Fulfilling the two biggest responsibilities of IQF vegetable processing, food safety and product quality, can sometimes seem like mission impossible. Though processors are tasked with preventing foreign materials and imperfect produce from reaching the end of the line, these difficult-to-see enemies can also be difficult to stop. Extraneous vegetable material (EVM) and foreign extraneous vegetable material (FEVM) are often unseeable by the human eye and not always detectable by conventional sorting machines. But now there is a groundbreaking sorting technology which makes the previously impossible possible.

In the business of IQF fruit processing, it’s a fact of life that small and medium processors often cannot afford the same setup of sorting machines as larger processors. Whereas larger operations typically invest in a combination of different technologies like laser and camera, medium and small operations tend to rely on one sorter camera-based sorters which are less costly but also less sophisticated.

In this blogpost, we interviewed our IQF vegetables expert Alejandro Palacios Valencia. We discussed 5 burning questions in the industry:

In this blogpost, we interviewed our IQF Fruit expert Frank De Brauwer. We discussed 5 burning questions in the industry:

COVID-19 is deeply reshaping our lives, both personally and professionally. Since its beginning, where I live in Bergamo, we have been confronted with something unprecedented, which has marked a line between how we had been living so far and how we will come out after it. Now we are gradually preparing for what will be our new normal and all the necessary changes that this will require. While reflecting on this, I found strong parallelism with the frozen potatoes industry: heavily hit, feeling the blow, but with unshaken willingness to come out of COVID-19 stronger than before. What will be the necessary changes that will help the industry accelerate in its recovery? How can we, as TOMRA, contribute? 

LEUVEN, BELGIUM, 23 October 2018 – Cavendish Farms, one of the largest processors of frozen potato products in North America, is equipping its new, state-of-the-art production facility in Lethbridge, Alberta with TOMRA’s Eco steam peelers.

National Frozen Foods, a frozen food processing company with facilities in Oregon and Washington, has received a charity voucher worth $4,000 after winning The Golden Bean competition, held by TOMRA Sorting Food, a leading provider of sensor-based food sorting machines.

Greenyard Frozen, formerly Pinguin Foods, a pioneer and market leader in fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables, has received a charity voucher worth €3,500 after winning a competition held by TOMRA Sorting Food.

TOMRA Sorting Solutions has installed a brand new 56 square meter cold room in its test and demonstration center in Leuven, Belgium.

TOMRA Sorting Food to demonstrate new solution for individually quick frozen vegetable and fruit market at Interpack