental sustainability, and we are meeting the demands of consumers who are paying increasing attention to this issue,” explained Andrea Casali, Sales Director for Italy at Sorma Group. “Indeed, we have been constantly moving in this direction for several years: from the single-material recyclable plastic line, which we have gradually made 60-70-per-cent lighter, to the innovative Sormapeel line that we patented and launched on the market at the start of this year, which is revolutionary in terms of the way it integrates plastic and paper, offering a high-performance, robust and functional design – and finally, the packaging made of 100-per-cent compostable material introduced last autumn.”

Sorma Group’s paper packaging will be available in five models. Every version is made of 100-per-cent paper certified by FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) and features the innovative cellulose viscose mesh ‘window’.

A key advantage is the new material’s adaptability to packaging machines: it will be possible to use the paper on the SBU model of Sorma packaging machines, which is already widely used, by applying a simple kit – thus negating the need to purchase special paper processing machines, resulting in significant cost savings.

Sorma Group has already started testing its new packs, with “extremely positive” results to date, according to Mr Casali. “Specifically, we’ve introduced the paper line on the French market, which is one of the most receptive and discerning with regard to recyclable paper solutions,” he told us. “Tests have also been conducted in Italy with Romagnoli F.lli S.p.A. – one of the main Italian companies operating in the processing and marketing of fruit and vegetables,” he advised, adding that Sorma expected the new solution to be available on the market by the end of the year.

SPECIAL REPORT | THAIFEX – Anuga Asia 2020

SHINING A LIGHT ON THE F&B INDUSTRY’S FUTURE Leading regional F&B trade show ‘THAIFEX – Anuga Asia’ successfully concluded its 2020 event, becoming one of the continent’s first post-Covid-19 international trade expos to open, as Thailand gets back to business. midst a challenging business climate, THAIFEX Anuga Asia attracted an impressive 797 exhibitors and 21,104 trade visitors at IMPACT Muang Thong Thani exhibition centre in Bangkok, standing as testament to the tradeshow’s value to the F&B industry, even during such challenging conditions.

Aside from a strong turnout from the local community, international businesses from countries like Brazil, Indonesia, Italy, Korea, Norway, Poland and USA also participated in the premier trade event via their local representative offices.

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The region’s leading F&B platform

The proven track record of THAIFEX Anuga Asia was bolstered this year due to the event being jointly hosted by two renowned brands – THAIFEX and Anuga – and resulted in resounding success.

Even after the physical event in Bangkok closed its doors, businessmatching opportunities continued with the introduction of a new Virtual Meet element extending the anchor-networking platform – The Hosted Buyer Programme. Ensuring that exhibitors achieve maximum exposure and buyers continue to enjoy extensive sourcing opportunities, the Virtual Meet facilitated interactions with a carefully curated group of over 500 international buyers – representatives from hypermarkets, convenience store chains, e-commerce groups and others, including METRO, Circle K and Lazada Group.

Laurent Pousse, GM of International Sourcing Department (Fresh & Grocery) at The Mall Group Co. Ltd, emphasised the importance of THAIFEX Anuga Asia as one of the first F&B trade shows to take place in the post-Covid-19 era. “F&B is a key industry and extending our network of sourcing partners is essential – so, in a year with so many ups and downs, and serious unpredictability in business outlook, an event like THAIFEX Anuga Asia with both physical and virtual interaction is a shining

opportunity in difficult times. Face-to-face interaction is still irreplaceable for industries like F&B.” Highlights from the hybrid show

This year’s THAIFEX Anuga Asia tradeshow included both online and offline elements with virtual options made available for selected event highlights, enabling the organisers to provide event participants with a similar variety and quality of activities while not compromising on safety and security.

A great example is how the Future Food Experience+ successfully returned this year as an entirely digital experience – with 13 industry leaders sharing F&B insights and engaging in discussions about future trends in South East Asia with more than 1,100 registered participants via webinars.

Other key online elements included video streaming on Facebook Live, with 4,154 viewers watching 62 live sessions over three days, an upgraded online platform for buyers to obtain quotes and information from exhibitors, and the THAIFExporter, a virtual initiative by the Department of International Trade Promotion (DITP) to facilitate international business negotiations. The programme accepted 1,018 matching requests, bridging 261 Thai exporters with 752 international buyers.

William Silva dos Santos, Head of Trade at the Embassy of Brazil, said his organisation was “grateful for how the trade show pushed on with an inventive twist this year to overcome geographical borders, enabling companies to network with partners across the world and form new business partnerships amidst these challenging times.”

Preparing for the future

Discovering and nurturing new industry leaders is vital if the F&B industry is to continue to thrive in the years ahead.

THAIFEX Anuga Asia has long provided a platform for start-ups and technology com-

panies to boost their visibility and make the right connections for growing their business. This year’s THAIFEX-Anuga Startup in the Tech Pavilion featured no less than 27 such local companies, offering these innovative fledgling businesses access to key decision-makers and investors.

Provided with a precious stage to pitch novel ideas both offline and online, startups like Robomotion Technik Co. Ltd were given plenty of opportunity to shine, with the firm’s MD Chatchai Pholmoon describing participation in THAIFEX Anuga Asia as “extremely beneficial”.

“It’s proved a major boost to our business outlook, as 2020 has been very unpredictable and this has been the only event of its kind carried out this year,” he observed. “It’s helped us take our business to the next level.”

Reinforced commitment to Thailand

With the size of the regional market reaching US$123.8 billion in 2019, and with revenue figures projected to further increase in 2020, F&B will continue to be a key sector for Asia. In spite of the challenges thrown up by Covid-19, new opportunities continue to emerge, and businesses must form the right partnerships to effectively adapt and succeed.

“THAIFEX Anuga Asia is proud to reinforce its commitment to Thailand with the successful completion of the trade show.

We hope that the event can represent the bright future for the F&B industry in not only Thailand but also the rest of the world,” said the event organisers. “We look forward to coming back even stronger next year, with the tripartite collaboration between Koelnmesse, DITP and TCC enabling THAIFEX Anuga Asia to continue steadfastly supporting F&B businesses to scale new heights.” o THAIFEX Anuga Asia returns to Bangkok from 25–29 May 2021. For more details, visit: https://thaifex-anuga.com/en/ 27

SPECIAL REPORT | Nutraceutical & Functional Food Asia Pacific Summit

NEW FRONTIERS IN FUNCTIONAL FOOD Gathering delegates from across the functional food and nutraceuticals industry, the Nutraceutical & Functional Food Asia Pacific Summit, which returns to Singapore from 16-17 December 2020 for its fifth edition, will explore the latest trends and most pressing developments in the fast-paced Asian market. overnment officials, researchers, analysts, and representatives from leading companies and industry associations based all over the world are set to convene on the island state of Singapore in December for the fifth Nutraceutical and Functional Food Asia Pacific Summit.

Organised by Duxes, and attracting delegates from across the functional food and nutraceuticals industry space, the prestigious Summit will explore the dynamics impacting the industry at present, and the strategies and solutions to enable businesses to leverage on the opportunities set to unfold in the years ahead.

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What you will learn?

• Insights into the current state of consumer health, highlighting the vibrancy of dietary and nutritional food supplements in Asia Pacific markets.

• Authoritative interpretation of the latest market entry challenges, registra28

tion processes and regulatory updates for dietary supplements and nutrition ingredients in China, Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand and other jurisdictions.

• Find out about new sales channels, and co-operate with local distributors and e-commerce retailers.

• Learn more on the value of gut health, and explore the latest innovations in the probiotics and soluble fibre space.

• Tap into the growing weight management and sports nutrition markets to meet the demands of new consumer groups.

• Focus on brain health, healthy ageing, and infant health to help the next generations grow up healthily; learn how practitioners can improve the health of the elderly.

• Open up new opportunities for novel technologies and processes; discuss value, ingredients, challenges and innovation trends like plant-based meat, CBD and

alternative protein.

• Discover fast-growing products in the beauty supplements sector; discuss popular ingredients such as protein, coenzyme Q10, vitamins, and more.

• Explore the latest innovations in CBDbased products; discover the marketing potential for CBD in Asia Pacific countries.

• Gain the opportunity to meet potential investors, boost your company by learning about business incubators, and discover innovative start-ups.

The fifth Nutraceutical & Functional Food Asia Pacific Summit returns to the Singapore Marriott Tang Plaza Hotel from 16-17 December 2020. o For further information, please contact Ms. Cindy Cui, Tel.: + 86 21 5258 8005 Ext. 8253; email: events@duxes.cn or visit the event website: https://www.duxesfoodbeverage.com/functionalfoodNFAP/index.html

SPECIAL REPORT | Fi Europe CONNECT 2020 Fi Europe CONNECT 2020 is a new virtual event offering participants access to the global food & beverage ingredients industry, alongside the tools and collaboration opportunities that every player in the segment requires to help meet their business objectives.

BE A PART OF TOMORROW’S TRENDS ith the food & beverage industry shifting at a rapid pace in response to unforeseeable change, the organisers of Fi Europe – Europe’s leading trade event and conference for the food ingredients segment – have created an online platform event designed to keep its community up-to-date on the latest developments, innovations, challenges and opportunities through 10 days of unmissable content and educational sessions.

Running from 23 November to 4 December, Fi Europe CONNECT’s highlights include 16+ live sessions featuring leading food and beverage industry experts from across the world; over 8,000 attendees with whom participants can connect via the platform’s AI-driven matchmaking tool; and more than 300 exhibitors showcasing a wide variety of food ingredients and solutions.

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addition to active lifestyles, learn about what products and supplements help boost physical and cognitive endurance.

THE FUTURE OF NUTRITION: Discover more on what the future of specialised nutrition looks like in a post-Covid-19 world, and which trends will stick.

TASTE & TEXTURE: How to deliver the taste and texture experience that customers expect, alongside insights on new flavours and growth strategies for natural flavours.

FOCUS ON SUSTAINABILITY: Learn more about how ‘Upcycled’ is

becoming as universally recognised (and sought after) as ‘organic’.

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT: Gain insight on how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected food safety, alongside the challenges faced by players throughout the supply chain.

To access the full Fi Europe Connect Agenda, visit: www.figlobal.com/fieurope/en/agenda-2020.html Get your free visitor pass for the virtual event here: www.figlobal.com/fieurope/en/lpppc/fi-connect.html

10 days of unmissable content

PLANT-BASED INGREDIENTS: From 3D-printed steak to bleeding burgers, demand for plant-based alternatives is soaring.

REGULATIONS ON PLANTBASED: Learn more about the regulatory aspects of plant-based and naturally occurring substances.

BEVERAGE INGREDIENTS: Find out more about trending beverage ingredients, sweeteners and more for the global beverage market in 2021.

ACTIVE & PERFORMANCE: In 29

SPECIAL REPORT | EquipHotel WEEK

EQUIPHOTEL GOES VIRTUAL The world’s leading hospitality sector event may have postponed, but virtual EquipHotel WEEK will offer HoReCa professionals a great opportunity to gain vital insights via webinars and interviews, alongside access to 3D showrooms, product pitches and the show’s renowned innovation awards. rom 16–20 November, professionals spanning the length and breadth of the HoReCa segment – from hoteliers, to chefs, restaurateurs, architects, decorators, and investors – are invited to access a series of premium content, live or replayed: webinars, product pitches, interviews, virtual showrooms, contests, and much more. Indeed, EquipHotel WEEK – EquipHotel's digital event – aims to offer moments of exchange, discovery, inspiration and interaction that would otherwise be deemed impossible in these uncertain times.

“Unfortunately, the current situation with Covid-19 and the ban on social gatherings has forced us to postpone the 2020 edition of EquipHotel,” lamented Béatrice Gravier, Show Director of EquipHotel for Reed Exhibitions. “Our next physical event will therefore take place in November 2022. We sincerely regret this decision, especially as it happened in this context amidst such a difficult crisis – at a time when professionals have a strong need to meet, network and exchange dialogue.”

However, in a proactive response to such challenges, Reed Exhibitions has decided to offer access to the EquipHotel WEEK platform, featuring a programme of exclusive content to support companies in the development of their business, Ms Gravier noted. “Join us online from 16th November – and follow live, or replay our daily programme of conferences, product and service presentations, and an array of speeches from industry experts.”

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Designed to inspire

“Come and listen to our partners, architects and designers, sharing with us the story of the inspirational sets that feature at EquipHotel,” Ms Gravier continued.

“It’s an opportunity to better understand how the Resto des Chefs, The Suite Space, The Bar Space and other trend spaces are designed to inspire you, alongside showcasing the latest novelties and innovations in the industry.”

