< Previous30 Food & Drink International www.fdiforum.net LOGISTICS nightmare is expected to get worse. The other option is to consider expanding transport fleets to accommodate for the increased demands, with more goods on the road at any given time to keep product in the retail stores and supermarkets fresh. While this will certainly avoid the issue of limited warehouse space, the long-term costs of such an arrangement may become untenable for many manufacturers. Expanding a fleet not only increases fuel and vehicle related costs – but also recruitment costs for drivers, wages and associated HR and administration costs. There is also the issue of environmental impact and carbon waste created by a fleet. Because the only issue that can match consumer’s demands for fresher food – is that food and drink manufacturers should be doing all they can to reduce the impact on the environment, not contribute more to it. Savings on warehouse space can be found in improving efficiency to increase the amount of product that can be stored in any given amount of space. Advanced racking solutions, combined with more robust supply chain systems enable companies to increase throughput while also cutting costs associated with lost time or product losses. As always, the trick is in finding out exactly how much is possible given space limitations – and adapting what can be used for a company’s products, be they palletised goods – or more individually stacked produce. Even beyond efficient storage however is the concept of efficient temperature control. With the vast majority of food products needing to be kept at specific temperatures there are obviously savings that can be made in doing so. After all it is more expensive to reduce the temperature of a storage facility, than it is to maintain it. Any losses in temperature due to breaches, poor worker attention to detail – or just old age, will result in costs that can soon spiral out of control. With warehouse space as limited and expensive as it is, perhaps businesses need to look at making the space they have work harder. One way to do this is to start moving toward fully automated © Shutterstock /Maciej Bledowski 28-31.qxp_Layout 1 24/09/2021 08:02 Page 3Food & Drink International 31 www.fdiforum.net LOGISTICS `Smart` warehouses. One of the largest elements is obviously the goal of reducing costs. Currently in the EU wages are falling across most countries, but this trend is certainly not going to be a permanent one. Being able to remove employees from the picture could save millions in terms of wages, while also cutting out other related costs involved, such as payroll, HR, and legal matters. It’s worth noting that automated warehouses don’t truly attempt to live in a world where humans don’t exist. There is likely to be a team monitoring an automated warehouse from another location, ensuring that everything runs efficiently and running the warehouse. But even then, the costs of having a few centralised control teams would be far less than having teams at every single distribution centre. Space is another benefit to an automated system. Walkways and mezzanine floors can be unnecessary if a distribution centre is set out properly. Aisles could theoretically be removed entirely if a warehouse was to use roof- mounted shuttles or cranes to move goods about. But even if a company preferred to use remote-operated forklifts, there would be less requirements in terms of the width of aisle – a remote forklift unit of course not needing to be as wide as a normal one, due to its lack of a driver cabin. Conveyor belts and systems are commonplace in automated warehouse systems like these, particularly for bringing goods to loading bays to be delivered to any logistics crews arriving for stock. Conveyor belts again can help make efficient use of space, as there are no requirements on where they must be placed. If a company truly wished to do so, then the conveyor system could be near the ceiling, allowing for the ground level of the warehouse to be used for storage. Temperature controlled warehouses can benefit doubly from this, as the lack of workers travelling to and fro reduces the opening of doors and access points, causing loss of temperature. An automated conveyor system might more commonly involve an automated shutter that only allows the product through, before closing behind it – preventing escape of chilled air. © Shutterstock /gualtiero bof fi D Davies Turner Celebrating 150 years of pioneering service Your worldwide freight and logistics partner T: 01709 529709 www.daviesturner.com YEARS 28-31.qxp_Layout 1 24/09/2021 08:02 Page 432 Food & Drink International www.fdiforum.net MIXING AND BLENDING There’s a truly dizzying array of mixing and blending machinery on the market, so it pays to do your research and understand the options. Industrial blenders introduce different amounts of energy, and high shear and high impact blending systems – all of which can have effect a product’s particle size – influence consistency and texture. This makes it ideal for emulsification, powders and thickeners. The latter is especially advantageous as stabilising and thickening agents are crucial to the end texture and quality of many products – such as salad dressings, gummy confectionery, syrups and ice