International technology group, GEA, will showcase its comprehensive portfolio of pioneering processing and packaging equipment available in the UK at FoodEx 2020 (stand P130), taking place at the NEC in Birmingham from March 30 to April 1.
In a market where customer preferences, economic trends and global competition increasingly influence operations, food producers need to find ways to turn challenges into opportunities. GEA performance-focused solutions provide manufacturers with the flexibility they need to produce a variety of processed foods and to quickly take advantage of new market trends. At FoodEx 2020, the technology company will show a range of solutions including award-winning processing equipment, as well as the latest developments in packaging technology, including both vertical bagging and thermoforming, which have been designed to deliver bottom-line savings for the food industry as a result of shorter downtimes, minimised film waste and the elimination of packaging errors. GEA also looks forward to showcasing its innovative heat pump technology, which can help customers maximise energy-savings and significantly reduce their CO2emissions.
Visitors will have the opportunity to see FoodTray, the latest innovation in food packaging which is made from recyclable materials, including paperboard and plastic film. The FoodTray is compatible with GEA’s thermoforming equipment – ensuring recyclability goes hand-in-hand with efficiency and profitability. This more eco-friendly solution will be demonstrated in conjunction with GEA’s PowerPak – the group’s ground-breaking thermoforming packaging system, providing full visibility at the sealing station during production, automatic top and bottom film alignment for perfect sealing and change-over and set-up times that require just minutes.
A long-time attendee of FoodEx, GEA’s presence will demonstrate the group’s decades-long experience, combining ingenuity and world-class engineering to supply flexible and more sustainable processing and packaging systems that can be custom-built to suit each company’s unique needs. One example of this, which will be on display, is the coating solution GEA OptiFlour, the first bespoke solution in the industry that operates dust-free, delivering superior performance for a wide range of applications – from a thin pre-dust to seeded flour types and light to medium crumbs.
The GEA SmartPacker TwinTube will also be on display, with its impressive high-speed packing system. Delivering significant productivity benefits, such as improved flexibility and operational efficiency, this machine has a combined production output of up to 500 bags per minute and features a new re-enforced modular design. TwinTube is able to run paper-based material side by side with recyclable plastic material.
GEA boasts a wide-ranging portfolio spanning the entire food chain. Visitors to the stand will be able to select from a variety of production experiences which use virtual reality (VR) to take visitors on an exploration inside a complete dairy plant or get a taste of the inner workings of SuperheatSmoke via the GEA CookStar. An award-winning solution for in-line smoking of meat, poultry, seafood and meal components, SuperHeatSmoke combines double spiral oven technology and uses purified smoke condensate from which the tar and ashes have been removed to deliver BBQ magic; it can be used for smoking at temperatures above 100 Celsius.
The company has previously showcased a complete packaging and slicing line available to customers with the GEA OxyCheck and DualSlicer. OxyCheck is an in-line quality control system that checks the oxygen content and seal integrity of every single Modified Atmosphere Pack (MAP) that leaves a thermoformer, eliminating the need for time-consuming sample testing, which wastes packaging material, its contents and only tests a small percentage of packs. The DualSlicer was developed by GEA for integration into fully automated lines. It consecutively slices two calibrated logs, such as round sausage, or two uncalibrated logs such as cheese, cooked ham or raw ham, delivering consistent slice quality and constant slice thicknesses – even with softer products – at an output of up to 1,600 kilograms per hour.
“GEA understands that demands on food producers have never been higher in terms of quality requirements and production standards”, explained Violeta Forster, GEA’s Country Marketing Coordinator UK. “FoodEx 2020 presents an exciting opportunity for us to showcase our engineering expertise along with our highly innovative solutions for the food sector, which are helping companies improve their profitability and become more sustainable.”
