< Previous30 Food & Drink International www.fdiforum.net ENGINEERING AND COMPONENTS W hile the food and drink industry continues to face rapid change, increasing demand, new trends, and higher consumer expectations for quality and freshness year-round, as well as the drive for sustainable packaging and operations, the sector is simultaneously working to reduce costs and optimise productivity. Advancing machines and facilities is key, and engineering central to this, as equipment and infrastructure ages, and focus is put on performance of machines and environmental targets. Simply placing spick and span machines in facilities is not always the best approach, with deeper collaboration between equipment builders and food manufacturers critical to creating a factory fit for their future. Something such as mixing equipment for example can designed and manufactured in purpose-built factories to meet stringent customer standards and optimise specific individual processes. Discussions over enhanced automation and digitalisation remain high on the agenda for engineers working to innovate for food firms, and the pandemic, which saw food processing plants judged essential, only expanded the desire for these solutions. With workforces already in the middle of a staff shortage and hints of a recession in the future, many have been forced or incentivised to consider automation as a labour-saving method, to assist where there are not enough employees to run plants. Even prior to COVID-19, tech that could take people out of food processing was a future priority, with focus growing on robots, which do not take days off, are excellent in repetitive tasks, reduce virus transmission concerns, are improving with better vision systems and the ability to work safer alongside humans, and are being moved upstream to take on wider roles. Robots are also being developed to be smaller and lighter, to make the most of space in facilities, seeing smaller and more precisely engineered components too. Of course an end-to-end automated system is not always affordable or achievable, meaning most are seeking solutions where humans and robots work together, complementing each other’s skills. Deciding which aspect of a plant should be automated will vary based on the product being made. For those with currently lower levels of automation, determining which solutions bring fast returns and offer quick implementation will help in this process. Recent months have seen a rapid rise in demand for more flexible processing Flexible engineering In the wake of the pandemic and disruption it caused, food firms have accelerated discussions with engineers over automation, increasing flexibility and more, while engineers themselves have changed how they work with such companies. 30-33.qxp_Layout 1 28/06/2022 09:34 Page 1Food & Drink International 31 www.fdiforum.net ENGINEERING AND COMPONENTS and variable speed options, for the ramping up of production of both goods and packaging. The importance placed on flexibility builds on that already existent as smaller production runs and more frequent changes have become common. With heightened agility required, interest is turning to automated modular systems where lines can be reconfigured as necessary for a different product. Meanwhile, remote service support devices have been fitted by engineers to help with line improvements and diagnostics. © stock.adobe.com/Pavel Losevsky © stock.adobe.com/ Марина Демкина 32 Á 30-33.qxp_Layout 1 28/06/2022 09:34 Page 232 Food & Drink International www.fdiforum.net ENGINEERING AND COMPONENTS While it is called on to further automate operations, engineering is key in the rising adoption of cloud- connected sensors and IoT-enabled machinery in food production, as food manufacturers and engineers look to measure, gain more knowledge about, and enhance machinery and processes. With engineering and the integration of real time sensors and analytics, producers can gain actionable data and full control of their process, uncover anomalies, highlight problems in production and correct these to optimise operations, heighten productivity, capacity, and yield, and cut waste. Furthermore, with equipment failure a common cause of downtime, potentially leading to missed deadlines, upset customers, and revenue losses, sensors are useful to engineers evaluating maintenance, offering a chance to continually and remotely monitor if a machine and components are working properly, while connected remote alarm software can raise any concerns. Machine learning can be applied to data collected here to warn of a breakdown or other issue, facilitating predictive maintenance, and allowing the devices that need maintenance to be specifically targeted. Moreover, with the right software plant engineers can acquire and analyse process data, uncover events in need of intervention, optimise processes, and gain insights about processes. As food plants have adapted and brought in new tech to stay afloat in the pandemic, so have engineering firms and equipment manufacturers themselves to be able to provide machines to the food industry, shifting how they interact with clients and how equipment changes and upgrades are completed. With many unable to travel, and distancing restrictions in place, remote design, engineering, and testing has come into play to keep facilities running, and engineers have welcomed the virtual world. The food industry has embraced technologies required for remote factory acceptance tests, demos, troubleshooting, diagnostics as well as augmented reality tech like smart glasses, and the combination of local engineers with digitally present engineers for installation. Of course when acquiring