creams. However, incorporating these gums into a product mix can result in problems during the manufacturing process, and they can be difficult to disperse and hydrate correctly and efficiently. When added to water, most gums form agglomerates which conventional agitators struggle to break down rapidly. But by using high shear equipment, manufacturers can avoid these agglomerates from forming in the first place and achieve the desired texture, consistency and mouth feel of their products. Industrial blenders aren’t suited to every application and, in some cases, can be of detriment to a product rather than beneficial. Other options include ribbon blenders which boast dual action ribbon-shaped agitators which creates an intimate blend in a relatively short cycle time. Thanks to the nature of this mixer, it’s ideally suited for powder blending applications where thoroughly incorporating products together is The right tool Whatever the requirement, there’s a mixer or blending perfectly suited to the task. Here we explore the myriad options available. © Shutterstock /Surasak_Photo 32-35.qxp_Layout 1 24/09/2021 08:07 Page 1Food & Drink International 33 www.fdiforum.net MIXING AND BLENDING paramount. For blends requiring a gentler mixing action, there’s paddle, tumble and vertical blenders. The latter is intended for a product that is shear sensitive, or where process parameters are critical. The blending action is gentler than the agitators seen in the ribbon blender, so for loose mixers and those of a more delicate nature, this is a better option. Tumble blending is a rotating mixing machine that mixes through a tumbling rotating action. These machines come in a variety of styles depending on the requirements, from intermediate bulk container blender, the V-shaped blender and the double-cone configuration. Agitation is often conflated to mean all 34 Á © Shutterstock /Kzenon 32-35.qxp_Layout 1 24/09/2021 08:07 Page 234 Food & Drink International www.fdiforum.net MIXING AND BLENDING types of mixing processes, but this oversight eclipses much of what these machines perform on the production line. Agitators ensure the mixing process achieves a homogenous blend faster. Given that there’s dozens of different kinds of products that require this specific kind of mixing, it’s no surprise that there are different kinds of agitators. From low shear to high shear, agitators can be used to mix, disperse and emulsify making them common on production lines. As we’ve already explored, ensuring the correct mixer or blender is in place can result in huge efficiency and process optimisation gains. This can be taken further still. With continuous mixing and blending, a manufacturer can meet the demand for ever more efficient processes and increase batch throughput. This can be accomplished by using several mixing receptacles arranged in such a way that a batch is always being worked on at any given time. However, opting for multiple off- the-shelf options might have the opposite effect and compromise efficiency rather than enabling it. For that reason, manufacturers might be better off opting for a bespoke approach. This equipment is built to exacting customer standards and optimise specific individual processes. With the growing number of food and drink manufacturers moving towards more specialised optimised processes to maximise quality and minimise cost – or diversifying their offering – no doubt these bespoke options will become more popular still. Whatever the processing capabilities of a mixing and blending equipment, one issue remains – hygiene. Without a thorough washdown and sanitation routine in place between batches, mixers and blenders become a major health risk. When high viscosity food ingredients are mixed together, ingredients closest the vessel walls tend to move slower which affects the overall efficiency of the mixing process. Scrapers are purposefully designed to come into contact with the vessel walls to scrape away sticky ingredients and incorporate them back into the mix. But some particles can become embedded in the scraper itself, creating abrasion © Shutterstock /Lobachad 32-35.qxp_Layout 1 24/09/2021 08:07 Page 3Food & Drink International 35 www.fdiforum.net MIXING AND BLENDING WORLD RENOWNED SHAKERS AND SIEVES ENDECOTTS.COM 9 Lombard Road London, SW19 3UP UK Tel.: +44 (0)208 542 8121 sales@endecotts.comEndecotts Ltd 9 AND MORE...! Consistometers Sample Dividers Laboratory Shakers & Sieves © Shutterstock /Ruta Production on the vessel walls which leads to wear. Ingredients can also collect on the scraper arm, where they can contaminate the next batch. This is just one example, highlighting the wider need for mixing and blenders to be regularly and thoroughly cleaned between batches. This does result in periods of downtime, which can be avoided if a company embraced continuous mixing operations, as outlined previously. Innovation never sleeps for food processing, and updates in mixing and blending technologies offer food manufacturers the chance to regularly evaluate and update their processes which, in turn, helps boost efficiency, process optimisation and improve product consistency. 