In this interview, Carel van Buchem, Director of Sales for EMEA/ASIA at Key Technology, shares insights into the latest trends and innovations in sorting solutions for the frozen food processing industry.
He discusses the critical factors processors should consider when selecting optical sorting systems, explains how modern technologies help minimize food waste across the supply chain, and highlights recent advancements Key Technology has introduced to meet the evolving demands of individually quick frozen (IQF) product lines.
What factors should be prioritized when choosing a sorting solution for a frozen food processing facility?
When selecting an optical sorting system, frozen food processors are typically focused on three primary objectives: maintaining food safety, ensuring product quality and maximizing yield. Achieving these objectives simultaneously enables processors to protect consumers and their brand reputation while meeting exact product specifications, reducing food waste and improving profitability.
Labor is an increasingly important consideration in equipment selection. Today’s advanced sorters reduce the need for human intervention and can be operated by minimally-skilled workers after a short training session. This helps processors cope with ongoing labor shortages and high turnover rates.
Another critical factor is the sorter’s ability to maintain high performance across a wide variety of products. Many IQF processing lines run dozens of SKUs with frequent changeovers, so flexibility and ease of use are essential. Our systems address this with intuitive user interfaces and recipe-driven programming that help maintain consistent results across every run.
Lastly, sanitary design and data connectivity are also important considerations. Processors benefit from equipment that’s easy to clean and supports Industry 4.0 initiatives with robust analytics and reporting capabilities.
How can modern sorting technologies support efforts to minimize food waste throughout the frozen food supply chain?
Historically, sorting technologies forced processors to choose between quality and yield – removing more defects often meant sacrificing good product in the process. Now, advanced optical sorters like our VERYX and COMPASS systems virtually eliminate this trade-off and reduce food waste by maximizing the percentage of incoming raw product that becomes finished product.
For example, our proprietary Pixel Fusion capability combines pixel-level input from multiple sensor types to produce higher contrast between objects. This enables the sorter to identify more subtle differences between good product and foreign material with exceptional accuracy, resulting in fewer false rejects and more product in saleable bags.
Key Discovery, our information analytics software, enables the optical sorter to collect, analyze and share data about the sorting process and every object flowing through the line at the same time it sorts, revealing patterns and trends via real-time data or batch reports.
These insights enable proactive quality management, helping processors spot potential issues before they become problems and automatically control upstream and downstream processes to reduce waste risk across the entire line. At the front of the line, a sorter analyzing the quality of incoming product by lot or by supplier can be used to enable a payment scheme that rewards higher quality. Also, this information can be shared with raw material suppliers, informing them of trends that allow the grower to take corrective action to improve future quality.
What new products or systems has Key Technology implemented recently?
Key Technology recently introduced a COMPASS optical sorter designed specifically for individually quick frozen (IQF) products such as fruits, vegetables, seafood, poultry and meat. What makes COMPASS unique is its combination of superior performance and simplified operation, featuring an intuitive user interface that resembles smart devices and straightforward recipe-driven programming that allows even entry-level workers to operate the system effectively.
Ideal for high-changeover IQF environments, COMPASS handles a wide variety of products and supports multiple daily changeovers with ease. This chute-fed sorter utilizes in-air inspection to see both sides of products, detecting and rejecting foreign material including plastic, glass, metal, stones and extraneous vegetable matter, while removing processor-specified product defects with virtually no false rejects. For product mixes, the sorting system can be programmed to ensure ingredients are correctly proportioned.
COMPASS sorters can also be equipped with our advanced Pixel Fusion inspection technology, combining pixel-level input from multiple camera types to create higher contrasts between materials of similar color and shape. This enables COMPASS to identify even the most-difficult-to-detect foreign material and defects while virtually eliminating false rejects.