new equipment, financing and calculating total cost of ownership are vital considerations. When deciding on whether to invest in new solutions, then, one will need to assess running costs, including maintenance and sanitation, service and spare parts costs, machinery performance and impact on labour, risk of downtime, quality of equipment, and life expectancy. © stock.adobe.com/ Andrei Merkulov 30-33.qxp_Layout 1 28/06/2022 09:34 Page 3Advanced Engineering MIDDLETON LTD Inline High Shear Mixer Top Entry High Shear Immersion Mixer Bottom Entry High Shear Mixer Sealed Bearing Mixer 3 Stage High Shear Mixer Dispersion Mixer Fluid Mixers AdPro Trent Industrial Estate | Duchess Street | Shaw | Lancs | OL2 7UT | UK t: +44 (0)1706 759003 | e: info@aemixers.com | w: www.aemixers.com mixing is our business 30-33.qxp_Layout 1 28/06/2022 09:34 Page 434 Food & Drink International www.fdiforum.net THE DAIRY INDUSTRY D espite the popularity of its products, the dairy industry continues to be thrust into the spotlight for its negative environmental associations. From the land it takes to raise dairy cows and grow their feed, to impacts on water quality and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, consumers are becoming more savvy to the influence the sector has, causing greater thought into their selections whilst grocery shopping. But strides are being made to improve the dairy industry, often going unseen, and commitments are being made to environmental sustainability and reaching carbon neutrality. In the US, the dairy industry has committed to the 2050 Environmental Stewardship Goals, addressing areas where the industry can have the greatest effect, including achieving GHG neutrality, optimising water use while maximising recycling, and improving water quality by optimising utilisation of manure and nutrients. Following this, the US Dairy Net Zero Initiative (NZI) was launched to help farms cut their environmental impact, supporting dairy farms to adopt new technologies, practices, and create new markets and products. Last year Nestlé USA and the Innovation Center for US Dairy announced that California’s Trinkler Dairy Farm would be the first pilot farm within the US Dairy NZI, with A sector under scrutiny With the dairy industry frequently in the headlines for its environmental impact, strides are being made throughout the supply chain to produce products in an efficient and sustainable manner. 34-37.qxp_Layout 1 28/06/2022 09:35 Page 1Food & Drink International 35 www.fdiforum.net THE DAIRY INDUSTRY © stock.adobe.com/Kadmy 36 Á an initial $1.5m investment from Nestlé enabling the dairy to install technology and incorporate practices that significantly shrink its GHG emissions, with the goal of achieving a reduction of 30 percent by 2023 and net zero emissions within five years. “This partnership with Nestlé and Trinkler Dairy Farm is a powerful example of the innovative collaborations needed to scale knowledge and new innovations that will make the transition to net zero emissions a reality,” said Mike Haddad, chairman of the Innovation Center for US Dairy. Meanwhile new sustainability pledges for UK dairy farming have been revealed. The UK Dairy Roadmap initiative - which consists of Dairy UK, the NFU and AHDB - has launched ‘The Dairy Roadmap Climate Ambition: Supporting UK Net-Zero’, setting out the dairy industry’s support for decreasing greenhouse gas emissions and limiting global warming, and will set a minimum standard for improvement across the entire industry. To meet the challenge of net zero, the climate ambition paper commits the sector to a range of scientifically robust and evidence led targets and sets out a delivery programme to support their achievement. The paper is planning for the sector to reach net zero carbon by 2050 and maintain positive actions which diminish climate warming caused by methane and nitrous oxides. Paul Flanagan, dairy sector director at AHDB, said: “The strength of the Dairy Roadmap is in the span of people and organisations working towards common goals. Our working groups include farmers, processors, retailers, data companies, academics and trade associations. We’ve already made big strides in reducing the environmental footprint of the entire dairy supply chain and we must not be shy about telling that story. However, the opportunities for more sharing of best practice and innovations are huge, and we can accelerate these through collaborations like the Dairy Roadmap.” Though these display the commitments in two countries, there are a plethora of specific actions businesses across the dairy industry are taking to improve their environmental impact. Within facilities LED lighting is being installed, green energy is being switched to as well as produced, and waste reduction practices implemented. New and efficient technology and equipment are also being invested in, from that that minimise electricity consumption to high-efficiency refrigeration used to instantly chill milk at the farm, more efficient machinery and trucks, and sound waste heat recovery systems in plants. Managing wastewater is also key, with water playing a major role in dairy manufacturing and processing, with facilities working to ensure it gets reused and recycled back into processes, while upgraded pumps and piping circulating water to evaporative cooling towers for example are cutting energy use. When it comes to addressing water use, even fixing leaky pipes can be impactful, while placing phase separation sensors at transfer points to make sure only minimal amounts of product, water and detergent are wasted in changeovers and in cleaning in place is effective, whereas larger projects in