This impressive week of online programmes and events will commence on Monday 16th November, she continued.

“We will then come back throughout 2021 and continue to accompany and support the EquipHotel community as best we can, staying ahead of the trends with exclusive industry content. We hope to see you soon.”

EquipHotel WEEK programme

WEBINAR: Find live or pre-recorded webinars by industry professionals, offering valuable insight on the latest trends and innovations, alongside the opportunity to exchange with them on challenges faced by the hotel and restaurant industry.

PITCH PRODUCTS: Discover the products, services and solutions provided

by HotelEquip’s exhibitors and partners in a short and dynamic format – ideal for keeping up to date with what's new.

WORD OF AN EXPERT: The floor is given to the experts who keep the Hospitality sector alive: a concise and dynamic format in response to a topical issue, or exploring the expertise of the show’s exhibiting partner companies.

SHOWROOM 3D: Enjoy the virtual, immersive experience of showrooms designed by interior designers – discovered via a 3D walk-through.

INNOVATION AWARDS: A real highlight for Hospitality professionals.

Discover the product/ solution innovations of the candidates for the Innovations Awards, in partnership with the Ferrières Campus – and vote for your favourites from 16–20 November.

ARTICLES AND WHITE PAPERS: Check out news from EquipHotel’s press partners (including Food & Beverage Networker), encompassing industry articles and white papers – content available anywhere, anytime.

JOB OPPORTUNITY: In partnership with Ambassade Cabinet Conseil, this feature of the virtual event offers a unique opportunity to recruit or be recruited – 100 per cent online, via video conference. o Please note: EquipHotel’s organisers have advised that the week-long event’s content will be in French, although translation will be available for certain features of the show.

For further details on EquipHotel WEEK (16–20 November), go to: www.equiphotel.com/en-gb/theshow/equiphotel-week.html

CALENDAR OF EVENTS | November 2020 – June 2021 Africa Food Manufacturing – Egypt’s biggest F&B processing & packaging expo. Co-located with Fi Africa and ProPak MENA. Cairo, Egypt www.africa-foodmanufacturing.com * POSTPONED: To be rescheduled in 2021, new date to follow.

NOVEMBER 2020 EquipHotel 2020 – International expo for the Hospitality & Foodservice sectors.

(VIRTUAL EVENT) www.equiphotel.com/en-gb 16–20 November 2020 Fi Europe CONNECT 2020 – New virtual event offering participants access to the global F&B ingredients industry.

(VIRTUAL EVENT) www.figlobal.com/fieurope/en 23 November – 4 December 2020

DECEMBER 2020

Specialty Food Live! 2021 – 2nd edition of the all-inclusive digital marketplace event, powered by the organiser of North America’s largest speciality food show.

(VIRTUAL EVENT) www.specialtyfood.com/shows-events/specialtyfood-live-2021/ 19–22 January 2021 ProSweets Cologne 2021 – World’s leading supplier fair for the sweets and snacks industry; co-located with ISM Cologne, the leading sweets and snacks trade fair.

Cologne, Germany www.prosweets.com 31 January – 3 February 2021

FEBRUARY 2021 ANUTEC International FoodTec India – Leading B2B platform for the F&B suppliers industry.

Co-located with Annapoora Anufood India 2020, PackEx India, Food Logistics India, and ANUTEC Ingredients India.

Mumbai, India www.anutecingredientsindia.com 3–5 February 2021

PLMA’s World of Private Label – The Private Label Manufacturers Association’s international tradeshow goes virtual.

(VIRTUAL EVENT) www.plma.nl/visitonline 1–4 December

Gulfood 2021 – The Middle East’s largest F&B industry event.

Dubai, UAE www.gulfood.com 21–25 February 2021

Future Food-Tech – Focused on strengthening North America’s food system in a post-Covid-19 world.

(VIRTUAL EVENT) https://futurefoodtechnyc.com/ 2–3 December 2020

Interpack 2021 – Leading expo for processing & packaging technology.

Düsseldorf, Germany www.interpack.com 25 February – 3 March 2021

APRIL 2021 Natural & Organic Products Europe – Incorporating the Natural Food Show and Natural Health.

London, UK www.naturalproducts.co.uk 18–19 April 2021 The Kenya Food Event (KFE) – East Africa’s primary expo serving the F&B and hospitality industries.

Nairobi, Kenya www.kenyanfoodevent.com 20–22 April 2021 Anufood China 2021 – Leading F&B expo for southern China.

Shenzhen, China www.anufoodchina.com 21–23 April 2021

MAY 2021 TuttoFood 2021 – Expo where Italian agri-food excellence meets leading international F&B companies.

Milan, Italy www.tuttofood.it 17–20 May 2021 Thaifex Anuga Asia 2021 – Powered by Thaifex and Anuga, with 11 F&B trade shows under one roof.

Bangkok, Thailand https://thaifex-anuga.com/en 25–29 May 2021

JUNE 2021 Nutraceutical & Functional Food Asia Pacific Summit Singapore www.duxes-foodbeverage.com/functionalfood-NFAP 16–17 December 2020

JANUARY 2021 7th Annual Food & Drink Trends and Innovations Conference – Brand-led F&B conference & networking event.

London, UK (event will be virtual if Covid-19 restrictions are in place) www.foodanddrinkconference.com 14 January 2021

MARCH 2021 FHA-Food & Beverage – Asia’s largest F&B trade event.

Singapore www.fhafnb.com 2–5 March 2021 Food Matters Live virtual experience – Providing F&B and sustainable nutrition professionals with the connections and industry insights required to get ahead.

(VIRTUAL EVENT) www.foodmatterslive.com 9–10 March 2021

Alimentec 2021 – The region’s leading expo for the F&B and hospitality industries.

Bogota, Colombia https://feriaalimentec.com/en 8–11 June 2021 Organic Food Iberia – Event for trade buyers to source the best organic F&B from around the world. Co-located with Organic Wine Iberia.

Madrid, Spain www.organicfoodiberia.com 9–10 June 2021

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Company Profile: Hiperbaric Written by GEMMA KENT

THRIVING UNDER PRESSURE Hiperbaric is the world’s leading manufacturer of high-pressure processing (HPP) equipment for the food industry, with an impressive track record of pioneering technological development. As the Spanish company celebrates its 20th anniversary, Sales Manager Mr Alejandro Blanco highlights some of the unique innovations that Hiperbaric has brought to market in the field of HPP – a technology that effectively inactivates harmful foodborne bacteria while extending shelf life and keeping organoleptic and nutritional quality intact, without the use of preservatives.

he global food industry is increasingly moving toward new product development and innovative initiatives through new processing methods that deliver unprecedented results, and one of the most successful developments to date is high-pressure processing (HPP). A cutting-edge, all-natural process, HPP is a cold pasteurisation technique by which food products are introduced into a vessel and subjected to a high level of isostatic pressure transmitted by water.

Its ability to inactivate spoilage and harmful micro-organisms (i.e., bacteria, viruses, yeasts, moulds and parasites) present in food while extending shelf life, retaining nutrition properties and guaranteeing food safety has led to HPP becoming the fastest growing non-thermal processing technology for food and beverages. The wide array of applications

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include meat and poultry products, fruits and vegetables, juices and beverages, seafood, baby food and even pet food.

Hiperbaric has been a specialist in the design, manufacture and marketing of HPP equipment for the food industry since its inception in 1999, when it was established as part of the Nicolas Correa Group, a company with more than 65 years of experience in building milling machinery. The Spanish firm has since gone on to become the world’s leading manufacturer of high-pressure processing equipment for the food industry.

A new angle

“The company was conceptualised by its CEO, Andrés Hernando, who had previously worked for Campofrío, one of the largest meat companies in Spain,” Mr Blanco begins. “Mr Hernando knew that

the meat sector was looking for different technologies to process food with minimal impact to the product, while he also anticipated that the wider food industry would be looking to manufacture more safe, natural and fresh products.”

With that vision, Mr Hernando founded Hiperbaric in the northern Spanish city of Burgos, where its headquarters remain today, and the company set to work on designing its first HPP prototype machine for Campofrío. “In 2002, we successfully installed our prototype machine for processing dry cured meat products at Campofrío’s factory in Burgos,” recalls Mr Blanco, “marking our first step towards becoming the world leader of HPP equipment for the food sector – and today we continue to serve Campofrío as our valued customer.

“Aside from being our first installation, ‡

Alejandro Blanco, Sales Director

Andrés Hernando, CEO

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this project was also a major milestone because we had pioneered the first-ever horizontal design of an HPP machine, which remains the most efficient design available today. Prior to that, the machines were vertical, meaning the food product would have to be loaded into the top of the vessel using a small crane, making it difficult to install because it would first require a well to be dug out in the ground,” he explains. “With a view to making HPP machines easier for customers to install and use, our engineers developed a horizontal machine, where the product is loaded in on the left for processing and unloaded on the right, which is far easier to manage.”

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World best sellers

In 2003, Hiperbaric installed its first machine outside Spain, in Italy, and in 2005 the company ventured into Asia, installing its first HPP equipment in Japan.

“This was a proud moment for us, given the high-tech nature of the Japanese market,” reflects Mr Blanco. “Also that year, we achieved our first installation in the US for a producer of clean-label sliced meat products.”

The company continued its international expansion over the following years, with installations in new countries over five continents, as well as growing its existing business. “The high demand we were experiencing from customers in the US eventually led to the opening of our office in Miami, Florida, in 2012,” he reports. “In fact, the US is our largest market today, and our Miami office enables us to provide customers with the best-possible service, from tailored and automatised HPP solutions to guidance in product development.

“As well as continuously adding new customers around the world, over the past two decades we have retained a focus on research and development that has resulted in several innovations introduced to the market, including the Hiperbaric 525 in 2014. With this unit, we once again provided the largest, most productive and most cost-effective HPP machine on the market. In 2015, the 525 became the world’s best-selling HPP system.”

Customer-focused solutions

The phenomenal growth and success of Hiperbaric since its establishment has been driven partly by its commitment to providing customer-centric solutions that help companies grow their business. “We not only provide the best HPP machines, but we work with our clients to help them achieve their goals, whether that means assisting them in the production of a new food product or facilitating increased production to boost sales,” asserts Mr Blanco.

“Moreover, we offer a wide range of HPP machines to fit the needs of various customers, from 55-litre to 525-litre capacity machines, and we also supply a number of high-pressure pumps (intensifiers) for the production needs of each client. On top of that, we provide automated solutions for the loading and unloading of product before and after the HPP process, which helps save time and money.”

Indeed, HPP is used for an array of foods and beverages, including natural juices and other drinks; wet salads and dips such as guacamole and hummus; meat and seafood; ready-to-eat (RTE) meals; baby food; and dairy products. The technology has recently become particularly popular in the premium juice segment, as it enables products to retain their ‘freshly squeezed’ attributes. “A flexible approach

is certainly necessary in order to serve our varied customer base,” he remarks, “which comprises large companies that use HPP for standard applications, through to small start-ups that are using the technology to provide something different to the market, such as fruit bars, pet food and baby food.”

Geographically speaking, Hiperbaric has installed more than 270 units in over 40 countries worldwide to date, and last year completed an €8 million (US$8.9m) expansion of its production facilities and offices in Burgos in response to increased market demand. “We also opened new representative offices in Singapore and Mexico to address market interest in these regions,” adds Mr Blanco. “We are committed to being located as close as possible to our customers to bring them whatever solution they might need. At the moment, we are seeing the most demand from North America, followed by Europe and Asia, and we foresee the latter being particularly important in the near future – especially in the beverage and RTE sectors – while general product growth areas include RTE meals, baby and pet food.”

A breakthrough in bulk

Hiperbaric produces 95 per cent of its equipment in-house, which affords the company complete control over quality standards and delivery scheduling, and requires ongoing investment in both facilities and manpower. Mr Blanco outlines: “Our team currently consists of more than 120 people working in the factory and offices in Burgos, including 66 engineers and 10 individuals with PhDs. We look to hire people who are not only skilled in their field but who are also passionate, with the ability to work as part of a team. These are vital aspects of our business culture, and we recognise our people as a fundamental pillar of our present and future success.”

An equally important strength of Hiperbaric is its unwavering dedication to R&D and innovation, as evidenced by its pioneering design of new products – an effort that Hiperbaric has continued since

introducing the horizontal HPP machine in 2002. In order to offer the best HPP equipment in the world, the company allocates around five per cent of its turnover to R&D activities, which last year resulted in the launch of a breakthrough technology known as HPP Bulk.