32-35.qxp_Layout 1 24/09/2021 08:07 Page 436 Food & Drink International www.fdiforum.net FRUIT AND VEGETABLES Whether fresh or frozen, all fruits and vegetables first need to be harvested. Yet growers are at something of a crossroads, with labour shortages and a decline in seasonal workers in the wake of Brexit. Growers have relied on seasonal manual labour for decades as a cheap and reliable means of picking and harvesting crops, many of which could only be done so by hand. However, with advances in technology and smart harvesting equipment, growers can fill this labour deficit by investing in automation. Robotic pickers are becoming more commonplace for harvesting, part of the wider shift taking place in the agriculture sector that includes the adoption of sensors and other monitoring technology as well as drones and analytics. Although robotics are much more efficient and reliable than typical human pickers, growers have been hesitant to invest. Of course, there is the upfront costs to consider, but, until recently, there were numerous fruit and vegetable crops that robots were unable to pick – until now. Fieldwork Robotics, a Cambridge- based robotics developer, was behind the world’s first raspberry-picking robot and is currently developing a new robot that can harvest cauliflowers. As cauliflowers need to be cut from the stem and trimmed in the field, it has historically been undertaken by hand. But an early prototype, developed Fieldwork’s co-founder Dr Martin Stoelen, lecturer in robotics at the University of Plymouth and associate professor at the Western Norway University of Applied Science, has a gripper and a cutter that can neatly slice off a cauliflower head. Coupled with these picking robotics, big data and smart monitoring solutions allow growers to plant and pick exactly the amount needed to meet current demand, rather than trying to guess which leads to food waste in the field. However, the blame for food waste does Advances in automation and robot pickers, sorters and grabbers are having profound effects on the fruit and vegetable sector. 38 Á Fast and fresh 36-39.qxp_Layout 1 24/09/2021 08:09 Page 1Food & Drink International 37 www.fdiforum.net FRUIT AND VEGETABLES © Shutterstock /Oksana Mizina 36-39.qxp_Layout 1 24/09/2021 08:09 Page 238 Food & Drink International www.fdiforum.net FRUIT AND VEGETABLES not lie solely with growers, instead being a supply chain-wide issue plaguing the fruit and vegetable sector. Since the beginning of major cross-industry efforts to tackle the nation’s massive food waste over the last few years, massive headway has been made. Figures from the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) and IGD show that the UK has saved some 180,000 tonnes of food – worth £300 million – from becoming waste. Perhaps the biggest issue at play in the cause of food waste is packaging, labelling and sell-by dates. Confusion over the latter leads to consumers prematurely throwing edible food and beverage products out, simply because the label told them too. Some of the worse affected products here are meat, dairy and, you guessed it, fruits and vegetables. Packaging is the sword and shield in terms of protecting against food waste, especially when it comes to fruit and vegetables. Innovation in this area is creating the next-generation of packaging aimed at preserving food freshness and integrity for longer without relying on chemicals or other agents. In this fertile space industry and academia ebb and flow, working together and independently on the packaging of the future. Yet for all these advancements at the end of the supply chain, food waste needs to be tackled at all links. Avoidable waste is rampant during manufacturing where paperwork issues can have major knock-on effects. However, much of the blame lies with machinery and equipment or, specifically, the way in which they’re used. For example, manufacturers attempt to beat gravity, as it were, resulting in a loss of yield. WRAP advised that producers “use gravity by putting mixing operations at a higher level than filling”, a simple solution, certainly, but one that could have an impressive cumulative effect. Good manufacturing practice – which describes principles under which products are consistently produced and controlled according to quality standards – is a means through which manufacturers can avoid unnecessary © Shutterstock /ctrlsphoto © Shutterstock /asharkyu 36-39.qxp_Layout 1 24/09/2021 08:09 Page 3Food & Drink International 39 www.fdiforum.net FRUIT AND VEGETABLES food waste. For fruits and vegetables, this could mean less spoilage and loss of product. But it also ascribes as much to the machinery employed by a company. Relying on older, cheaper models won’t nearly be up to the standard as their contemporary counterparts. Automation and efficiency aren’t just industry buzzwords, but rather a lens through which we can explore and, ultimately, evolve the supply chain. To stem food waste in the fruit and vegetables sector, manufacturers will need to embrace automation and the cutting edge technology. When combined with innovative new packaging and working alongside campaign bodies, suppliers and consumers, then the industry will have a robust and reliable safeguard against food waste. © Shutterstock /V olkova www.kanegrade.com Tel: +44 (0) 1438 742242 Email: info@kanegrade.com NATURAL FOOD INGREDIENTS 36-39.qxp_Layout 1 24/09/2021 08:09 Page 4Next >