Related tags: meat and seafood function sanitize_gpt_value2(gptValue) {var vOut=”"; var aTags = gptValue.split(‘,’); var reg = new RegExp(‘\\W+’, “g”); for ( var i=0; i <atags.length; i++)=”" {vout=”" +=”aTags[i].trim().replace(reg,’-').substring(0,40);” if(i!=”(aTags.” length-1))=”" vout=”" ;}=”" return=”" vout;}=”" $(document).ready(function()=”" {datalayernews=”{};” datalayernews.related_tags=”sanitize_gpt_value2(“Meat” and=”" seafood”);=”" datalayer.push(datalayernews);=”" });<br=”">       The current economic outlook may be far from certain, but there is no doubt that meat processors have emerged from the cautious years following the 2008 financial crisis.
Although markets such as North America are lagging behind, GEA Group said that equipment investment in Europe has increased by about 2% year-on-year. In addition to the need to replace existing machines, it also suggests adding kits designed to increase productivity and production line efficiency, while increasing automation is the main growth driver.
Other equipment suppliers have reached similar conclusions. “From what we have seen, [investment] is mainly focused on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of cutting-but also focusing on automation and reducing the number of operators required to support the production process,” said Huw James, general manager. Atlantic Services Corporation.
The continued drama surrounding Brexit continues to be a concern for most companies, but with the integration, concerns about labor shortages are helping to drive investment in new cutting, slicing and dicing equipment. Faced with the prospect of reduced labor, manufacturers are looking for higher automation because of site integration into a more streamlined operation.
“We are seeing an increasing use of automation in the processing industry, especially large processors,” said Thurne President Peter Jongen.
Thurne is used to pack meat, which traditionally requires a lot of manual intervention. This includes transferring the original sample from the freezer to the press or directly into the portioning machine at the beginning of the process, and manually correcting the weight to achieve the best results for fixed-weight packaging-especially for packaging with a small number of slices.
“We have been working with our sister company Middleby Food Processing to design a fully integrated online boxable meat distribution and packaging system that requires minimal intervention and achieves the greatest results in terms of yield and weight performance,” Jongen explain.
Thurne one case ready Portioner uses an innovative scanning tracking system that can produce fixed weight packages with a set slice count, including single slice parts. Portioner’s continuous feeding system combined with an innovative end gripper is said to maximize product output and provide the ability to produce up to 100 boxable packages per minute.
At the same time, Marel’s Poultry Automated Nugget Line combined two I-Cut 22 machines with its SpeedSort, SingleFeed and StripPositioner modules to reduce the dependence on manual labor. Manual operators are only required for quality control.
“Compared with traditional manual portioning machines, Automated Nugget Line can save at least two people per shift while increasing throughput by up to 30%,” said Morten Dalqvist, Marel portioning product manager. “The production line will produce whole muscle masses and cut them evenly according to the fixed weight and size of each customer. The gift is the lowest on the market.”
Multivac UK’s further innovation reduces labor by eliminating the need to freeze the product before cutting. Martin Wareham, Product Manager of Multivac UK TVI, said: “Due to the existing slicing machinery on the UK market, manufacturers must freeze the product before slicing to ensure the best cutting performance, which may adversely affect the product.”.
“Crust freezing is both labor-intensive and energy-intensive, because the product usually requires dual processing and additional power. Both resources are becoming more and more expensive, and in terms of labor, it is difficult to find and retain. Many Manufacturers use traditional cavity dicing machines for batch dicing, but these machines cannot provide the weight and size of individual cubes that TVI machines can provide.”
Multivac offers the compact GMS 520 splitter from TVI, which provides producers with precise split fixed weight pork or steak, as well as cube size/weight portions.
“Like all TVI splitters, the splitter can stack, stack or present finished steaks individually, which reduces the labor required to format the slices for packaging and helps create an automatic’partial packaging’ system upstream. “Welham said.
Wareham added that a customer recently purchased TVI GMS 520 because of its flexibility from injecting pork loin steak to fixed cube weight and size on the dice, ready for an automatic kebab making system.
In addition to reducing labor, processors also hope that the latest automated production lines will improve the safety of workers who still need to operate them.
“One of the main focus areas for cutting, slicing and dicing is band saws, because slaughterhouses and cutting operations-especially their health and safety policies-are getting more and more attention,” said Richard Nethercot, Group Division Manager- Low risk, Interfood’s slaughter department.
“When labor shortages highlight the increased likelihood of unskilled workers being injured, safety is of the utmost importance. These unskilled workers may also reduce profit margins because of their lack of meat cutting experience, leading to inaccurate cutting and changes in portion sizes.
Interfood solves these problems by introducing Astech’s PW (Precision Weight) saw, a continuous automatic band saw with integrated weight control.
The band saw can handle frozen meat, fish and fresh bone-in products, running continuously during the loading process, and its integrated scanning system allows precise sectioning according to predetermined weight or thickness parameters.
“High-quality cuts are produced through precise speed adjustments. At the same time, as a fully enclosed machine, it has a user-friendly interface, multi-functional programming, safety and easy operation,” Nethercot said.
