In a booming agribusiness market, TOMRA Food has presented several solutions for the various segments of the food sector in Brazil. The Blizzard machine dedicated to frozen fruit and vegetable processors is the latest addition to its offering.

For vegetable processors, the saying that “knowledge is power” is especially true now that they can use the new TOMRA Insight web-based data platform. By gathering detailed data from sorting machines, this subscription-based service gives processors more knowledge about what’s happening on their lines and the power to make better-informed decisions. This is transforming sorting from an operational process into a strategic management tool.

VIRTO GROUP, the largest frozen vegetable company in Spain and one of the most important in Europe, has again put its trust in TOMRA. The company has updated its main plant in Azagra (Navarra) with eleven Nimbus BSI+ sorters. This frozen vegetable mixing, packaging, storage, and distribution center is one of the most technologically advanced in the industry.

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.

LEGUMBRES SELECTAS SIERRA NEVADA, a Spanish company, based in Granada, specializes in producing, processing, and marketing superior quality pulses. It is the Spanish market leader and is one of the top 5 companies on the European market in processing lentils, beans, and its own-production chickpeas. The company has found the Nimbus BSI+ by TOMRA to be the solution to the issues specific to grading pulses. This technology has achieved improved quality and food safety, a ten-fold increase in its production capacity, and a much more automated, controlled, and efficient process for its staff.

This guest article is an expert opinion from Cindy van Rijswick, Senior Fresh Produce Specialist from RaboResearch Food & Agribusiness

Processing organic vegetables, once a niche specialty, is now big business. However, while crops grown without pesticides are regarded by consumers as exceptionally natural and safe, they bring processing lines additional complications and risks.    

Imagine that vegetable farmers could suddenly multiply their yields per acre. Or that the vegetable-growing season continued with ideal climatic conditions forever. Or that local soil quality and climate didn't matter. Or that there was no need to use pesticides because rodents and insects were nowhere to be seen. Or that large volumes of vegetables could be grown and processed on the edge of urban areas, slashing the time and expense of transporting produce to retail outlets. Growers and processors would be busy all year round in a predictably manageable way.

The free-to-download publication identifies how vegetable processors will be affected by changing market demands

Today, we are delighted to give the stage to Jason Schenker, Chairman of the Futurist Institute; President of Prestige Economics and bestselling writer on many innovative topics, such as future food challenges.