Mettler Toledo launches food productivity guide

Developed as a food process and equipment selection reference tool, each section of the guide provides insights and best-practice advice.

Topics covered include filling, batching, checkweighing and inspection techniques such as X-ray, metal detection and final product package vision.

Urs Berli, the company’s market manager for food, said: ’Weighing and measuring are crucial in many of these process steps.

’Selecting the right technology and inspection methods - and making sure they can be easily integrated into a company’s existing MES/ERP [manufacturing execution system/enterprise resource planning] systems - is key to increased efficiency and therefore bigger profit margins,’ he added.

The 14-topic, cross-referenced guide is intended to help a manufacturer to make informed assessments of what works, as well as to determine when a capital investment may be the best bet for further process enhancement.

Key weighing, inspection and measuring-based process optimisation benefits include more precise material transfer, efficient tracking and tracing, reproducible formulation and batching, consistent filling and increased throughput in both automated and manual processes.

Advice is given on: how to reduce bad batches and ensure consistent product taste through traceable PC-guided formulation; using return-on-investment calculation tools to assess potential savings by reduced waste and minimised product giveaway; how to speed up manual portioning processes; using enhanced foreign body detection to reduce food safety risks and protect profits through fewer consumer complaints and legal threats; how to optimise throughput and uptime in vehicle weighing; and how to achieve consistent, sustainable weighing precision and higher uptime via appropriate calibration and performance check procedures.