Washing, removing soil, stones, and foreign bodies suchas metal, wood, or plastics from potatoes significantly boost food safety,however it is not only washing but also optical sorting and checking, thatprevents impurities from contaminating the product.
It is important for any equipment that can separate crop from the soil, stones,and debris, to be designed to handle the cultivars gently, to ensure productquality. By using advanced and automated equipment, these processes can becarried out much quicker and more effectively than before, ensuring the processis efficient and productive, while maintaining the integrity, and ultimatelythe value of the crop.
Joost Posthumius, sales manager at Allround Vegetable Processing, exclusivelytalked with www.potatobusiness.com editors about his company’s solutions
Knowing that your company’s experts are continuously developing new,sustainable technologies for these processes, can you tell us what are yourmost advanced standalone and turnkey solutions for this “Pre-cleaning, Washing,Destoning” triad?
One of our turnkey solutions for washing and destoning is the PD washingmachine. In front of the PD there is an integrated destoner, which cleans yourproduce of clods and stones. This combination is perfect because there aren’tany stones or clods in the PD, the PD is far more efficient. Also, the PD isequipped with a stainless steel drum that won’t rust.
For pre-soaking, you can use our wet hopper. The wet hopper is used in the sameway as a normal hopper but has the ability to pre-clean produce. The productfalls in the water, where the sticky soil makes it heavier. With air comingfrom the bottom of the machine, bubbles are created which has a cleaningeffect. Because of the reduced weight, the product comes up and is taken out bya web belt.
Destoning can be done with our destoners. The destoners are designed to removedirt and stones from the processing line. When you place a destoner in front ofa washing machine it creates an even better cleaning result. Our AIPL (Allroundintegrated processing line) is our turnkey solution for pre-cleaning, washing,and destoning. With these lines, you can process multiple products. Our AIPL’sare easily extendable and can be adjusted to particular needs. In the AIPL’syou are capable of receiving, grading, washing, polishing, cleaning,inspecting, and weighing. With the AIPL’s you can have every process of theproduct be integrated into one processing line.
How does your equipment minimize product waste and reduce bruising anddamage?
Our machines are customized to the kind of produce it has to process. Carrotsfor instance are not very vulnerable and they can work with ‘rougher’ machinesthan onions. We also make sure that in our processing lines drop heights arereduced to a minimum, so the drop won’t damage the product. Our equipmentminimizes product waste by handling the product very carefully.
What are some of the most common demands you get from clients regardingcapacities, speed, and accuracy?
The most common demands from clients are onion, potato, and carrot lines with acapacity range from 10 to 50 tons per hour. We rarely get any special demandsregarding the speed of the machines. Our machines have to be capable to do therequested amount of tons per hour. The demand we get regarding accuracy oftenlays between 90 and 98%. This depends on the capacity of the processing line.
Why should we consider pre-cleaning so important?
Pre-cleaning is important because when you pre-clean your produce it will beready for packaging or the next processing steps like cutting, peeling, etc.When you pre-clean produce most dirt will be washed off. When you pre-cleanbefore the washing machine, the washing machine is capable to wash the producebetter. This results in perfectly washed produce, which will look better in thestores. For a finishing touch, you can also use our polisher.
Automation and reduced labor requirements are other two important aspects.How do you incorporate the newer technologies into your equipment?
We’ve made lines that are almost completely automatic. With these machines, thelabor requirements are reduced to a minimum. For example, we have the boxstacker, which can stack boxes automatically up to three boxes in height. Theboxes are then transported to a place where a forklift can take them away. Byusing the box stacker you provide a logistic advantage by reducing forkliftmovements. Another example is our storage hopper. By storing product in astorage hopper instead of boxes, you can dramatically reduce your forkliftmovements.
How do you see the future advancements of these types of equipment and themarket demand for them?
With more and more advancements and bigger companies investing in the farmingindustry there will be a bright future I think. Our technology makes sure thatfarmers, retailers, and investors can handle more produce. The demand forbigger and faster vegetable processing lines will go up. Vegetable processingmachines will have to be bigger and faster to supply that demand.