“Within the framework of a European Commission Horizon 2020 SME Instrument, we worked on a €3.4m (US$3.8m) project to develop a system for processing liquids in bulk instead of in their final packaging,” Mr Blanco says.

“Last September, we introduced the Hiperbaric Bulk technology for production of HPP beverages, which enables manufacturers to process larger volumes with lower operating costs and minimised energy consumption. No other competitor offers an in-bulk solution, which allows any type of package to be used after the HPP process – such as glass or Tetra Pak. Doubling the productivity means operating costs can be reduced by up to 50 per cent.

“We launched the Hiperbaric Bulk during a demonstration day at the premises of Fruselva, a Tarragona-based food manufacturer [in Spain’s Catalonia region], where our first prototype was installed,” Mr Blanco continues. “This collaboration was highly beneficial as it enabled us to test our revolutionary new equipment in real conditions. We now have an industrial version that will be installed for a beverage company in Europe in the coming months, and next year another unit will be installed in the US.”

the use of preservatives,” he affirms.

“In addition, we have identified a global trend whereby consumers are seeking more natural fruit juices rather than those made from concentrate. This was one of the reasons we worked so hard to provide better equipment for manufacturers with the Hiperbaric Bulk, which allows producers to reduce the operational cost of HPP technology while enabling them to use whatever type of packaging they prefer for the end product.”

Having spent its first two decades building a world-renowned reputation in the food and beverage industry, Hiperbaric’s plans for the next 20 years include promoting the advantages of HPP technology to a much wider audience, as Mr Blanco reveals. “Our aim is to make the HPP market bigger, which will require a substantial amount of work with regard to educating the market, demonstrating the benefits of our technology and raising awareness of what HPP can bring to customers’ businesses,” he says.

“Of course, we became the global leader of HPP equipment for the food sector many years ago – a position that we are determined to retain – but our vision for the future is to be a leading provider of high-pressure technology equipment for other industries, too. We are already considering the potential of HIP (hot isostatic pressing) for processing 3D-printed components, for instance, and we are looking forward to exploring other opportunities as they arise,” he concludes. o

Further advancing HPP technology

Commenting on the prevailing trends in today’s food and beverage sector, Mr Blanco notes the growth in consumer demand for healthy, fresh foods and beverages, with an increased preference for RTE and on-the-go products. “HPP technology suits both of these market inclinations on account of its ability to inactivate harmful foodborne bacteria while extending shelf life and keeping nutritional and organoleptic properties intact, without 35

UMEX® Group – a strategic partner and world leader in the design and manufacture of innovative solutions for fruit and vegetable juicing for more than three decades – presents ZUMEX® Food Engineering, a line of business specialising in the design and development of customised engineering projects to supply industrial-scale juice machines and equipment to process fruit, vegetables and food in general.

ZUMEX® Food Engineering, the industrial division of ZUMEX®, is growing fast and has designed and implemented major projects around the world for a variety of prestigious companies.

Producers and establishments in Germany, France, Belgium, Italy, Denmark, Turkey, USA and Australia have placed their trust in ZUMEX® technology and know-how to offer a wide range of juices, with the guarantee of high profitability and a rapid return on investment.

The JuiceTech Pro line of turnkey projects specialises in the design of plants and equipment for large-scale production – from the initial study through to the

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design, implementation, supervision and commissioning of the project – including post-harvest machinery (reception, sorting, washing and grading), fruit, vegetable and citrus fruit juice processing lines, and comprehensive pasteurising systems.

The JuiceTech line offers modular juicing solutions for small and mediumscale production of citrus, pomegranate, stone fruit, non-stone fruit, and vegetable juices with equipment designed to cater for the needs of small producers, supermarket chains, hotels, restaurants, juice bars, and fresh produce stores.

Proof of ZUMEX®’s success is the warm welcome given to its Citrus Z450, a robust and reliable industrial juicer which is ideal for the extraction of orange, mandarin, grapefruit, lime and lemon juice (and pomegranate juice – thanks to the Pomegranate version). Citrus Z450 is today used by firms from all over the world, including major brands located in the birthplace of cold press juice, such as Juice Press (New York), Solti (San Diego), and Urban Remedy (San Francisco), as well as in Europe (Frankly

Juice, Copenhagen). ZUMEX® also works with multinationals such as Del Monte, which utilise ZUMEX® solutions in shortlife fresh juice lines that use HTST (hightemperature short-time) pasteurisation in different plants across the world.

The presence of ZUMEX® Food Engineering-designed plants and equipment on five continents demonstrates the company's ability to provide companies with the technology they need for juice and pulp extraction, pasteurisation, concentrates, formulation, reconstitution and packaging lines for a wide range of fruit and vegetables.

ZUMEX® will be attending Fruit Attraction 2019, the international trade show for the fruit and vegetable industry, to be held in Madrid from 22–24 October, where it will be exhibiting its juicing solutions at stand 4C10A. ZUMEX® is present in more than 100 countries through an extensive network of distributors and its five subsidiaries (USA, Mexico, UK, France and Germany), which work closely with its headquarters in Spain (MoncadaValencia). The company is well known for the development of patented technology and exclusive systems.

The company’s commitment to developing innovative juicing systems that guarantee maximum quality and the best tasting juice have made it a pioneer in the industry, and ZUMEX® constantly strives to achieve technological excellence and optimum design in this specialist area.

Zumex Group | Pol. Ind. Moncada III - C/ Moli 2, 46113 Moncada - Valencia - Spain Tel: +34 961 301 251 | Fax: +34 961 301 255 foodengineering@zumex.com | www.foodengineering.com

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Company Profile: L&G Engineering Written by SARAH PURSEY

HIGH FRYING PROSPECTS In less than a decade and a half, L&G Engineering has evolved to become an internationally renowned expert in delivering commercial batch fryer solutions that are world class in their energy efficiency credentials. Company Co-founder and Director, Mr Adrian Laurie, describes how his firm’s high-throughput, low-energy units are finding favour across the UK, Europe and the Middle East, as potato-chip manufacturers strive to squeeze the most value from their operations.

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he global market for potato chips is predicted to expand at a CAGR of around 3.1 per cent from 2019–2024 to reach US$35 billion, according to research data from IMARC Group.

Within this buoyant context, the conundrum that many snack food businesses face today is how to significantly and economically boost production capacity in their commercial frying operations in order to keep pace with ever-expanding demand.

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Squeezing higher production throughput from the same floor-space is the ideal scenario – and engineers at UK-based L&G Engineering have long made that goal their specialist focus. In fact, as a result of a process of almost 15 years of R&D spawning continuous improvements, the company has effectively solved the challenge with a range of world-class commercial batch fryers that consume considerably less energy than competitor models, thus providing chip manufac- ‥ 39

turers with arguably the most economical, sustainable and scalable solution to boosting product output on the market today.

efficiency and gas usage in our machines. Ultimately, it’s all about producing as much product as you can for as little energy input as possible.”

From small fry to batch master

Batch fryers: Efficiency is everything

Adrian Laurie and his business partner David Gowan established the company in 2005, initially operating out of a garage and carrying out maintenance work for food factories alongside fabricating small-scale machines for regional food industry companies.

“As our customer base grew and our reputation strengthened, we moved into our first industrial unit in Norwich in 2007 and started recruiting additional engineers to help scale up the company’s operations,” Mr Laurie recalls. “Our contracts gradually evolved into the design-development of larger-scale batch fryers for potato chip producers, as well as solutions for poultry factories, breweries and other food processing outfits.

“More or less since inception, L&G Engineering has been undertaking contracts for Kettle Foods Ltd – initially on the maintenance side of things, then developing highly energy-efficient batch fryers for the potato chip manufacturer, which remains a key customer today,” he adds.

The firm continued to expand its engineering team to accommodate the growth in contract activity – especially in relation to the strong uptake of its innovative commercial batch fryer equipment. “Around eight years ago, we moved to our present site on Rackheath Industrial Estate in Norwich. Covering 8,500 square feet, this facility is actually around four times the size of our first unit, and we’re proud to have achieved such rapid growth,” enthuses Mr Laurie.

Kettle Foods Ltd – one of the largest natural potato chip brands, distributed across Europe, the Middle East and South East Asia – remains one of L&G Engineering’s biggest customers today, informs Mr Laurie. “They currently have 14 of our fryers installed, with a further eight existing units that we’ve modified to make more energy efficient. It was actually due to our early – and ongoing – work for Kettle Foods that we really started to develop our expertise in improving

Over the years, L&G Engineering has expanded its commercial batch fryer range as well as having continuously enhanced the equipment’s energy efficiency.

“Size-wise, the units range from small (100kg of finished product per hour) up to our biggest fryer, which can cook up to 300kg per hour. Of course, it’s the low amount of gas it takes to produce those quantities that makes our units so appealing to manufacturers,” stresses Mr Laurie. “Ultimately, if you have a heat input, you will generate waste heat. And if you have a very high temperature on the flue stat, then that’s essentially energy being released into the atmosphere and lost. Our goal is to squeeze as much out of that energy as possible for the purpose of heating the oil in the fryer. The lower the flue temperature, the more energy we’re therefore extracting – and the less gas the client will ultimately be consuming to produce the same amount of product.”

Such discrepancies in operational efficiency can often be dramatic – indeed, a side-by-side comparison of L&G Engineering’s fryers with a competitor’s unit already in place at a client’s facility serves to underscore the impressive performance of L&G’s commercial batch frying solutions. Mr Laurie describes how the flue temperature on the competitor’s fryer was over three times higher than that of L&G Engineering’s equipment. “The difference is that we’re effectively scrubbing most of that excess heat and putting it in the oil. Beyond that, those competitors’ fryers were also consuming around twice the amount of gas compared to our units, meaning we offer a far more efficient piece of equipment.”

L&G Engineering’s founder is justifiably proud of the fact that his firm’s fryers can produce far more product far more efficiently than its competitors’ units are able to – and his team continues to drive such improvements today. “You have to consider that a major priority for the customer is to manufacture as much

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product as possible for as cheaply as possible. If you’re burning £2 million [US$2.6m] of gas a year and could save 30 per cent of that – as we have done for certain clients – then that’s obviously an enormous saving for the manufacturer. We’ve actually just done some calculations for a snack firm in London and found that if they were to install one of our fryers at their facility, they would save in the region of £100,000 [US$130,000] annually in producing the same amount of product.”

Impressive international installations

Aside from the enormous efficiency gains its machinery offers to the client, another major strength is the high quality standards that L&G Engineering adheres to, underlined by the fact that all the machinery is 100-per-cent UK manufactured. “They’re very well made fryers, and highly powerful pieces of kit – they’re also quite compact, resulting in a smaller footprint for the manufacturer, thus saving valuable factory floor-space,” Mr Laurie points out.

Many respected high-growth manufacturers in the chip-manufacturing segment have selected L&G Engineering’s commercial batch fryers to help boost their operations – including rapidly emerging UK player Burts Potato Chips (recently rebranded as Burts Snacks), which achieved an impressive 20-per-cent year-on-year growth in 2018. The installation of a new frying hall at the manufacturer’s Leicester facility has been highlighted as a key investment as it targets sales of £100m (US$130m) by 2022. Another recent order was the installation of new batch fryer equipment for Kolak Snack Foods – a major established player within the private label market, and supplier to many of the UK’s and Europe’s most respected retailers.

Strengthening exports also point towards L&G Engineering’s growing renown in this specialist segment: In recent years, L&G Engineering has supplied its high-efficiency batch fryer solutions to clients across Europe and the Middle East, including installations in Kuwait City, the Czech Republic, Belgium, and not least, equipment for Norwegian-headquartered branded food giant Orkla.

One key benefit for all such contracts – and especially for equipment installed overseas – is that L&G Engineering offers a remote access monitoring tool that allows its engineers to simply log on through the Internet to manage and control the equipment remotely. “This is obviously particularly advantageous when it comes to equipment installed across Europe and the Middle East,” advises Mr Laurie. “Quite often, by simply logging on to the machine and assessing the diagnostics, we can come up with a solution without ‡

even needing to visit the site. So, it’s an effective and efficient solution that our clients are really appreciative of, as it provides the complete diagnostics from the machine just as if you were sitting in front of the HMI screen. As long as we have an Internet connection and a laptop, we can access the equipment from anywhere.”

