Client Overview: Irish Cheesemaking Plant
A major, well-known Irish cheesemaking plant faced challenges maintaining high product quality standards. Increasing reports of quality issues, specifically mould development on 20kg (40lb) cheese blocks, led to elevated product returns, financial losses, and a potential hit to the company’s reputation as a supplier of excellence.
The Power Food Technology Leak Detector was introduced as a cutting-edge solution to address these issues. It improves leak detection efficiency, reduces waste, and restores confidence in the plant’s processes.
Challenge: Mold growth on cheese blocks in storage arises from a loss of vacuum seal, typically caused by:
- Poor bag sealing.
- Mechanical damage during downstream processing.
This was found on blocks with typical storage times and just before cheese conversion at the customer’s facility, which is too late to correct.
These leaks were incredibly challenging to detect early at the cheesemaker’s facility because the blocks were case-packed after sealing. The plant’s reliance on its existing camera-based detection system, positioned after the sealer, compounded the detection issues.
Limited detection and high false rejections due to variations in
- Cheese block surface profiles, cheese recipes
- Cheese colour changes.
Frequent operator intervention to adjust sensitivity settings for optimal detection.
With a line throughput of up to 11 blocks per minute, the existing system struggled to meet the plant’s operational demands, leading to:
- With excessive false reject rates, the machine gets switched off.
- Limited detection efficiency, obvious leaker only.
- Inconsistent results, causing production delays and customer dissatisfaction.
The Solution: Power Food Technology Leak Detector
The Power Food Technology Leak Detector provided a robust, reliable, and efficient solution. It introduced positive mechanical testing using a unique travelling test head with extended testing times with the Block in motion. This innovative approach overcame the limitations of vision-based detection and met the plant’s high-throughput requirements.
- Key Features:
- Accurate detection for every sealed cheese block, after sealing and before casing.
- Autonomous operation, eliminating manual intervention.
- Superior detection efficiency with the industry’s lowest false reject levels.
- Enhanced operational data to monitor and improve sealing equipment performance.
Results After One Year
Implementing the Power Food Technology Leak Detector delivered transformative outcomes for the plant:
- 8x Reduction in Product Returns: Substantial reduction in defective products reaching customers.
- 70% Reduction in Operator Time: Streamlined processes freed up valuable labour resources.
- 60% Fewer Customer Complaints: Improved product quality restored customer satisfaction.
- Improved Operational Efficiency: Accurate data insights allowed optimisation of bagging and sealing equipment.
Conclusion
The Power Food Technology Leak Detector achieved a step change in the Irish cheesemaking plant’s quality assurance process, delivering measurable improvements in efficiency, product quality, and customer satisfaction. By leveraging this innovative technology, the plant reduced costs and waste and reinforced its reputation for excellence in the competitive food industry.
If you’re facing similar challenges, the Power Food Technology Leak Detector could be your business’s game-changing solution.
