Complete potato chip line achieves a 76% increase in production

With the snacks market in Italy accelerating and cost-conscious consumers increasingly turning to budget-friendly private-label goods, Preziosi Food, an Italian manufacturer of potato chips and snacks, needed a complete solutions partner with the capability to deliver production capacity increases in a short 12-month timeframe. TNA solutions stepped up to deliver a fully integrated potato chip line, pellet frying system and complete distribution, seasoning and packaging system that took the manufacturer’s production capacity from 17 to 30 million kg of product per year.

“Preziosi had a very short amount of time to plan and execute the project,” said Eric Geling, Chief Sales Officer at TNA solutions. “Any delays would have impacted the company’s private label contracts. However, working with a complete solutions partner greatly minimised the risk during the installation phase. Our objective was to ensure that each machine delivers on its promise, from the highest output level to the lowest downtime.”

TNA is a single-source solutions provider, which means it can deliver equipment for the entire potato snack production line. Its potato chip line includes washing, cutting, frying, distribution, seasoning and high-speed packaging, enabling Preziosi to operate at speeds of up to 1500 kg/h. The further installation of its pellet frying system to replace the existing fryer doubled line capacity to 600 kg/h.

“Despite a number of challenges, including the need to keep production going while navigating a complex installation process, with help from TNA, we managed to overcome these hurdles while also achieving steady growth of over 20%,” said Lorenzo Caporaletti, President and CEO of Preziosi Food. “Our requirements were not only cutting-edge technology; we also wanted to manage the installation and improve the plant within a strict 12-month period without stopping or slowing production. It required a lot of creative thinking from both sides.”

With Preziosi producing over 300 SKUs of snacks across potato chips, pellets and extruded items, one of the main aims of the project was to not compromise on the company’s commitment to delivering high-quality, safe and controlled products. As such, TNA’s holistic approach and deep process knowledge enabled its expert engineers to identify areas that could be leveraged to deliver maximum value, ultimately increasing snack production capacity by an impressive 76%.

The TNA continuous frying system, for example, included patented opti-flow technology that is designed to ensure consistency in each batch and reduce rejects. Lowering the outfeed temperature of the oil inside the fryer to 150°C via a double heat exchanger also reduced acrylamide formation and delivered greater colour intensity and a crunchier product overall.

“Our application engineer, Arnaud Jansse, oversees our Food Technology Centre,” Geling said. “Leveraging his 30 years of experience, he and his team were able to work with Preziosi to fine-tune the frying process, ensuring each product delivered was as perfect as it could be. Following this, the implementation of our tna roflo vibratory and horizontal conveyor systems took care of those products, reducing breakages and, therefore, shards in the final package while increasing distribution speeds.”

The deployment of multiple TNA on-machine seasoning systems (OMS) delivered seamless changeovers and easy operation across multiple products simultaneously. This, coupled with five new tna robag packaging systems, further helped the snack manufacturer to continue to outstrip demand and deliver high-quality products.

A video of the complete solution