Multi-faceted engineering solutions

In addition to its core commercial batch fryer offering, the firm also produces, installs and maintains a wide range of food processing equipment, including a variety of conveyor systems, industrial ovens and dryers and specialised food manufacturing equipment. “For the poultry industry, we’ve done a lot of work for various prestigious firms (including Two Sisters and Banham Poultry) relating to boiler installations and designs for heat exchangers, alongside various solutions for well respected breweries like Aspall and Woodfordes in the areas of steam and chilling installations, and tank refurbishments.” Testament to L&G Engineering’s adherence to high standards can be seen in the fact that the firm also provides solutions that meet the stringent quality requirements of the pharmaceutical industry. “We’ve also just developed and installed a

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very powerful direct-fired gas burner for a flat bed dryer at Suffolk-based Camstar Herbs Ltd – one of the world’s leading herb producers. The client claims to be able to produce 40 per cent more product with less gas consumption as a result.”

While the above activities might suggest a diverse array of operations, there is evidently a unifying theme in what L&G Engineering does, and that’s in boosting energy efficiencies. “We’re industrial gas engineers, so our forte is in designing and building thermal systems for industrial process gas-fired plants.” Within that area of specialisation, the batch fryer is undoubtedly L&G Engineering’s niche – it therefore follows that most of the firm’s R&D focus is honed on further enhancing the operational efficiencies of this niche product area.

Investing in people

Off the back of such innovations, L&G Engineering has evidently expanded at a swift clip in recent years, and the firm is currently investing to expand its office space to better accommodate its continuous growth.

However, Mr Laurie is keen to stress that one of the firm’s biggest investments has undoubtedly been – and will continue to be – in its people. “We have an apprenticeship programme in place, through which four individuals have passed through thus far. The idea is to train up and develop those youngsters with the vision that they will eventually be able to take the business forward,” he tells us.

“Our engineers are all very much multi-skilled individuals – from welding, to machining, and installation of the equipment,” he continues. “One of our young team members, Josh Peek, actually entered the EuroSkills welding competition in Gothenburg, Sweden, and won gold – before going on to come 11th in the world final of the welding competition in Abu Dhabi, UAE, a year later, so we’re really proud of his achievement.

“The expertise we have within our team has undoubtedly played a huge role in our success to date.

We’re passionate about doing a decent job – and part of that means stringently testing the machinery at our dedicated test facility in order to provide the assurance our customers need that the equipment really works, and works efficiently. To us and our clients, reliability is absolutely key.”

Solutions for a shifting snack landscape

The potato chip market segment is obviously huge and continuously expanding – while L&G Engineering also sees the snack market in a broader sense as clearly offering a cornucopia of opportunity. As a result, the firm is currently looking to use its technology, skills and expertise to cook and fry other snack products – for example, Asian snacks like Bombay Mix. “In line with increasing consumer demand for healthier options, we’re also exploring the development of a commercial batch fryer that can produce a low-fat chip that retains the flavor of a fried chip,” Mr Laurie reveals. “The average chip has a fat content of around 28 per cent – our aim is to develop equipment that could produce one with around 16–17 per cent fat.

This would be achieved via a process of partially frying and partially baking the product, thus avoiding the cardboard texture often associated with pure-baked chips. We believe such an innovation would prove very popular – given that people want to make healthier choices without sacrificing taste – and we’re currently working in partnership with some of our clients to develop and trial that technology.”

Indeed, L&G Engineering’s Co-founder sees close alliances as crucial in delivering the most effective solutions to his clients’ evolving needs. “All successful business is about relationships, and ours is no exception – it’s not always just about price; it’s also about the level of service you receive and the reliability of the machines. Many of our clients are repeat customers and many have already said they intend to purchase more of our fryers once growth of their business warrants a new installation – and that’s purely based on satisfaction with their existing unit from us.” Certainly, L&G Engineering’s long-term supplier relationship with Kettle Foods speaks volumes in this respect, with the engineering firm’s commercial batch fryer equipment having effectively supported the expansion of the manufacturer to become a major player in the international snacks market today.

Founded on decades of experience in the specialist area of industrial gas, considerable engineering expertise and innovation have enabled L&G Engineering to achieve extraordinary energy savings in its batch fryer solutions – and the firm continues to conduct trials on new heat exchanger innovations in its testing facility today. “Every percentage of efficiency you can squeeze from the energy input is obviously vital, given how much our customers can spend on energy costs annually,” stresses Mr Laurie, who reveals that he remains very “hands-on” in achieving those valuable incremental efficiency gains. “My colleagues call me ‘the nutty professor’, based on all the testing I undertake in the workshop. Ultimately, innovation is key to what we do – and I love coming up with the solutions to people’s problems. Our business is essentially driven by our customers and their evolving requirements – and, quite simply, our task is to come up with the most effective and efficient solutions.” o

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Company Profile: DEBAG Deutsche Backofenbau GmbH Written by SARAH PURSEY

WHERE BAKING TRADITION MEETS INNOVATION From the first brick-built ovens developed in 1911, and one of the world’s first in-store oven designs, to the IoT-enabled, multi-faceted units that today furnish production bakeries and food outlets across the globe, DEBAG Deutsche Backofenbau GmbH’s rise to prominence is nothing short of impressive. Mr Georg Schulze, Head of International Sales, documents the developments of this leading oven technology manufacturer, within which a strong heritage of precision German engineering and artisanal baking knowhow combine to deliver the very best baking results worldwide.

ising interest in craft-style baked goods is fuelling growth in the segment across Western Europe, with Euromonitor predicting that, after a period of decline, the market may be about to witness a turnaround – already underway in the UK, with Nordic countries set to follow. Europe’s inimitable speciality breads also continue to gain a growing legion of fans in countries far flung from the ovens in which such delicacies have been created for centuries. In tandem, the diversification of the once pure bakery shop to incorporate other cooked foods – alongside the by now well established trend for foodservice outlets and supermarkets to feature in-store bakeries – are broadening the opportunities for oven equipment

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manufacturers that prove able to cater to the market’s evolving requirements.

Such dynamics bode particularly well for DEBAG Deutsche Backofenbau GmbH – a company that time and again throughout its century-long history has been at the forefront in identifying and leveraging upon trends that have proved key to the evolution of the baked goods segment – in turn, driving this leading oven technology developer’s own advancement through the ages.

Headquartered since inception in the hilltop town of Bautzen, in Saxony, eastern Germany, DEBAG’s historic base continues to pay homage to this extraordinary journey. “When the company was first founded ‡ 45

back in 1911, it was purely focused on manufacturing production ovens – and on the walls in our offices today, you can still see images of those brick-built ovens that DEBAG created back in the early days,” reports Mr Schulze. Much has changed since then, of course, given DEBAG’s international status at the forefront of oven technology advancement.

Today, with a 250-plus workforce across Germany and its subsidiaries in Russia, the US, France and Poland, the company supplies its state-of-the-art baking units – from modern production ovens to multifunctional in-store ovens with steamer function – to over 50 markets worldwide.

Mr Georg Schulze, Head of International Sales

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Oven ingenuity over the ages

“Undoubtedly, the company’s first major milestone came with the advent of our ‘Monsun’ system, the patent for which was granted in 1936,” informs Mr Schulze, of DEBAG’s proprietary technology, characterised by the generation of a very low air-speed – about two metres per second – and the creation of optimal humidity in the oven, for a gentle baking process. “Since then, competitors have tried again and again to copy our proprietary system – without success,” he smiles. “While a standard rotary oven design – which, with two or three fans and very high air-speeds – is more akin to a drying process (hence causing the product to lose considerable moisture), the Monsun system actually creates very gentle baking conditions. The system’s very low air-speed, and the high degree of humidity that it creates in the oven, allow the loaf to develop a very thorough, even crust – and that results in a longer shelf-life, as the crumb stays fresher for longer.” More than 80 years since the patenting of the system, and following a recent reinvigoration of this sub-brand, Monsun is still going strong today; its logo appearing on all DEBAG ovens in which the system is integrated – namely, the big production ovens, as well as a few of the firm’s large shop-baking ovens.

Indeed, by the early 1980s, a new category of bakery establishment was emerging on the scene, and DEBAG was at the forefront of catering to such needs with the creation of the first shop-baking oven in 1982.

“Up until then, the typical setup for bakeries would be to have production out the back and to sell front of house. In the 1980s, however, we started to see the centralised bakery that was then retailing its baked goods at different points of sale. This meant you needed a totally different kind of approach – and, ergo, a different type of oven,” Mr Schulze explains.

Certainly, it seems clear that with large-scale production you tend to have space – yet with only a small instore area the area available for baking is obviously limited. DEBAG’s response to that challenge was the ‘Monsun City’ – a model that still resonates with smallsized bakery shops today, especially in cities like London, where “space is money”.

Armed with the experience and knowledge of developing the shop-baking oven, DEBAG would later be tasked by the market to design an oven for the thennascent retail in-store bake-shop market – one that was focused on producing at volume. Mr Schulze describes creating a volume product for the retail sector as a finely balanced trade-off between various design considerations: “You require a tailor-made product that

meets all the needs and demands for uncompromised baking quality, but also that omits anything not absolutely necessary to that particular type of client. You therefore need to find that niche compromise between cost and features, and our success in solving this challenge came with the creation of our ‘Dila’ oven, which opened to us a new customer group – the retailing sector.”

“The borders are blurring”

Today DEBAG’s portfolio caters to three main customer groups – the first being the artisanal baker.

This hand-crafted segment, Mr Schulze is keen to ‡

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stress, is from where DEBAG’s overall philosophy proudly originates. “I always say to my clients that we are not simply an industrial company building a machine; above all else, the quality of the baking is what counts – it’s very important to emphasise that; we understand the craft of baking, not just the workings of the machine.”

The next customer group is the aforementioned retail sector, in which DEBAG is a major international player today. “Finally, we are also now focusing on the emergent gastronomy segment,” informs Mr Schulze, who notes that the borders between retail and gastronomy have, in recent decades, started to blur, with the emergence of city-centre outlets competing with foodservice giants like McDonalds and KFC. “What may have been a pure bakery 10 or 20 years ago is increasingly an outlet like a café or a bistro offering food (meatloaf, pies, soup, for example) at the pointof-sale for takeaway – and this obviously makes perfect sense, given the higher margins that can be achieved,” he tells us.

Indeed, it is with this latter customer group in mind that DEBAG developed its latest oven – the DECON (a portmanteau of ‘DEBAG’ and ‘convection oven’).

Thanks to its optional steamer function and core temperature sensor, the oven can be considered a true all-rounder: whether baking, cooking or reheating – the DECON can be used to prepare crispy, freshly baked goods, hot snacks and full meals, as well as biscuits and pastries. Such technology taps into the retail market’s shift towards the production of fresh food on-site – a new segment increasingly referred to

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as ‘Traiteur’ (French for ‘caterer’) – and, in so doing, marries the best of both the baker’s and the caterer’s worlds in one machine.

Providing optimised productivity for today’s multifaceted food outlet is one of DECON’s key advantages, as Mr Schulze exemplifies: “If you have a product that is both a fully-furnished baking oven and also a combisteamer, you will save in terms of the initial investment, of course (as you won’t require two machines).

Secondly, the daily idling rate of the equipment will shrink to a minimum. With a standard oven you might bake for just four hours in the morning (say, 6-10am)

to fill the shelves and thereafter only occasionally to replenish as required throughout the rest of the day, yet with combi-steaming capabilities incorporated, such a machine would also be put to good use around lunchtime and also late afternoon as people drop in after work requiring something for the evening meal.

So, rather than two pieces of equipment operating intermittently, you have the same device running all day, thus dramatically speeding up amortisation,â€? he points out. “On top of that, there are obviously savings on space, on the technicians you would otherwise have to train, as well as on the preventative maintenance, ‥

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and the stock of spare parts – all of which should not be underestimated.”

Beyond the state-of-the-art oven units that are central to DEBAG’s business, the company has been mindful to build up its capability over the years to offer a comprehensive array of other equipment and accessories required by the baking professional – including proofing and refrigeration technology, loading systems, filter technology, and stainless steel units – so as to provide its clients with everything from a single source.

“Clients today want a single-handed solution,” Mr Schulze observes, “and that extends to the peripheries of the baking environment.”

Baking 4.0

The German firm evolved out of its deep knowledge of baking – and that ethos continues to hold true as the cornerstone of the business today, even as newgeneration technologies enhance the capabilities of DEBAG’s advanced oven designs.

The instruments of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) are driving disruptive innovations across many sectors, and in baking DEBAG stands at the forefront in terms of harnessing the benefits of Big 50

Data and the Internet of Things (IoT) for its clients.

“We are living in the 21st century, in the age of Alexa and Amazon Echo – and our ovens have evolved in tandem with such progress, to become intelligent, IoTenabled devices,” informs Mr Schulze, who is nonetheless keen to stress that you cannot have an intelligent oven if what it produces is of poor quality. “The consistency of the baked produce, alongside the evenness of the colouring, is crucial – particularly when it comes to the volume market. Such consistency is absolutely key to branding. And if one of our clients is producing its product in Stockholm, Lisbon, Rome and Athens, then they would be assured the same quality at sites in all those destinations due to the intelligence in our ovens.”