wastewater treatment can prevent damage to the 34-37.qxp_Layout 1 28/06/2022 09:36 Page 236 Food & Drink International www.fdiforum.net THE DAIRY INDUSTRY Anderol B.V. address challenges of modern dairy processing Anderol B.V. is a leading manufacturer and marketeer of high- performance synthetic lubricants. It offers an extensive range of food grade lubricants - certified by NSF H1 registration, ISO 9001, ISO 21469, Kosher and Halal - and works with dairy processors around the world. Pushing production to maximum efficiency while maintaining food safety and quality in the modern dairy processing plant places heavy demands not only on personnel and equipment, but also on the oils and greases that provide the necessary lubrication at almost every stage of production. To combat this, Anderol is committed to developing synthetic lubricants with four key characteristics, each one essential to dairy processing: High thermal stability for optimum performance at both very low and very high temperatures; high oxidation stability, which makes the oil last longer and in turn extends maintenance intervals; low carbon deposits to keep components lasting longer without having to be cleaned and high film strength for good adhesion of the lubricants to the materials, even in conditions with a lot of water or steam. environment through groundwater and rivers, and provide potable water for use. Furthermore, sustainable water management is also vital at the farm, requiring responsible farming and irrigation practices and modern technology. Water can be managed on every level. Addressing waste more widely, many dairy companies are no longer simply discarding waste, sending it to landfill. As everything from cardboard to plastic to whey and water is recycled and repurposed, those in the dairy industry are also turning inedible waste into renewable energy via anaerobic digesters, seeing microorganisms disintegrate organic waste to create gasses, decreasing fossil fuel use and finding a new source of income. One of the main sources of methane at dairy farms, manure, can be wielded by dairy farmers in anaerobic digesters to reduce their impact while providing a biogas with energy rich potential. The captured biomethane can then be used to power vehicles, and fit into a system © stock.adobe.com/ Syda Productions 34-37.qxp_Layout 1 28/06/2022 09:36 Page 3Food & Drink International 37 www.fdiforum.net THE DAIRY INDUSTRY We specialise in Halal Certification of Food Ingredients, Beverages Dairy, Confectionery, Flavourings, Colourings, Pharmaceuticals, Toiletries, Cosmetics and other non-food items. We also certify Meat, Poultry, Slaughtering, Cutting, Portioning, Processed and Ready Meals for national and international markets. www.halalfoodauthority.com | info@halalfoodauthority.com | 0044 (0) 20 8446 7127 LONDON - IRELAND - BELGIUM GLOBALLY RECOGNISED SINCE 1994 Halal Food Authority SYMBOL OF TRUST & AUTHENTICITY of cows eating feed grown in fields and producing milk and manure, for the milk to be delivered in trucks fuelled with biogas coming from manure. Moreover, biogas produced could also be employed to power manufacturing facilities, while the by-product from the biogas system can be used to increase crop yield. Major companies like Shell are developing renewable natural gas production facilities located within dairies, using cow manure as feedstock, though it must be noted the upfront capital cost of installing these systems is a significant obstacle. Further actions are being taken at farms, from focusing on regenerative agriculture to achieve benefits of carbon sequestration, water retention and improved soil health, to ensuring to use deforestation-free soy in cattle feed as well as looking to food waste and food processing by-products for feed to decrease resources needed to create feed from crops. Concurrently, genetics projects are helping to breed more environmentally friendly cows. Perhaps amongst the most exciting areas gaining increased attention however is enteric methane reduction (the other main way methane is emitted at dairy farms, coming from the mouths of dairy animals and produced in the cow’s rumen through the digestion process). This is accomplished through the use of feed additives. FrieslandCampina for instance recently began a large-scale pilot project with an innovative feed additive (3-nitrooxypropanol) from DSM that consistently reduces methane emissions from cows by around 30 percent, following EU approval for the additive’s use. Other feed additives are also being evaluated for their effectiveness, such as bromoform- containing red seaweed, plant extracts and essential oils from plants like oregano, garlic, and cinnamon. The dairy industry is recognising the important role it has to play in mitigating the climate crisis, seeing every stage of the supply chain make progress to boost environmental sustainability. © stock.adobe.com/ Денис Бабушкин 34-37.qxp_Layout 1 28/06/2022 09:36 Page 438 Food & Drink International www.fdiforum.net MEET THE EXPERTS I t’s easy to define an expert as an individual skilled in a given area but doing so eclipses the journey involved in reaching that point. Indeed, experts begin their careers in exactly the opposite end of the spectrum – as bright-eyed novices. From here, they accumulate understanding and experience, honing their skills through practical learning until, years later, they can be labelled as experts. Suffice it to say, when you take their advice, you’re getting decades worth of know-how in every single answer. In this regard, it’s always better to invest in experts in their specific fields, rather than those who claim to be adept across all fields. One can’t help