Fruit and vegetable processor steams ahead

Oerlemans Foods is a grower, processor and supplier of freshly frozen vegetables, fruit and potato products, which are exported to more than 50 countries worldwide. With a range of over 1000 products and brands, Oerlemans focuses on the international foodservice, retail and industrial markets, processing up to 175,000 tons of food per year, with an annual turnover of €135 million.

As part of its quest for continuous improvement, Oerlemans decided to invest in a new steam peeling line at its processing plant in the Netherlands.

Oerlemans researched various peeling solutions for its processing line against its performance criteria before choosing TOMRA’s steam peeling line.

The steam peeling line, with a capacity of 25 tons/h, incorporates the Orbit steam peeler, the TOMRA steam accumulator and the Dry Peel Separator (DPS).

The steam peeler can operate at a high steam supply pressure using a steam accumulator to achieve very low steam times and providing minimal peel loss. The steam peeler includes TOMRA’s mixing process and steam saving process, which enhances the efficiency of the peeling process.

“TOMRA’s steam peeling line highly exceeded our expectations. The combination of the Orbit with the DPS showed substantial revenue improvements compared to the Orbit and brusher in our other plant. This yield improvement was achieved even during the first production runs,” said Gerard Busser, manufacturing services manager at Oerlemans Foods.

“The complete steam peeling line allows us to achieve an excellent final product quality with a high yield, and the amount of heat that is transferred to the product is also very low,” said Busser.