Nonetheless, in tandem with such a QC emphasis, DEBAG has been an early mover in responding to market demand for a greater level of automation. The result is DEBAG’s IoT-enabled e.Bake.solutions platform, which covers all processes surrounding baking and can be segmented into four distinct functional areas: ‘e.Assistance’ (assistance systems for the automation of baking processes); e.Clean (solutions for making the task of cleaning

oven equipment both simple and resource-friendly); e.Connect (software for connected ovens and optimised energy use); and e.Control (intuitive and userfriendly oven controls).

The potential for this software sub-brand is clearly enormous. For instance, using the latest sensor technology, DEBAG’s assistance systems can detect the type and quantity of products in the baking chamber and automatically ensure the correct parameters are selected when baking. And with the adoption of e.Bake.solutions, operator errors will become a thing of the past. Moreover, as Mr Schulze asserts, a client running 500 units across different locations would be able to remotely check the status of a machine or what is currently being baked at each and every one of those sites. Such intelligent technology will clearly allow the modern baker to manage workflows and processes with greater efficiency than ever before. e.Bake.solutions visibly sets DEBAG apart from the competition, marking it out as a forerunner in this innovative area, with considerable R&D funding being poured into the refinement and expansion of the IoTenabled, networked platform.

Rising to the challenge

Such investment – and much more besides (including a third floor currently being built onto the firm’s historic headquarters in Bautzen) – is seen as fundamental to DEBAG’s operational excellence, as it continues to expand and gain prominence as a oven technology leader. “We are constantly investing and

building upon our capacity and capabilities, as we are challenged to keep up with demand,” says Mr Schulze, adding that one of the major issues in relation to that is the difficulty in finding enough qualified labour. “In response to that challenge, we collaborate with the local college, and we attend many exhibitions and job fairs in order to attract talent. We obviously need good people in order to grow, and we need to grow in order to keep up with the competition.”

DEBAG currently has around 250 personnel on the payroll – spanning engineers (from the R&D phase to production planning and product management), alongside sales personnel, and technicians (to set up the ovens and for both corrective and preventative maintenance). “One very important role for us is the actual bakers – our success over the past century has hinged on our deep understanding of the art of baking,” Mr Schulze reminds us. “One key advantage and contributor to our success over the decades has been our team’s ability to speak foreign languages – that’s important from a sales point of view, of course, but also in the engineering and services departments, due to our work overseas – including via DEBAG’s subsidiary companies in Russia, the US, France and Poland.

Elsewhere we work with local partners.”

New proving ground

More than half of DEBAG’s sales are currently generated from its export activities across around 50 countries worldwide today, although its home market remains Europe – a continent renowned for its rich ‡

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heritage and distinctive styles when it comes to baked goods. Nonetheless, the long-established baking trends set in Europe are slowly but surely working their way into all continents, as Mr Schulze observes. “Think of the Italian focaccia, the French baguette, and the German sourdough: we observe a strengthening awareness and demand for such breads beyond Europe – and that is twinned with growing discernment amongst global consumers in identifying the quality and authenticity of such products. As consumer demand for speciality European breads continues to grow across the world, DEBAG will closely follow and provide the means for producers to meet that expanding demand.”

DEBAG’s international subsidiary companies underline that sentiment, as does the company’s strong presence at food industry trade shows worldwide.

Recent events include HotelRes in Tokyo, Japan, and Intersicop in Madrid (both held in February 2019), while the firm also made an appearance at Modern Bakery in Moscow (March), and attended both Internorga in Hamburg and Bakery China in Shanghai in May. Additionally, last year the company visited Foodex in Birmingham.

“Obviously IBIE [the International Baking Industry Expo] in the US represents a major upcoming show for us,” advises Mr Schulze, of an event today considered to be the global grain-based food industry’s largest, most important tradeshow in the Western Hemisphere, this year to be held in Las Vegas from 7th-11th September. “We shall also be in Stuttgart in September [21st–24th] for südback 2019 – the smaller sister event of IBA in Munich,” he adds, in reference to the leading world fair of bakery and confectionery craft.

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Longevity, agility, and a focus on baking

Such activity has geared up particularly in recent years, with DEBAG having experienced swift growth in export markets across the globe. “For the past four or five years, we have been more proactively focusing on exports, and last year we held numerous export days at our site in Bautzen, whereby we invited our partners, exporters and distributors from all over the world to Germany – introducing our products, advising them about new innovations and offering them advice on certain spare parts, for example. The purpose for doing so was to strengthen our relationships with our dealers for the long term – this, we feel, will ultimately have a positive effect for the end clients, creating a ‘win-win’ situation,” Mr Schulze is keen to stress, noting that DEBAG’s distributors have played – and continue to play – an important part in DEBAG’s longevity and success.

Such longevity is indeed impressive, yet perhaps more so is the fact that this renowned industry stalwart has never lost sight of the innovative spirit and passion for baking that characterised its rise prominence over a century ago. And DEBAG clearly continues to evolve with agility in response to the challenges faced by the world’s baking professionals to this day. “You have to,” stresses Mr Schulze. “And fortunately, given our structure of clients and close liaison with professional bakers and other end-users, we are able to sense certain trends and develop the most appropriate solution accordingly, and at the right time,” he notes, ending the conversation with the following maxim: “Understand the market and you understand your client – and if you understand your client, as a supplier you are able to fully understand your product. And above all else, pay attention to the baking.” o

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Company Profile: Fines d.o.o.

Written by GEMMA KENT

BAKED TO PERFECTION The heart of any bakery is its oven, and Slovenian-based Fines d.o.o. has risen from humble beginnings to become a pioneering producer of new-generation ovens designed exclusively for the in-store bakery segment. Mr Igor Lipušcek, Head of Sales, describes how the company’s focus on continuous innovation has been key to augmenting its capabilities over the years, and reveals plans for a new production facility that will facilitate the future growth of Fines’ sales worldwide.

he modern consumer demands unique food retail experiences: particularly within the comfort and convenience of a supermarket, where in-store bakeries offering an artisanal and sensory experience resembling that of a traditional bakery are gaining prominence due to their lower prices and practicality. According to recent data from Technavio Research, the rise of in-store bakeries is, in turn, stimulating demand for par-baked frozen dough, which is cost-effective and reduces the requirement for trained bakers, as well as providing a fast and easy way of supplying consumers with fresh bread and pastry products.

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For an evenly baked loaf that is perfectly brown and crisp on the outside, and moist on the inside, frozen dough is best baked in a convection oven – a product that Fines has been building and improving on for nearly 35 years. Indeed, the Slovenian manufacturer’s latest line of high-tech ovens places Fines among the most technically advanced producers in Europe, and is the result of an unwavering commitment to R&D. The company was originally established in 1982 by the father of Fines’ current owner and General Manager, Andrej Kranjc. “Mr Kranjc created the first pizza oven in his garage, and our company has been producing pizza ovens in various forms ever since,” ‡ 55

Mr Lipušcek tells us, “although this is no longer our core product. Fines is now one of the leading manufacturers of new-generation in-store ovens, and has been recognised amongst its customers and competitors as a research and development pioneer in this field. With our innovative ideas and solutions we can offer products that meet the highest standards of the most demanding clients, while our enthusiasm, passion for research, respect for natural resources, and interest in futuristic industrial design combine to create new and unprecedented solutions that astonish and impress our users.”

Ovens to suit all markets

Indeed, Fines strives to create products that truly change the mind-set of baking professionals, encouraging them to “think green”, to recognise the oven as their assistant rather than just a working tool, and to discover the satisfaction that comes from baking with such technically perfected ovens. “The main reason that we are able to develop such sophisticated products is because we focus exclusively on the niche segment of in-store ovens,” explains Mr Lipušcek. “As we are not a particularly large company, we cannot easily expand into diverse ranges and baking methods; we therefore prefer to concentrate on smaller bakeries, pastry shops and artisan bakers, while a growing customer segment for us is actually supermarkets –

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due to the trend towards in-store bakery counters that provide shoppers with freshly baked products.

“From 1985 to 1991, alongside pizza ovens we produced our first line of convection ovens, called Convecta,” he outlines. “From 1991 to 2002 this successful line was replaced with the Deko and Mini lines, and from 2002 to 2010 we produced our revolutionary Combo line featuring three separate control boards, which was quite advanced at that time. From 2010 to 2015 we introduced the Fin-Bake line and we still sell that range today, together with the Fin-Bake Mini.”

Fines’ current range comprises deck ovens, convection ovens, combi ovens and pizza ovens. “A deck oven is a traditional oven in which the bread is baked on stone and the end result produces a thicker crust, while convection ovens bake via the circulation of hot air and are suited to smaller bakery items and pastries,” describes Mr Lipušcek. “Demand for convection ovens is growing across all European markets due to the technology required for baking frozen products. On the other hand, some markets remain more traditional in their approach and prefer to bake using deck ovens – this tends to be the case in Russia, Poland and the Baltic States. Last year we entered the Middle East market, which has generated some interesting results so far and there is still substantial room for growth, while we are also preparing to launch our products in the US market.”

Innovative baking

Since 2015 the company has been developing its flagship HTB (high-tech bakery) range of ovens, whose innovative design features and technological superiority provide a distinctive edge and flexibility to suit an array of in-store bakeries. “We like to think the HTB is one of the most advanced in-store convection ovens ‡

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Mr Igor Lipušcek, Head of Sales

available on the market today,” states Mr Lipušcek.

“The line incorporates a range of innovations, including our revolutionary ECO S-Steam steaming system, which essentially integrates two steaming systems into one oven.

“The independently heated steam generator enables preparation of the highly effective steam outside the chamber and without taking any of the thermal energy required for baking. As thermal energy is added to the chamber during the steaming process, the steaming itself does not cause any temperature decrease in the chamber, which is particularly important in the initial stage of the baking process,” he notes. “Using significantly less water and energy than conventional steaming systems, it allows for perfect regulation of moisture throughout the baking process, resulting in high-quality and glossy-looking bakery products with considerably prolonged freshness and reduced crumbliness.”

The line also features the automatic, high-pressure HTB-Clean cleaning system for the chamber interior, which was developed specifically for HTB ovens. Its perfectly designed flushing device and high-performance silent water pump allow the oven to be cleaned using only 20–30 litres of water, including tray holders, door glass and other elements located under the ventilator cover. “In only 40 minutes, the oven is spotless,” asserts Mr Lipušcek. “A third innovative feature is the AIR-Fresh ventilation system, which refreshes the interior of the chamber during the last stage of the baking process by drying and cooling the chamber.

The end result is a baked product with a perfectly crisp and shiny crust. This particular feature is not always needed, but it is useful when baking certain products, such as meringue.”

For larger systems, such as supermarket bakeries, HTB Oven Manager is a cloud-based application that 58

enables connectivity and control over performance and analytics of the ovens, either directly via USB key or remotely via the Internet. “With this application users can add new and modify existing baking programs, view baking statistics, unify parameter settings, specify the ovens included in the system and view their locations, and access remote servicing and maintenance support. This is a fantastic system for customers with several ovens in different locations,” he adds.

In touch with bakers

Design, development and production of the HTB range – alongside Fines’ other lines – currently take place at the company’s head office and workshop near the Slovenian capital, Ljubljana, where all equipment and machinery is updated on an annual basis. Fines follows an internal set of standards with respect to quality control, which includes conducting regular checks throughout the production cycle, as well as adhering to EU standardisation. “Each continent has its own specific set of standards that have to be met before we can sell to that market,” reveals Mr Lipušcek. “In preparing to penetrate the US, for example, we are adapting certain electronics elements of our products to comply with the stringent requirements of that market.”

Now on the verge of outgrowing its existing facility, the company is in the process of establishing a new larger factory a short distance away, which is due to be completed some time within the next two years.

“The growth and success that we continue to achieve as a business is largely attributable to our team of skilled workers, especially our R&D department, which is quite large relative to the size of the company.

Indeed, this is a testament to our dedication to innovation and development in our chosen field,” he affirms.

“Moreover, we have succeeded by focusing our efforts on a niche segment of the market, which has led to us becoming a leader in that segment.”

Often the most effective way to reach distributors and end users, trade shows play an extremely important role in the company’s sales and marketing, and Fines therefore aims to exhibit at two major events every year, alongside attending many more besides.

