TOMRA Food brings labor-saving solutions to the apple packinghouse
TOMRA Food is bringing high technology to the apple packinghouse, said Damien Gibson, global category director for apples at TOMRA Food.
Gibson said in a news release that high consumer expectations for apple quality are putting retailers and packhouses under pressure to deliver consistent product quality all the time.
Beyond demanding domestic and export customers, growers are working to achieve bigger yields and better pack-out by introducing new varieties, he said in the release.
“This means packers will be required to acquire knowledge about the new fruit, its possible internal and external imperfections, and how to grade it accurately,” he said in the release. “While product quality has to meet customers’ requirements, overdelivering on quality is no smarter than overdelivering on quantity. The right products must be packed in the right box every time. “
Apple packers are finding it extremely tough to find the labor to handle grading and packing duties, Gibson said, and that’s where TOMRA Food technology can play a role, he said.
“Staying competitive is made much easier by adopting today’s state-of-the-art sorting and grading technologies, which solve the challenges faced by packhouses today,” he said in the release, noting that solutions are available to businesses of almost every size.
“TOMRA’s technologies allow packhouses to reduce the labor required for sorting while significantly improving the consistency, accuracy, and packout of the sorted product,” he said in the release.
He said that TOMRA’s solutions for apple packhouse operations include the TOMRA 5S Advanced sorting and sizing platform, Spectrim sorter and grader, UltraView inspection module, and Inspectra² apple grading system.
The TOMRA 5S Advanced, which first became available in 2021, builds on the class-leading performance of Compac’s Multi Lane Sorter (Compac was acquired by TOMRA in 2016), but was redesigned from the ground up.
“This is the only platform truly designed for hygienic operation, with toolless cleaning and sanitization, and 100% stainless steel and food-safe polymer contact areas,” Gibson said in the release.
Efficiencies are made possible by the machine’s specialized software features and connectivity to the data platform TOMRA Insight, according to the release.
The TOMRA 5S Advanced’s software features provide for optimization and efficiency across the line and include programs for element mixing, exact packout optimization, and throughput control, as well as a Dynamic Lane Balancer. These features improve productivity, quality and efficiency, and can be controlled easily via the sorter’s intuitive graphic user-interface, the release said.
Connectivity to the cloud-based subscription service TOMRA Insight can make sorting machines the digital heart of packhouse operations, enabling better flow of information up and down the supply chain, and opens a pathway to traceability from bin to pack.
Gibson said the TOMRA Insight also empowers packhouses to improve efficiencies by making better, data-driven decisions.
When using Spectrim, first, the apples are sorted according to surface blemishes. Then, they are graded on minor and major defects, including skin blemishes, insect damage, misshapen fruit, bruising and abrasions. Sorting parameters can be configured to grade for differing levels of defects, so that there’s full control when matching product grades to different markets, he said in the release.
The UltraView inspection module integrates with Spectrim, the release said.
“With a dedicated set of high-resolution, multi-spectral (color and infrared) cameras and LED lights located ideally close to the fruit and parallel to its direction of travel, this is the world’s most powerful fresh produce grading platform,” Gibson said, noting that UltraView can identify defects which are otherwise difficult or impossible to detect in the fruit’s stem bowl and tip region.
Inspectra² is a non-invasive solution for internal defect grading, the release said. This platform’s near-infrared spectrometer can detect brix, core rot, internal browning, water core, firmness, hue, and bleeding.
