Buhler SORTEX Technology Meets Food Safety Standards in Snack, Seeds & Popcorn Market

26 Jun 2017 --- SORTEX technology is playing an important role in the success of one of Europe’s leading nut and seed snack processors, as it continues to expand in the private label sector and with its own, widely recognized “Mogyi” brand and sub-brands - such as its recently launched Caramoon caramel coated popcorn, Gastropop savory popcorn, and flavored sunflower seeds. Mogyi Kft. attributes its growth to its ability to adapt to customer needs and maintaining exemplary food safety standards, underpinned by advanced processing technology.

Originally launched in 1990, with just five staff and one small processing line Mogyi Kft now operates four production plants and eight subsidiary companies around Europe and sells into more than 25 countries.

A significant part of Mogyi’s achievements are a result of adhering to strict quality assurance systems and investing in the latest plant technology. Mogyi has used optical sorters for more than 20 years, originally installing the technology for its sunflower seed hulling facility. As standards have progressively become more rigorous, Mogyi has invested in more sophisticated technology to consistently meet exacting food safety and quality standards.

In 2013 Mogyi incorporated its first SORTEX optical sorter into its sunflower seed cleaning line. This proved so successful that, in order to provide consistent product quality, it installed another one in the same year, at its second sunflower seed cleaning plant. The following year, Mogyi added a third sorter for popcorn and since then it has added two SORTEX B ColorVision optical sorters to its processing lines as popcorn and decorticated pumpkin seeds production has boomed.

Krisztián Weidinger, procurement manager for Mogyi Kft, explains: “The consumer market we serve is increasingly challenging. Our customers expect the highest quality products, which also mean that food safety is a priority for us. Bühler tailored the sorters to our requirements, to deliver consistent quality of the seeds we sort, while also ensuring that contaminants, which were difficult to remove previously, disappeared from our end product."

He adds that the company also chose Bühler because it needed technology that could be easily incorporated into existing processing lines. "Bühler ran trials for us first at its London HQ, to demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of its optical sorters. The results on our samples of sunflower seeds exceeded all our expectations, achieving a 99.8% accept quality," he says, adding that installing Bühler technology has enabled it to achieve the homogenous popcorn and sunflower seed color that is crucial to improved quality. The product sorted by Bühler machines is not only now cleaner, but also has an improved yield and reduced waste.”

Weidinger adds that it’s important that the business works in partnership with its equipment suppliers, to ensure it can reflect its company values and help it to deliver exceptional service to its own customers. Mogyi will only use equipment and suppliers, which are able to meet its high standards. Bühler is an industry leader, continuously investing in research and development, consistently introducing innovative technologies, machine upgrades and new applications. Their wide ranges of sorters are equipped with different technologies and processing capacities, at various price points to suit individual processor needs.

“As our business expands continuously, we require new solutions and flexible machine configurations to not only match our capacity, but also to adapt to different products and types of contamination – we found that Bühler technology was able to cope with these needs,’’ says Weidinger.

Andras Abt, Area Sales Manager at Bühler, points out that Bühler was also able to offer Mogyi bespoke maintenance and technical support. “Keeping machine down-time to a minimum is crucial for any processor, because prolonged downtime can adversely impact profits. Fortunately, Bühler’s machines are reliable. But if any technical issues were to crop up, local engineers would be available to provide immediate help.”

Abt spoke with FoodIngredientsFirst: “Bühler has spent over 70 years designing its own dedicated algorithms in-house. And it is these unique optical sorting algorithms that help deliver the best yield for popcorn processors.”

“Furthermore Buhler’s propriety camera, PROfile and InGaAs technologies work in harmony to efficiently target color defects, misshapen products and foreign material,” he explains.

“All SORTEX machines are built and configured according to the needs of our clients, and equipped with the necessary features to meet customer requirements.”

“Processors are turning to Bühler for its advanced cleaning solution, which includes the pioneering SORTEX optical sorting technology, so that they can reduce aflatoxin levels in maize to meet the required safety standards set for animal feed and human consumption,” notes Abt.

“Bühler already operates in many different market segments including agriculture, food processing, and non-food applications. Yet each year we do still discover new applications,” he claims. “Our optical sorting technologies are commonly used in the processing of agri-seeds, fruit & vegetables, nuts, grain, rice, coffee, pulses and even in the plastic recycling industry.”

by Elizabeth Green

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