A record 108 guests from 43 companies came recently to GEA’s Wuqing factory in China for the Slice & Pack and Homestyle & Bone-in Poultry applications seminar, which addressed two distinct groups of customers: processed poultry products producers and producers of sliced and packaged products, held in two parallel sessions.
One of the highlights of the seminar was the demonstration of the GEA multidrum coating solution, which re-creates the bite, texture and taste of the homestyle cooking, especially useful considering the growing demand in China for homestyle chicken, a crispy breaded poultry product that in the past has been difficult to reproduce industrially.
The seminar also introduced a two-part presentation on adding value to bone-in and skin-on poultry products and high yield roasting of bone-in products with the GEA cookstar, held by Bjarne Lyngoe and Luuc van Lankveld.
For the second group, Armin Teutsch, Head of Product Sales Management for GEA Packaging/Slicing, had the support of George Li for translation to present the latest developments in slicing and packaging.
The main focus of the packaging part was on the GEA powerpak, a thermoformer packaging machine that is locally produced in the GEA factory in Wuqing. In addition to the classic vacuum pack, there are also options for MAP packs and thinner rigid films for sliced products available on this machine.
The group also visited the plant’s Technology Center for live demonstration of a GEA unislicer, a loading unit and the GEA powerpak thermoformer in a packaging line that sliced and packaged actual products.
Commenting on the positive reactions of the participants to the seminar, William Wu, sales director of GEA Food Solutions China said, “The success was achieved by teamwork between European and Chinese colleagues. Seminars are ideal for motivating, networking and re-enforcing relationships.”