“The next big event for us as an exhibitor will be HostMilano in October, followed by Gulfood Manufacturing shortly thereafter, while our products are also represented at various local fairs through our distributors, ” Mr Lipušcek reports. “As Head of Sales, I also attend these events in order to stay abreast of developments in the market and spend time talking to clients about what they need from their machinery, which is of course our area of expertise.

“Talking face-to-face with end users of our products goes hand-in-hand with the work of our R&D team, which comprises a relatively large number of highly educated and trained personnel. We also have a very innovative in-house baker who is always trying out new products and ideas, for which he is able to obtain market feedback by running his own bakery at week-

ends,” he continues. “Certainly, we maintain very close connections with bakers in general – particularly those who have bought our ovens, who are under the care of our aftersales team – in order to obtain as much data as possible regarding the functioning of the oven as well as the general direction in which the market is heading.”

Rising to the challenge

Being an smaller, niche-oriented company, Fines possesses the agility required to respond swiftly to customer and market needs, and is already cooking up ways to fulfil future demands, as Mr Lipušcek advises: “The trend has shifted from bakers that were previously producing and proving fresh dough, to readyproved frozen products, one consequence of which is a slow decline in demand for proving cabinets as part of the oven. Closely related to that, from a consumer perspective, is the increasing demand year-on-year for the in-store bakery experience. Supermarkets obviously require large volumes of bread, which they buy from big bakers using line machines that produce several tonnes per day, but smaller, artisanal items are increasingly baked in-store via frozen dough technology.

“Overall there are many innovative baking products coming into the market and we have to be able to fulfil those needs, which vary among individual bakers.

Having a versatile product at hand means we are able to do that,” he assures us. “The ongoing excellent work of our R&D team means that there are many more types of oven that we plan to produce and technologies that we intend to introduce, going forward, while there is also constant development taking place across our existing ranges, including the addition of some new sizes.

“From a sales point of view, we intend to strengthen our presence in the Russian market, which is growing steadily, as well as bolstering our presence in some Western European countries that are not yet well covered, such as France. Beyond that, the Middle East is particularly interesting to us due to the wide-ranging varieties of bread currently being produced there, and we are therefore also optimistic about the opportunities that exist for us in that region of the world in the years ahead,” Mr Lipušcek concludes. o

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Company Profile: Fabbri Group Written by SARAH PURSEY

ITALY’S PACKAGING TECH INNOVATOR

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Italian firm Fabbri Group has been producing food packaging machines and films for seven decades – and with 120 patents recognised on a global scale, the company is today considered a leading innovator in its field. Sara Pomesano, Marketing & Communication Manager, describes the firm’s recent advancements, particularly in the realm of sustainability, alongside the flurry of awards in recognition of the Group’s pursuit of Italian excellence through packaging technology.

t was back in the early 1950s when Fabbri Group was first established in the in the city of Vignola in northern Italy. Vignola, whose name derives from the Latin vineola (‘small vine’) today sits at the heart of Italy’s so-called ‘packaging valley’. Meanwhile, Fabbri Group has gone on to become a multinational player in developing and marketing state-of-the-art packaging machines and innovative packaging films.

Indeed, Fabbri Group has itself grown from its ‘small vine’ status at inception, to encompass a workforce of over 500 across three manufacturing units today (two in Italy and one in Switzerland), alongside six sales and service companies in Italy, France, Germany, the UK, Switzerland and Russia – all facilitating its present-day presence in 80 markets worldwide.

Renowned as an innovator in its field, Fabbri Group has consistently reinvested around five per cent of profits back into advancing its R&D activities – an endeavour that has resulted in more than 120 globally recognised patents.

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The ‘Nature Fresh’ project

stretch film for automatic and manual packaging – a world ‘first’. The project also includes the high-productivity wrapping machines of the Automac NF series with hybrid operation, which means they are able to operate indiscriminately with both traditional plastics and compostable films.”

The ‘Nature Fresh’ project commenced back in 2015 with the development of the film. “This was at a time when the ‘Circular Economy’ concept was not yet so widespread,” Ms Pomesano points out. “Thanks to the collaboration with BASF, the certified compostable biopolymer Ecovio® was specially optimised to obtain the best formulation, and therefore the best performance, for this application.”

Nature Fresh is a bio-plastic that boasts the certification of compostability in both domestic (TÜV Austria) and industrial (TÜV Austria, European Bioplastics, Consorzio Italiano Compostatori, according to the UNI EN 13432 standard). “This means that it can be organically recycled in the domestic composter or, through a subsequent industrial process, thrown as organic waste after checking the laws of each municipality,” she advises. ‡

Among Fabbri Group’s most recently achieved accolades is its win at the 2020 Oscar dell’Imballaggio – the Oscars of the packaging world, promoted by the Italian Packaging Institute – where the firm was afforded the honour of ‘Best Technological Innovation’ for its new ‘Nature Fresh’ cling film and wrapping machine.

Outlining the new technological proposal, Ms Pomesano tells us that Fabbri’s ‘Nature Fresh’ project includes the homonymous certified compostable 61

Advanced solutions for an array of applications

Beyond the Nature Fresh project, the Group has amassed a full suite of advanced machinery and film solutions, serving an array of fresh food industry applications – from red meat, white meat and fish, through to fruit and veg, cheeses and cold cuts, and gastronomy.

These include stretch packaging and packing for fresh food in supermarket departments. Fabbri’s Elixa® technology machines are fully automatic and feature a patented film stretch system in four directions that makes them unique worldwide. This feature allows the user to package any tray or product using a single width film reel with considerable advantages both in terms of management and cost saving. This technology provides maximum benefits to those who wish to package products with widely variable sizes and seeks maximum flexibility.

The firm has also developed ‘Automatic’ – a range of industrial packaging lines for stretch applications.

Automac 40 is Fabbri Group’s latest all-in-one response to the diverse needs of high volume food processing facilities in terms of usability, speed, versatility, compactness and strength. “This technology

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is the answer to the needs of industrial packaging machines, those of hypermarkets and all companies in the sector characterised by high productivity,’ Ms Pomesano outlines. “The machines of the industrial series are appreciated for their reliability even under extreme operating conditions. The excellent performance provided, and the considerable flexibility in terms of layout, make them ideal for stretch packaging of fresh produce in tray such as: meat, poultry, fruit, vegetables, cheeses, fish and other foods such as bread, pastry and pizza. These machines, through the use of printed stretch film and printing centring equipment, enable customisation of the film print according to customer's instructions to highlight the brand and attract the consumer's attention to the product.”

The Group also boasts a range of industrial packaging lines for modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) applications. “MAP keeps the original organoleptic and nutritional characteristics of fresh food products unaltered for a longer time, resulting in an extended shelf life without the addition of chemical preservatives or stabilisers,” informs Ms Pomesano. “This type of packaging involves insertion of an optimal mixture of oxygen, carbon dioxide and nitrogen inside a

package made of high barrier materials. The process thus ensures meeting the conservation needs of a specific food product. The machines of the TopSeal series produced by Gruppo Fabbri enable gas exchange both with compensated vacuum and with a patented cleaning system. The same machine can then be used to package in a modified atmosphere as well as perform simple thermo-sealing and vacuum packaging.

Reliable machines with a productive output able to satisfy the needs of large industrial companies, flexible and easy to use, can also be used in large-scale retail shops.”

In addition, Fabbri Group produces a range of quality stretch films are extremely shiny, transparent and strong. “Thanks to the ‘memory effect’ characteristic, the packaging maintains the initial tension and appearance, contributing to perfect product presentation. The packaging features perfect permeability to water vapour and oxygen with consequent increase in product shelf life and reduction in weight loss due to dehydration,” Ms Pomesano advises, further adding that the film can be neutral or printed. Amongst these is Fabbri’s ‘Pelid 22’ – the new mono-oriented coextruded high barrier, PE or PP sealing layer film.

“This is the thinnest currently available on the market for packaging products in a protective atmosphere, such as red meat, white meat, sausages, fish, cheeses, fresh pasta, ready meals, fruits and vegetables,” she points out.

A sustainable vision

In the eyes of the end consumer, packaging is often painted as the bogeyman industry in direct opposition to environmental progress. However, those operating

in the sector know that good packaging is increasingly well aligned with green goals. Accordingly, when questioned on what role sustainability plays in Fabbri Group’s vision, Ms Pomesano is emphatic in her response. “Research on new materials is a key element of Fabbri’s Group development strategy. Our mission is to conserve and preserve food, avoiding waste. This has been integral to our vision right from the very start of the company when, after the Second World War, resources were particularly scarce and valuable.

Back then, Mr Fabbri invented a special ‘handkerchief ’ to wrap oranges.

“Today, with our combined solution of machines plus food packaging films, we aim to maintain the freshness of food as long as possible and to fight food waste,” she continues. “For some years now, we have also been developing new films, more closely linked to sustainability either in their original formulation or, as for ‘Nature Fresh’, with a targeted end-of-life management.”

It was two years ago when Fabbri Group first launched its BIOBASED STAR FILM. “This is our plastic film deriving about 70 per cent of its composition from sources not classified as fossils. For this reason, the innovation was certified by TÜV Austria as ‘OK BIOBASED’,” advises the executive. And indeed, due to such credentials, BIOBASED STAR FILM makes a real tangible contribution to the Sustainability balance sheet, allowing both the food and retail industries to meet growing demand from consumers who are increasingly sensitive to packaging and the environment.

“Since then, we’ve been working with our R&D department in an increasingly targeted and intense way, as we consistently strive to offer the market more advanced products: the success of Nature Fresh at the Best Packaging Awards is therefore the result of a long vision and innovation journey – and we’ll soon be introducing further solutions for the MAP segment,” hints Ms Pomesano in closing.

With the firm set to showcase its latest solutions at MEAT-TECH exhibition next year (17–20 May 2021) – Covid-19 disruptions notwithstanding – expect to see some more of Fabbri’s cutting-edge packaging innovations unwrapped at the premier show in Milan. o 63

Baking cups made of natural greaseproof paper

Interior, Nordic Paper Greåker, Norway

NATURALLY NORDIC With a heritage spanning more than a century, Nordic Paper is today the world’s leading manufacturer of natural greaseproof paper. CEO Mr Per Bjurbom and Corporate Communications/PR Manager Mrs Marie Stenquist sit down with Food & Beverage Networker to reveal more about the achievements of the business to date, recent investments, and how Nordic Paper’s commitment to natural, chemical-free processing is the key to both green harmonisation and food safety. weden has a reputation for being one of the world’s most environmentally progressive nations – and with good reason. Over the past 90 years, the northern European nation has successfully managed to double its forest resource, with forestland today covering 70 per cent of the country. For Nordic Paper – a leading specialist paper manufacturer and owner of a paper mill far up in the north – such conditions provide a sustainable resource that is world-class in terms of its composition. “It’s extremely cold up here, which means that the trees grow at a particularly slow rate. That, in turn, means the fibres become very strong, which accounts for the exceptionally good quality of our paper,” remarks the firm’s CEO, Mr Bjurbom.

Headquartered in Bäckhammar in Sweden’s west-central Värmland County, Nordic Paper has four mills in operation – three in Sweden (the aforementioned Bäckhammar, as well as Säffle and Åmotfors), with the final mill located in Greåker, Norway. And all four plants have been in operation for over a century, signalling the rich heritage and expertise that the modern-day firm can draw upon. “It’s fair to say that we have a long tradition of knowledge and knowhow in the paper

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industry,” he continues. “We know how to make premium paper.”

In the case of the firm’s natural greaseproof paper production, such activity is focused at Säffle and Greåker (the other two sites produce specialist kraft paper and pulp). Catering to the multi-faceted needs of the baking industry – manufacturing everything from baking paper and butter paper, to food wraps, sandwich paper, and paper for baking cups – Nordic Paper’s natural greaseproof paper finds application in over 60 countries worldwide today.

Strong backing

Given the exceptional quality for which the firm has become renowned over the decades, it is perhaps unsurprising that

Nordic Paper’s natural greaseproof paper has gained huge popularity in the US and Western Europe. While these remain the firm’s strongest markets today, the biggest potential for growth is increasingly to be found in Asia, observes Mrs Stenquist.

“We are already quite big in Japan – and we certainly hope that our new Chinese owners will open a gateway to the enormous market in China and the wider region,” she says, in reference to the acquisition of Nordic Paper in 2017 by Shanghai Stock Exchange listed Shanying International. Principally engaged in the manufacture and distribution of paper products across China, Nordic Paper’s new mother company is today one of the largest of its kind in China, and is clearly interested in becoming more international.

