Sauce maker boosts production

Orkla has moved to a new PET packaging design for its tomato sauce bottles and in-house blowing using Sidel’s integrated blow-fill-cap solution, boosting safety and capacity to meet increased demands.

Orkla Foods’ main ketchup facility in Fågelmara, Sweden, produces 30 million tomato sauce bottles a year with 20 different recipes.

Within the sauces and dressing category, there has been increased demand from consumers for products made with less sugar, salt and preservatives, and made with responsibly sourced ingredients. There is also a need for convenient and appealing primary packaging that differentiates brands and is also recyclable.

To meet these goals, Orkla worked with Sidel to adapt its production model to increase production capacity and cost efficiency while reducing its environmental impact.

To meet these requirements, Orkla redesigned its packaging range from cylindrical polypropylene (PP) bottles to modern flat rectangular pet designs. These easy-to-use shapes allow users to completely empty the bottle so there is no unnecessary food wastage.

Additionally, the bottles are up to 30% lighter than the previous PP design. The bottles are composed of at least 25% recycled PET (rPET), with Orkla aiming to make this 50% in future.

The bottles were previously blown externally and shipped from a UK supplier, but are now sourced locally in Sweden, resulting in a 90% reduction in CO₂ emissions caused by transportation. The bottles are also now blown in-house. Orkla uses Sidel’s preferential heating technology which optimises PET distribution while allowing the asymmetrical stretching needed to blow flat and shaped containers.

To meet the demand for healthier products, Orkla wanted to remove additives from its product lines.

“When we considered changing our recipe and filling temperature, we were concerned that this would change the product taste and quality which our customers have come to love and expect from Orkla. By working with Sidel, we were able to ensure that we kept our original taste profile while delivering a product that was healthier and more eco-friendly,” said Per Samuelsson, Project and Process Developer of Orkla Foods’ Fågelmara Plant.

By replacing outdated standalone filling technology, the ketchup manufacturer deliberately moved away from a hot filling process which used temperatures above 85°C and consumed vast amounts of energy.

With the use of an aseptic buffer tank, the new set-up allows for ambient filling with fewer preservatives in the recipe, but also reduces the overall energy consumption of the process and packaging line. Since container cooling is no longer required, the process also doesn’t use water.

The product batch is now safely stored in the aseptic tank during production and bottles changeover on the packaging line, leading to two key benefits: the first is a reduction in waste and the second is changeovers performed by Orkla’s operators are seamless with less pressure on the time it takes to complete the task.

Sidel has provided this ambient filling technology with an integrated Combi solution combining the blowing and capping functionalities. Orkla’s quality and safety requirements are also met with the Predis preform sterilisation system embedded within the blower and the cap dry decontamination within the capper. The Predis blow-fill-cap Combi integrates all functions and transfers (preforms, bottles and caps) in a safe enclosure avoiding any contamination risk.

This solution has increased production capacity from six to nine tonnes per hour and also allowed Orkla to introduce new formats and recipes onto its line.