Although Interfood also offers the BladeStop system, which is designed to allow operators to access the blades in a safe manner, “there is also a great demand for a fully automated system,” Nethercot said. “With the introduction of this precise weight control option, we can now provide a system for any route that companies want to take.”
Another trend that Atlantic Services emphasized to promote investment is the shift to specialized customer products. “The challenge of cutting ever-differentiated products requires a deeper understanding of our customers and a closer relationship,” James said.
Because of the impact of African swine fever (ASF) on the Chinese market, British pork producers have been boosted.
According to data from the purchasing company Beacon, the average price of pork in Europe from May to July increased by 18% from the average price of the previous three months, far exceeding previous forecasts.
Brakes, a supplier of Beacon, stated that 30-50% of pig farms in China have been affected by the epidemic, which in turn has caused global pig prices to rise.
However, after the Minister of Agriculture George Eustis admitted that the country may have an outbreak within 12 months, there is growing concern that ASF will soon arrive in the UK.
Justis wrote to the National Pig Association (NPA), stating that the threat level in the UK is medium, which means that “an outbreak is expected within a year.” The NPA called on the government and British port authorities to adopt a “stronger approach.”
Atlantic supplies blades to the meat, fish, bakeries, and processed meat and cheese industries. “Regardless of which machine is used or which product is cut, we can provide the blade and adjust its characteristics to match. This is behind the company’s significant growth in the past five years,” James suggested.
“Through working with customers, we have developed machines for them, many of which have evolved from customization to become part of our standard product range, and have created some great long-term opportunities.”
Marel’s Dalqvist said, first of all, manufacturers want to meet customer needs by creating the most attractive products.
“The display should be natural, slanted tailoring,” he claimed. “Subpackaged products—such as butterflies, fish fillets, tender meats, strips, cubes, gold nuggets, and popcorn—should be neatly trimmed and should look good on pallet packaging or on a plate.”
According to Dalqvist, versatility is essential because the product needs to be suitable for sale in supermarkets, restaurants, fast food restaurants, and deep-processed products.
“Today, food safety is a major concern for poultry processors,” he said. “Fish fillets and portioning products must be completely boneless. In order to achieve a more efficient and productive process, cutting, slicing and segmenting operations need to be completed at a higher speed and a high degree of automation.”
Dalqvist believes that processing capacity has been increasing, and products usually have to be cut to a fixed weight and/or shape. “In order to maintain a profitable process, any automated equipment must do its job with extreme accuracy in order to keep the need for manual trimming and gifts to an absolute minimum.”
Because manufacturers have meager operating profits, maximizing output is always the goal of any new equipment investment.
Marel’s “Robot with Knife” system combines its I-Cut 122 machine and RoboBatcher Flex to integrate cutting, batching and packaging to minimize giveaways.
RoboBatcher’s high-performance grippers help supermarkets seek smooth pallet packaging, and its vision system positions individual products in the same way.
Dalqvist said: “The new gripper will not place the product in the tray because the resulting bounce will make it impossible to control the way the product landed.” “On the contrary, the gripper moves to the bottom of the tray and releases it in the correct position. Product. The jaws of the gripper only open when necessary, which is especially important for the last product in the pallet.”
Another innovation of Marel is the new I-Cut122 TrimSort, tailored for manufacturers who want to avoid giveaways when handling heavier poultry.
Dalqvist said: “Broilers and the products cut from them are getting bigger and bigger around the world.” “These cut products are usually no longer suitable for pallets and must be divided. This operation will result in more meat. It’s been cut off. These leftovers, which used to be finished with low-value minced meat, can now be turned into a series of exciting products that can be sold at a good price.”
TrimSort can be integrated into the I-Cut 122 portioning and cutting machine to provide a synchronized cutting and trimming process within a compact frame no larger than the I-Cut 122 itself.
According to Dalqvist, the portion cutter can remove much smaller scrap (5 grams instead of 25 grams) without a module, which means that TrimSort has the highest success rate in separating scrap from the main product in the industry.
And this precision allows partial cuts to be extended to products that were previously difficult to handle, such as brisket, tenderloin, thigh or thigh.
“Avoid unnecessary gifts,” he said. “All portioned pieces of meat will be accurately and consistently cut to a given target weight. Packaging becomes easier and more accurate. Processors no longer need to worry about overweight pallets eroding their profits.”
Jongen said that the provision of application-specific slicing equipment allows equipment manufacturers to optimize yields and yields, highlighting Thurne’s expertise in bacon slicing.
“Accuracy is critical, weight performance and low giveaways are the key to profitable performance,” he said.
“We know that bacon has large regional differences and specific market requirements, and our equipment allows these subtle differences to provide the best results at low operating costs. Our IBS1000 bacon slicer is optimized for back bacon slices and It is well recognized in the British and Irish bacon processing industry. The advanced gripper technology reduces the tail end to a typical low weight of 80-100 grams, greatly increasing our customers’ output.
“The gripper can also maximize the control of the product to achieve consistent slice quality, and the reload time of less than 6 seconds makes it possible to achieve throughputs of up to 2 tons per hour.”