Corporate Communications /PR Manager, Mrs Marie Stenquist

CEO, Mr Per Bjurbom

“This is obviously great news for us since we see them as long-term owners with great knowledge of the business,” she adds.

“The latest investments made in the mills include upgrading the quality control systems, with online measurements continuously measuring on the paper machines – this gives us better, more accurate products,” Mr Bjurbom reports. “Last summer we also upgraded the drying section on PM1 [paper machine 1] in Greåker in order to help enhance production capacity. Our annual production capacity today for greaseproof paper – across both sites – is approximately 70,000 tonnes. Our relatively small size

means that we’re much more capable of tweaking our machinery and equipment in accordance with the customer’s needs, meaning we can achieve quite short lead times – we can change the quality and grades with ease, and are quite flexible in that respect.”

Keeping it pure

While not the largest player in the market, Nordic Paper’s fastidious focus on the evolving needs of its customers, alongside its emphasis on high quality and naturally sustainable solutions has meant the firm has grown to become the global market leader in natural greaseproof paper.

Catering predominantly to the baking industry, ‘natural’ greaseproof paper represents an interesting, high-growth niche, given the increased awareness (and mounting evidence) of environmental and health issues related to harmful additives.

Indeed, one of Nordic Paper’s major USPs is that it is actually one of only a few producers worldwide manufacturing natural greaseproof paper without any added fluorinated chemicals – harmful compounds such as PFAs that are widely used in greaseproof paper and packaging (also in non-stick cookware and waterproof clothing). “Up here in northern Europe, there’s been considerable discussion about the adverse impacts that such chemicals have. Not only are they deemed very detrimental to consumer health; it’s

also been discovered that those chemicals travel considerable distances and contaminate wildlife – traces of them have even been found in polar bears in the Arctic,” laments Mrs Stenquist. “Such chemicals persist in the body for a considerable time – they actually bio-accumulate, as well as transferring from mother to unborn child. So they persist, they bio-accumulate and they are hazardous.

“Unfortunately, a number of other manufacturers add them as a fast, cheap way to make their paper greaseproof,” she continues. “While it may be quicker and cheaper to add PFAs to paper, the result is that more such compounds are being released into the environment. And since they bio-accumulate, those chemicals simply amass in nature and in our bodies.

In contrast, we at Nordic Paper are very much focused on enhancing green harmonisation through our products.” Indeed, rather than adding harmful PFAS, Nordic’s natural greaseproof paper employs the mechanical treatment of wood fibres and a refining process to create a completely natural barrier of pure cellulose – one that is equally strong and, crucially, much safer.

Natural advantage

Nordic Paper’s resolute refusal to use damaging PFAS (perfluoroalkylated substances) in its production process is admirable. Moreover, in this age of information and transparency – with today’s consumers more conscious than ever of health and environmental issues – such a stance is actually becoming quite a unique advantage for the Swedish firm.

And it is certainly something that Nordic Paper will be able to leverage more upon in the years to come, as consumers the world over start to demand higher standards from manufacturers, particularly with respect to food-related products.

With demand for baked convenience products on the rise the world over, and

Cupcakes, Nordic Paper

Baking paper made of natural greaseproof paper

with particular opportunity for expansion in emerging Asian markets, the future is bright for Nordic Paper. Reflecting on over a century of growth through four worldclass mills, Mr Bjurbom believes a few key factors have been crucial to the company’s success and longevity. “We have a really well developed niche strategy, alongside being a highly functioning organisation – one that is able to control its costs, and of course, with an unerring focus on our customers’ needs,” he asserts.

“We are the largest producer of natural greaseproof paper today – and we intend to stay that way via a strategy of continuous growth. We will continue to expand and to lead the market in this niche,” the CEO tells us in closing. “Beyond that, we are always on the look-out for co-operations, both within Sweden and across borders, as we see such tie-ups as really beneficial to our evolution. One such high-profile collaboration is with Sweden’s official national baking team, including Håkan Johansson, who was recognised as the world’s champion baker. So, we’ve teamed up with those guys, and it’s really great to have such professionals using our paper.” Certainly, it would be hard to find a more convincing endorsement for the natural alternative than that. o

www.nordic-paper.com

Kim Lund, Swedish National Baking Team (Nordic Paper co-operation)

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Company Profile: Arla Foods Written by SARAH PURSEY

PROGRESSIVE DAIRY PRODUCTION

The 9,900 farmer owners behind European dairy co-operative Arla Foods are accelerating efforts to reduce their carbon footprint. Spanning seven countries across Europe, Arla’s pioneering new initiative will triple the rate of CO2e reductions on-farm and accumulate one of the world’s largest sets of externally verified climate data from dairy farming. Food & Beverage Networker spoke with Arla’s Chairman, Jan Toft Nørgaard, to learn more. rla Foods farmer-owners are already among the most climate-friendly dairy farmers in the world, producing milk with less than half the average of emissions per litre compared to global dairy production. Now, Arla Foods is introducing a new Climate Check programme and comprehensive support to all its 9,900 farmer-owners in Northern Europe to fight climate impact. This will pave the way for the company to reach its ambition to reduce carbon emission by 30 per cent by 2030 and have a neutral climate impact by 2050.

“Dairy is an excellent natural source of nutrients compared to its carbon cost, but we have a strong desire to make the balance between nutrients and CO2 even better,” says Chairman Jan Toft Nørgaard.

“Arla farmers have already cut emissions by 24 per

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cent since 1990, but we also recognise that it’s not enough. As in any other industry, we need to do more and we need to do it faster.”

Data to help develop next moves on farm

This new, global, standardised tool for monitoring climate impacts on farms in seven European countries builds on the successful climate check model that was introduced to Arla farmers in Denmark in 2013.

Climate Check will help the farmer identify emissions on farm and provides a clear picture of the actions farmers can take to reduce emissions further. Each Arla farmer will input information covering everything from herd size to housing, milk volumes, feed usage and feed production, energy and fuel usage and renewable energy production.

The Climate Check programme will include a digital reporting tool, in which all farmers will submit their climate data. The data is verified by an external advisor, who then visits the farm to provide advice on action plans.

As data from potentially 9,900 European dairy farms generating an annual production of 14 billion litres of milk is submitted during 2020, Arla is building one of the world’s largest sets of externally verified climate data from dairy farming. This will provide the solid foundation for benchmarking, knowledge-sharing across the dairy industry and correlation analysis.

“We will be able to benchmark against our farmer colleagues on carbon footprint. But equally important, the data can be used to gain more knowledge and science-based solutions in collaboration with the agricultural sector and academic institutions,” advised Mr Nørgaard. “This will be important as we decide on which science-based solutions will take us to the next level in the fight against climate change.”

Incentive to motivate farmers

The data captured will enable each farmer-owner to see what level of carbon emissions they produce per litre of milk and identify where there’s room for improvement. Arla will support its farmer-owners to deliver reductions of three per cent per year, on average, which would see Arla on track to reach its ambition to reduce carbon emission by 30 per cent by 2030 and have a neutral climate impact by 2050.

However, farmer-owners who have used the earlier iteration of Climate Check have shown that the model can actually help reduce carbon emission by up to four per cent per year.

To support farmer-owners in using the new Climate Checks, Arla’s Board of Directors has decided that farmers who sign up to the Climate Check in 2020 will be paid a financial incentive of one euro-cent per kilo of milk. Based on earlier initiatives, a financial incentive has proven to be effective

in supporting programme rollouts. Arla Foods Chairman expects the vast majority of Arla farmers to sign up to the Climate Check, thereby accelerating work to reduce carbon emissions.

“Within our co-operative, we have some of the most climate-efficient farmers in the global dairy farming sector,” notes Mr Nørgaard. “But not all farmers have had the possibility to do the Climate Check yet. So this decision by our Board releases that potential in addition to the on-going knowledge and learning that we will all benefit from.”

Arla’s sustainability journey

The seven-country rollout of Climate Check marks the latest in a series of sustainability measures taken

by Arla and its farmer-owners in the last few years.

These include participating in the development of a global and scientifically approved way to measure carbon sequestration, Arla’s own research to evaluate ways in which methane emissions might be reduced through feed choices, alongside experimenting with novel ways to increase biodiversity on farm.

Beyond that, pioneering Arla farmers are starting to make the most of their cow’s manure by turning it into biogas, which is now powering an Arla milk truck in Sweden. A huge opportunity exists to develop the market for biogas as the cow manure from the Arla farmers in Sweden alone corresponds to 54 million litres of diesel. Today, 81 farmers in Sweden are already delivering manure to biogas plants, in turn running both milk trucks and city buses, with many more surely to follow, given the potential for biogas to be a source of the income for Arla’s farmer-owners.

Further along the value chain too, Arla is helping people live a more sustainable life as well as feel good about what’s in their fridge: By the end of the year, across six countries, the firm will have made 600 million fresh milk cartons renewable and 560 million yogurt pots recyclable, cutting 7,330 tonnes of carbon in the process. o

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Company Profile: Pieno Zvaigzdes Written by JAMES MIDGLEY

LITHUANIA’S DAIRY POWERHOUSE Established in 1998, Lithuanian firm Pieno Zvaigzdes is today one of the leading milk processing companies in the Baltic States. The company manufactures a comprehensive range of dairy products from its four specialised plants, and has carved out a niche for itself both domestically and internationally as a high quality and value-added producer.

Food & Beverage Networker speaks to Mrs Egle Vitkauskiene, Sales Director, to learn more about the firm’s emphasis on continual investments and innovations, alongside its reputation for premium products.

espite the country’s diminutive population – totalling just under three million people – Lithuania punches well above its weight with regards to productivity, far outshining the capacities of its Baltic neighbours. Per capita, the East European nation’s dairy output even outranks larger European countries such as Germany and the UK. Today, Lithuania’s dairy industry is largely controlled by five major companies – one of those being Pieno Zvaigzdes, which, in 2016, commandeered the leading retail value share in the market across most product categories.

Established almost two decades ago – yet boasting a heritage that stretches back much further – Pieno Zvaigzdes has long placed emphasis on generating as much quality production as possible, ostensibly

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allowing the firm to compete with larger international companies at a moderate price point. The country as a whole exports more than half of its dairy production – and thus leading players like Pieno Zvaigzdes are looking to further leverage the niche they have carved out on an ever-greater scale.

Two decades and four companies

“The company started in 1998 following the merger of two joint-stock companies – Mazeikiu Pienine and Pasvalio Suriai,” Mrs Vitkauskiene begins. “In this way, Pieno Zvaigzdes essentially began with two processing plants. At the time, there was no Lithuanian precedent in which two equal and profitable companies had undergone a merger.”

Two years later, following negotiations, another company by the name of Kauno Pienas joined the growing dairy processor, bringing with it an additional plant. Finally, Pieno Zvaigzdes recognised further opportunity to grow, and began to acquire shares of Panevežio Pienas. In 2004 it became the fourth subsidiary of Pieno Zvaigzdes.

“We now consider ourselves the most innovative milk processing company in the Baltic States, with approximately 2,000 employees,” the Sales Director continues. “Thanks to our expansive facilities, we are able to offer an extensive range of product offerings ‡

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– more than 400 SKUs. Those products fall into one of four primary segments on which we focus: fresh dairy products, such as yoghurt, kefir, milk, butter, sour cream and milk-based desserts; cheeses (mainly semi-hard yellow varieties as well as mozzarella, spring cheeses and cagliata); ice cream, which we make from fresh milk and cream, and never from powder; and finally powders, which are mostly for use as ingredients.”

Continuous investment

Pieno Zvaigzdes prides itself on consistently delivering innovations, adding new products and developing value across its portfolio. “This extends to our facilities as well,” Mrs Vitkauskiene affirms. “In May 2017 we inaugurated a new yoghurt production facility with which we make Greek-style yoghurt. Even more

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recently, we added a new mozzarella line, as well as ice cream production facilities. Among our newest product offerings are a chocolate-covered cream cheese bar – an original product oriented towards export markets.”

The leading milk-processing firm retains the four specialised plants it gained from the past mergers and acquisitions that made Pieno Zvaigzdes what it is today.

Furthermore, the firm boasts its own dedicated logistics and distributions systems, supplying retail outlets throughout the Baltic States and beyond. “Over time, our operations have become increasingly integrated – today, we have many strings to our bow,” the Sales Director points out. “We have our own vehicles and warehouses, as well as operating a milk collection network,” she adds.

“Each of our major plants possesses differing specialisations and capacities,” the interviewee continues.

“There is some crossover in terms of product lines – but powders and cheeses, for instance, need particular provisions.”