but think of the adage of the ‘jack of all trades being master of none’. Expertise is something that is difficult to quantify. Do we call someone an expert for the length of time they have worked in an industry, or for the success stories they have from it? Or better yet, is an expert little more than an individual with a collection of qualifications and letters after their name? The answer is never quite simple. In a sense, an expert could be said to be a combination of all three, but at the same time every single person is – or ought to be – an expert in their own craft. Someone who runs a packaging company is bound to be an expert in packaging, the same for food manufacturing or recruitment agencies. The challenge is in finding someone who is both an expert in their chosen field, but who can also become an expert in yours as well. There are many people who are experts in a given craft – be it designing a processing line or working on rebranding for packaging, marketing or brand logos – but expertise is meaningless if a company expertise Defining Someone who dedicates all their time to a particular task or role is undoubtedly an expert, but how do you decide who or what firm is the right expert for your needs? The challenge is in finding someone who is both an expert in their chosen field, but who can also become an expert in your own company as well. © stock.adobe.com/Kzenon 40 Á 38-40.qxp_Layout 1 28/06/2022 09:39 Page 1Food & Drink International 39 www.fdiforum.net The fundamental aim of Food Care Solutions is to provide expert consultancy to its clients so they can achieve their objectives for food safety, food quality, customer satisfaction and legality. Whether you are just starting up, have reached the point where you want to progress to certification against one of the standards, or have been certificated for some time and have “dropped a grade”, Food Care Solutions has the knowledge, skill and experience to help you. 10 High Street Place, Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, NN8 4HP Tel: +44(0) 7811 192545 Web: www.food-care.co.uk Email: fcs@food-care.co.uk For more information, visit www.endecotts.com or email us at sales@endecotts.com. Bostwick Consistometer by Endecotts Company profile: Endecotts offer the world’s finest sample analysis equipment, including sieves, sieve shakers, consistometers, sample dividers. Our products are used for sample processing for quality control purposes. Endecotts is ISO 9001:2015 accredited and our products produced to the highest standards including sieves to ISO and ASTM. Product profile: The Consistometer is a low cost, durable, instrument for accurately checking laboratory or production samples against consistency, viscosity or flow rate standards. It uses little bench space and is yet probably the simplest, most accurate method of conducting a variety of flow associated tests. Advantages: • Ease of use • Suitable for a variety of tests • Provides a consistent platform for test • 316 food grade stainless steel construction • Engraved graduations for accurate results • Levelling screws and spirit level enable accurate set up • Available as standard or extended version Company profile Welwyn Tool Group Ltd is the UK and NI’s Sales & Service Centre for the full range of Leister plastic welding and Industrial Process Heat Equipment. We continue to support our customers with a high level of pre and post-sales service and support, achieved by a team of dedicated engineers providing application advice and consultation, on-site demonstrations and technical support. Product profile LEISTER’s HOTWIND SYSTEM 230v 3680W is impressive with its’s wide range of applications suitable for industrial heat processes such as shrinking packaging, sterilising tools or even smoothing and shining for a gloss finish on manufactured goods. This standalone heater is ideal for fast paced production lines; its ‘Plug in and Go’ operation is designed to deliver an immediate and cost-effective solution where setting up process heat is needed in the shortest amount of time. This way production demands can be made easily controllable and more manageable in the workplace. The HOTWIND has the highest power output in the SYSTEM range and is a user- friendly product with a compact design proving easy to use. One of the main features of the HOTWIND is the digital display which provides more visible control for operators. Its effortless system shows the setpoints and actual values with temperature specifications, ensuring precision is managed throughout the work process and driving a high-quality performance. For further information and technical advice for equipment in this field, please contact Welwyn Tool Group on 0800 856 0057, email info@welwyntoolgroup.com, or visit www.welwyntoolgroup.com. HYGIENIC ENGINEERING, SYSTEMS AND COMPONENTS Axium Process is a leading UK based, hygienic engineering company. Our focus is on technically demanding process operations where knowledge, compliance, documentation, and quality assurance become indispensable. Inhouse services include hygienic fabrication, precision machining and innovative solutions for filtration and liquid separation applications. Product profile Our comprehensive range of products include, process skids, frames, CIP systems, tanks and vessels, pilot scale equipment and heat exchangers. We have developed a complete range of hygienic stainless-steel filters consisting of sintered mesh, wedge wire and perforated screen options. For further information call +44 (0) 1792 883 882, email info@axiumprocess.com, or visit www.axiumprocess.com HYGIENIC & PRECISION ENGINEERING EXCELLENCE 38-40.qxp_Layout 1 28/06/2022 09:40 Page 2Next >