High-tech potato processing line to be installed in Brazil

One of the largest potato processors in Brazil, Bem Brasil, is adding a multimillion-dollar potato strip processing line to its facility. Teaming up with Key Technology, the new equipment being purchased includes six VERYX digital sorters, an ADR EXOS automatic defect removal system, three Sliver Sizer Removers and 57 Iso-Flo vibratory conveyors on a line designed to process 30,000 kg of frozen French fries per hour.

The company is implementing the technology and equipment to maximise food safety and consistently meet final product quality specifications while improving operating efficiencies and increasing yield.

“We selected Key for two primary reasons — their leadership in our industry and our trust in the company and their solutions,” said Walter Takano, Foreign Trade Manager at Bem Brasil. “Our confidence is based, in part, on years of experience with their Iso-Flo shakers on our other lines. To learn more about their VERYX sorters and ADR systems, we visited Key and then travelled to see the equipment operating at major potato processing facilities in North America and Europe. Overall, Key’s expertise and the reliability of their technology impressed us.”

The sorters will be equipped with a full suite of sorter intelligence tools as well as top- and bottom-mounted sensors to achieve full-surface inspection. The sorters immediately prior to packaging will also feature Key’s Pixel Fusion technology to find and remove even the most difficult-to-detect foreign material (FM) and defects immediately prior to packaging. Images of FM will be time-stamped and archived for retrieval using the Key FMAlert feature.

The technology combines all camera views into one all-surface analysed object, which enables the sorters’ Sort-to-Grade (STG) software to automatically maintain final product specifications for both defect and/or length profile without operator intervention to increase yields and eliminate mechanical length grading. The sorters’ Information Analytics software exports real-time individual object data, allowing the company to collect, analyse and share big data across the enterprise to reveal patterns, trends and associations, which can help optimise processes.

Takano concluded, “For us, the single most important thing is taking good care of our consumers. Working with Key, we’ll ensure we produce the ideal final product quality. At the same time, we expect to increase yield and reduce operating costs.”

Key Technology is a member of the Duravant family of operating companies.

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