Pieno Zvaigzdes invests heavily in keeping its equipment at the forefront of technological advancement. When the company comes to develop and expand its facilities, it does so from the ground up – “from clearing the land to packaging the product,” Mrs Vitkauskiene emphasises. “Over the last decade we have invested more than 10 million euros in our machinery.”

Ever-expanding international scope

With around half of its sales accounted for by the export market, Pieno Zvaigzdes is a milk producer with a truly global reach. “While Lithuania remains our most important single market – and our share of it is over 30 per cent today – it’s a small nation with limited room for expansion,” the interviewee advises.

“As a result, we export our products to more than 30 countries – 20 in the EU, and also destinations such as the UAE, Indonesia, Japan, Israel, the US, Canada and various others.”

As a competitor on the world stage, the Lithuanian dairy firm well understands the importance of quality products. “We’ve made that our niche, after a fashion,” Mrs Vitkauskiene confirms. “We believe that if you want to sell for export – as a smaller company from a small country – it’s essential to offer high quality to the market. To that end, we’re incredibly fastidious about all aspects of manufacturing – fresh materials, even good clean air in our processing facilities, as well as the knowledge and practices to ensure shelf life, for instance. It’s intrinsic to our identity – we don’t mass produce cheaply and obsess over prices. It would be hard for us to compete with big companies in that way – our strategy is therefore to put quality first.”

Prior to the Russian embargo in August 2014, the producer largely exported to Russian destinations – most of the countries the interviewee mentions are new markets for the company’s export focus. Indeed, in response to what would invariably have been a

major stumbling block – even existential threat – to some businesses, the impressive speed with which Pieno Zvaigzdes has managed to penetrate new international markets stands as testament to the company’s agility. “Those markets we’ve consistently supplied for a decade or more are also growing – Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and so on, so it’s a positive time for us,” she adds. “We’re always looking to penetrate more potential markets.”

Purveyors of quality

Pieno Zvaigzdes has earned itself a reputation as a key player in the dairy industry both at home and abroad.

And the company regularly attends exhibitions worldwide in an effort to further enhance its profile and ‡

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break into new markets. “We attend events in a long list of locations,” the interviewee agrees. “Germany, Amsterdam Shanghai, Dubai, Moscow, Singapore, Japan, Kazakhstan – we attend around 15 different exhibitions annually. Such events offer us vital opportunities to find new distributors and clients.”

Recently, the Lithuanian milk processor has become a member of the Private Label Manufacturers Association (PMLA). “In fact, it was only a couple of years ago that we started producing product labels,” Mrs Vitkauskiene points out. “That’s because even when it comes to our value-added products, some clients may wish to go down the private label route.

Being a part of PMLA allows us access to a wealth of information – as well as the chance to participate in exhibitions and trade shows, where our main purpose is actually to promote Lithuania rather than just our company.”

With Pieno Zvaigzdes having last year surpassed a milestone 20 years in operation, the reason behind the firm’s continuing success is clear to the Sales Director.

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“Product quality is the number one concern, and the biggest factor behind the company’s longevity,” she emphasises. “That quality is maintained through many different aspects of our approach and attitude – but constant investment into our products and production technology plays a large part. In each and every category of what we produce, we try to pioneer new practices to ensure we stay at the cutting edge, responding to trends as they make their very first ripples. This can be a challenge for sales – sometimes our products are so new that we need to actively create customers! But those difficulties transform into exponential rewards further along the line.”

A wholesome approach

Pieno Zvaigzdes carries through on its promise of quality, possessing a host of certifications – ISO systems, FSSC 22000, IFS (International Food Standards), BRC (British Retail Consortium), HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points), as well as Halal, Kosher and organic product

lines. However, the company’s aim is to deliver beyond the confines of those accreditations – to help deliver a healthier life for its consumers.

“Our consumers want to eat healthier – that’s the trend,” the Sales Director stresses. “We’re well placed to meet it, too – we produce only from natural ingredients, without artificial additives or preservatives, and we provide organic options. More recent nutrition research has vindicated certain fats; we’re now more focused on reducing sugar content and adding protein, while ensuring the fats in our products are of the health-promoting variety.”

That wholesome approach is one that finds a counterpart in the company’s fostering of robust relationships with suppliers, distributors and customers alike.

“We build real rapport with our suppliers – some of our farmers have worked with us for two decades,” Mrs Vitkauskiene informs. “It means we can negotiate favourable agreements for all parties – with some leeway depending on the circumstances. We make it a policy to only use high quality milk – even if we need

to pay higher prices to do so.”

Moreover, Pieno Zvaigzdes promotes healthfulness beyond the remit of its product lines, supporting Lithuania’s sporting scene. “We built a sports centre near the main site of our production,” the interviewee elaborates. “We also have our own basketball team playing in the highest Lithuanian league!”

Looking ahead, the renowned manufacturer intends on continuing its expansion into the export market.

“We’ll be taking on some big players as we enter that space,” Mrs Vitkauskiene admits, “but our size is also a strength. Lithuania may be small, but our production per capita is huge. We are also much quicker to move than multinational conglomerates – and so we can enter certain markets very rapidly, with high quality products that keep us ahead,” she adds.

“Our strategy will therefore continue to be one of adding value and assuring quality,” the Sales Director concludes. “In the meantime, we shall keep developing new products and enhancing our market reach across the globe.” o 73

Company Profile: Birra Peroni Written by FOOD&BEVERAGE NETWORKER

AN ITALIAN ICON Birra Peroni, Italy’s iconic beer brand, recently expanded its glass bottling capabilities, with the aim of boosting both flexibility and capacity – driven by robust global demand, and strengthening sustainability and ‘premiumisation’ trends. Plant Manager Mr Michele Cason and Packaging Engineering Manager Mr Luigi De Liddo outline the recent plant enhancements at Peroni’s facility in Bari, southern Italy.

n 1846, Francesco Peroni established his first brewery in Vigevano, near Milan. He called his beer Birra Peroni and it continues to bear his name today. Since then, the brand has welcomed growing demand, embodying Italian values of quality and craftsmanship throughout its evolution. The company has been part of Japan’s Asahi Group Holdings Ltd since 2016, and today has three production sites in Italy – Rome, Padova and Bari.

And while Birra Peroni is especially popular in the southern part of Italy, its iconic Nastro Azzurro is renowned around the globe, with the lion’s share of its production today destined for export. With thriving domestic and export sales, Birra Peroni has recently completed significant investments at its Bari plant in

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southern Italy, as it seeks to leverage upon several key market dynamics that are converging to transform the beer sector internationally.

Mega-trends shaping the market

With around 198 billion litres consumed annually, beer is by far the largest category within the alcoholic drinks segment worldwide, accounting for around 78 per cent of the global alcoholic market. In the last few years, a handful of megatrends have shaped this industry: ‘premiumisation’ is expected to remain relevant while consumers are also migrating more and more towards artisanal craftsmanship with long heritages in the brewing business, according to Euromonitor International. US consumers, for instance, have been ‡

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showing consistent interest in premium beers, with many choosing imported lagers – often over the more affordable domestic options – the research company found. Indeed, ‘drinking less but better’ has been the source of value growth in many mature markets with ethical living making its mark on the beer industry.

The category posted a 1.3-per-cent global total volume growth in 2018, with Italy presenting an even brighter trajectory (total volume growth of two-percent) and reaching 1.7 billion litres. Domestic player Peroni launched a new special Nastro Azzurro lager in May 2018, intended to offer a drinking experience that goes well with food and could replace wine during meals. The product particularly appeals to Italians, who are mainly looking for original taste.

Peroni Nastro Azzurro and the domestic brand Peroni combined accounted for more than 20 per cent of the domestic market last year, thus sitting among the three most popular beer brands in Italy. Such success – both in the firm’s home country and also as an export good to the US and UK – paired with the fact that the drink it sells knows no seasonality, has driven

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Peroni to invest in increasing production capacity at its Bari factory in southern Italy. This is the only site where Peroni processes both returnable and one-way glass bottles.

Premium lager both returnable and one-way glass bottles

Since its launch in 2005, Peroni Nastro Azzurro has been synonymous with style. In 2018, the brewery refreshed the bottle’s look and feel, giving it a clean, elegant and curved shape with a hexagonal logo.

Peroni’s site in Bari now produces this high-quality premium lager in the redesigned bottle, next to the domestic brand Peroni.

Having had the Bari plant running at full production capacity for most of 2019, Birra Peroni plant manager Michele Cason stresses that the requirement to boost production was a no-brainer, but that the firm was keen to enhance its offering at the same time: “Faced with the need to expand our capacity, we used it as an opportunity for rationalising the handling of returnable glass bottles (RGB), applied to the Peroni brand.

Therefore, we enlarged the RGB production in our Bari plant,” he tells us. Given the various formats that are produced at the Bari plant (20cl, 33cl, 50cl, 66cl and 75cl) – and with some of those formats available in both RGB and one-way (OW) bottles – versatility and reduced resource consumption were absolutely vital for the Italian brewery, which opted for a new glass bottling line that would be capable of combining the two processes.

To solve this, Peroni turned to its long-standing equipment partner Sidel: “Since the 1980s, we have installed various bottling lines from Sidel, and this choice has paid back many times,” Mr Cason explains.

Cutting edge filling and labelling tech

Peroni was especially interested in gaining benefits from two of Sidel’s latest innovations: on the one hand, EvoFILL Glass with its cutting-edge filling technology and hygienic, no-base design. The line’s level probe electronic filling valves ensure high accuracy while managing a wide range of filling set points without need for adjustment or replacement of parts. This was particularly important for Peroni, as the firm is handling five different formats in Bari; three of them as returnable glass as well as one-way bottles (33cl, 66cl and 50cl), with two formats managed as one-way

bottle (75cl) and RGB only (20cl).

Beyond that, the brewer was drawn to the new EvoDECO Cold Glue labeller – also provided by Sidel. Launched in 2018, the solution ensures fast changeover times, through its easy-to-operate station with quick-release tool-less label pallets, combined with an automatic label magazine loading system.

“Equipped with three stations, EvoDECO Cold Glue ensures a high-precision application of the pre-cut paper labels on our embossed glass bottles,” emphasises Luigi De Liddo, Packaging Engineering Manager at Peroni, who added that to control the label positioning according to the bottle’s embossing, a custom feature was integrated within the labeller. It came together with a vision system and a solution able to correctly orient the bottle at the in-feed for a perfect label application.

Brand new complete glass line

The turnkey glass line in Bari is currently running at 50,000 bottles per hour and has been designed according to an arena layout, offering full ergonomics and enabling it to be managed by just four operators.

“Since we are also processing returnable glass bottles here onsite, we had to design a smart crate circuit regulation. Sidel stepped in and helped us manage crate 77

accumulations during empty crate palletisation: this approach has led to a seamlessly running line and maximum uptime,” highlights Mr De Liddo. As an expert in complete solutions with a long history in beer lines, Sidel also provided equipment to complement the EvoFILL Glass and the EvoDECO labeller with a (de-)crater, a (de-)palletiser, bottle and crate washers, a pasteuriser, a cap feeder, bottle dryers, a packer as well as conveying systems for bottles, crates and packs.

For increased product quality and sustainability benefits, Peroni installed SWING®, a proven pasteurisation system that cuts energy consumption by 25 per cent. This energy saving is achieved thanks to two units: a water spray deviation system in central areas ensures that only the thermal energy required by the entire pasteurisation process is used to heat or cool the product. Secondly, SWING contains one ring circuit with water flowing inside it at a constant temperature thanks to a single heat exchanger (for all pasteurisation areas). Water is then distributed to different zones as required, thus saving both water and energy.

The overall performance of the bottling line is also realised via EvoFlex®, Sidel’s high-speed single column de-palletiser for returnable bottles in crates. Peroni 78

additionally installed Sidel’s Efficiency Improvement Tool (EIT), a strategic asset that helps any layer of the organisation – from CEO down to the line operators – see the status of the line and events occurring in real time, thus improving production efficiency.

Antonio Martalò, Packaging Manager at Birra Peroni, reports that the new installations have enabled the company to realise “productivity gains and massive flexibility improvements”. No less important, he points out that his company can now scale its production setup according to market needs in the years ahead.

High standards, enduring style

Back in 1846, it was a combination of climate, close proximity to the mountains – where ice and glacial water was plentiful – and the high quality of ingredients that helped Francesco Peroni create such a distinctive pale, medium-strength beer; one that within a short time had become vastly popular.

Today, with 'premiumisation' an ever-strengthening trend, the need to maintain such high standards is clearly more important than ever to Peroni – and its recent capex investments at Bari will clearly stand this enduring and iconic Italian beer brand in good stead for future growth. o