A Dutch specialist in sole preparation is using advanced freezing technoilogy to significantly expand its freezing capacity and its earnings.
The company is Neerlandia Urk. The technology is represented by Frigoscandia Equipment's Advantec impingement freezer. And the expansion of freezing capacity is taking the sole specialist from 500tonnes per year to 50tonnesperweek. There are additional benefits: reduced product weight losses will pay off in six-digit figures annually, and the production area requirement is 40percent less than originally planned.
Neerlandia has been growing ever since the company was founded 28years ago, says Managing Director Albert Romkes, who runs the business together with his brother Herman. The company is also adopiting new technology, in the form of two high-tech Advantec freezers, from Frigoscandia Equipment.
"The new plant's capacity gives us the opportunity to increase our production five-toseven-fold. With the new Advantec freezers we can process up to 50tonnes of fillets per week and/or 20tonnes of raw produce or 10tonnes of fillets per day,“ Romkes notes.
But Neerlandia was cautious about taking such a big leap forward. "We really agonised over this decision,“ adds Romkes. "In fact, it took us almost a year to select the plant concept best suited to our needs. Of great importance to us were the practical tests with a number of fish varieties conducted by the team of experts from Frigoscandia Equipment here at our premises on Urk.
The results were so promising that we continued the tests at Frigoscandia Equipment in Sweden. The outstanding results ultimately proved to be the decisive factor.“
Impingement technology
The Advantec freezer series incorporates impingement airflow technology, originally developed in 1995 by Frigoscandia Equipment for its Flat Product Freezer, which was designed to meet the needs of the hamburger industry. Offering all the speed and product quality of cryogenic yet at only half the cost, the initial impingement technology has already been proven in more than 200 freezer and chiller modules worldwide. Applications include hamburger patties, fish fillets and other flat products.
The much shorter freezing times in turn reduce the loss of fluid and improve the quality of frozen products. Neerlandia expects the reduced weight loss to pay off annually in six-digit figures. Last but not least, the Advantec freezer takes up much less space than a conventional freezer, thus reducing building costs. "We were able to reduce the originally planned production area by 40percent“, comments Romkes.
Neerlandia will operate the Advantec freezer with an LVSFRIGoPAK ammonia refrigeration unit, also from Frigoscandia Equipment. LVS stands for Low Volume System, reflecting the fact that the unit requires only 50percent of the ammonia quantity used in conventional units.
At the same time, overall efficiency is boosted, enabling the entire system to be operated at any temperature in the range from -10to-50°C, thus making it suitable for special glazings.
Exporting frozen vegetables
Meanwhile, Frigoscandia is helping out exporting frozen vegetables from the Arctic! Mention Finland and people think of frozen Arctic forests, not sun-ripened produce. But Apetit, a division of the Lannen Tehtaat Food Group, is in the business of sun-ripened frozen produce, with a hearty export trade to places like sunny Italy.
Apeti's headquarters is at Sakyla, just outside Turku in the heart of Finland's richest farmland. The company specialises in a broad range of IQF produce, from peas and parsnips to cauliflower florets and carrots, both sliced and diced.
Other products include a variety of root vegetables, zucchini, rhubarb and boiled potatoes. Apetit takes advantage of an uncommonly favorable combination of rich soil, extended sunshine and high-tech processing facilities.
"Finland isn't just dark winters,“ said Petri Pyssalo, technical manager at Apetit. "In the summer it's just the opposite, and our midnight sun makes produce as sweet and good as it gets!“
Capturing quality
The trick is to catch this quality in a way that will make consumers sit up and take notice. In addition to a full-service laboratory for product development and quality control, since 1974 Apetit has been using FLoFREEZE@IQF freezers from Frigoscandia Equipment.
Finnish consumers have taken notice, and Apetit has become one of Finland's most successful brands. Moreover, as the company's market has expanded beyond the country's borders, production capacity has had to keep pace.
To meet the demand for the 1997 harvest, Apetit went for a new, high-capacity production line, and again turned to Frigoscandia.
Apetit did not ask for much: just a freezer that could run for 22 hours a day in three shifts; a hygienic freezer that would be easy to clean thoroughly; and a freezer that could turn out seven tons of high-quality IQF peas an hour.
"Finnish summers are intense, but short,“ explained Pyssalo. "Once the produce is ripe, it's got to be harvested, and then there's no waiting if you want to maintain quality.
New generation
The solution was a new generation FLoFREEZE-M IQF freezer that met and surpassed Apetit's demands.
Since thorough cleaning takes only an hour and a half, a 22- hour run is no problem. Capacity? Up to
7.5 tons an hour, if necessary. Quality? "We get true
IQF no clumping even with our trickiest products, such as boiled carrot and potato strips,“ Pyssalo emphasised.
With its brief but intense summers, harvest time in Finland is particularly hectic. Peas are just one of many products in line for instant freezing, but each product has its own special properties that must be taken into account in the processing parameters.
How does Frigoscandia Equipment's new FloFREEZE-M measure up? "We can change from one product to another in minutes,“ observed Pyssalo. "There's a complete production program in the PLC (Programmable Logical Controller) that gives instant, accurate production parameters for any of our products. There's hardly any downtime at all.“
Up-to-the-minute processing information is available at all times on the PLC. In addition, the freezer is equipped with inspection doors that allow in-operation inspection. "It's good to know we can inspect without shutting down,“ Pyssalo concluded "But in fact we've learned that we don't really need a lot of inspections. We've had nothing but good experience from these freezers.“
For more information, visit www.fmcfoodtech.com
