Tomra Food presents new organization, unveils AI-powered platforms

Tomra Food has unveiled its new organizational structure, showcased its sorting, grading and packing solutions, and has launched three new artificial intelligence-powered sorting and grading solutions.

Tomra Food says its new structure creates a more agile and responsive organization, closer to its customers, with greater capacity for innovating and bringing effective solutions to the market.

The company is adopting a new, regional structure consisting of three areas: Europe, the Middle East and Africa; Americas; and Asia-Pacific. Within each area, it is merging its Tomra Processed Food and Tomra Fresh Food business areas into one Tomra Food team, the release said.

The final element of the new structure is the creation of a new central hub that brings together R&D, product development and operations, increasing Tomra Food’s operational efficiency and innovation speed, the company said.

The announcements were made at a press conference held at the Fruit Logistica exhibition in Berlin by Harald Henriksen, executive vice president and head of Tomra Food, and Karel Strubbe, Europe, the Middle East and Africa regional director of Tomra Food, according to a news release.

“Throughout its history, Tomra Food has shown its ability to adapt and innovate to provide the solutions our customers really need,” Henriksen said in the release. “That’s what we are doing with our new organization, which will benefit them in different ways. The regional approach will allow us to operate as a local partner, having a more direct dialogue with our customers and responding swiftly to their very diverse needs.

"Unifying our two business areas into one Tomra Food team means that we can capitalize on the best practices from each to work more effectively and deliver top-tier solutions and services," Henriksen continued. "Finally, by centralizing our R&D and operations into a dedicated unit, we will be able to leverage the collective expertise and efforts of our entire team, boosting our ability to innovate and bring more and better solutions to our customers — and lead the resource revolution with them.”

Also at Fruit Logistica, Tomra Food launched three solutions that demonstrate how AI is changing food processing:

• Tomra Neon, a new blueberry pre-grader that uses AI modeling to detect clusters. Extensive validation tests have shown Tomra Neon removes more than 95% of clusters and over 90% of red and green berries to optimize the optical grader’s efficiency, the release said.
• The new-generation Spectrim X grading platform features LUCAi Deep Learning technology for apples. This intelligent optical sorting and grading solution meets customers’ demand for greater productivity with unparalleled grading precision, higher yields, minimal fruit loss and reduced operational costs, the release said.
• Tomra Food also unveiled Tomra LUCAi for its InVision2 grading platform for cherries. The deep learning technology maximizes pack-out results and minimizes fruit loss, the release said.