No time to waste, says TOMRA Sorting Food

Almost a third of all food produced worldwide is never eaten, leading to 1.3 billion tons of food waste each year. This includes around 45 per cent of all fruit and vegetables and 20 per cent of meat. Just one quarter of this wasted food could feed the 795 million chronically hungry people around the world. Of this waste, over half (54 per cent) is lost in upstream processes, including agricultural production and post-harvest handling. The other 46 per cent is wasted in processing, distribution and consumption. With the cost of this totaling US$750 billion per year to the global economy, addressing food wastage offers significant potential to ease pressures on natural resources and the tightening balance of supply and demand. In September 2015, the United Nations (UN) met to agree to reduce per capita food waste by half by 2030. This set a new precedent by including food loss and food waste reduction within the UN’s global development goals. As a leading manufacturer of potato sorting and peeling systems, TOMRA Sorting Food is acutely aware of the food waste issue and plays a central role in working with potato farmers, processors and retailers to achieve the objective of reducing food waste. Commenting on these trends, TOMRA Sorting Food’s market unit manager for peeling, Eamonn Cullen, says: “Potato processors are keen to get the most out of each potato, as well as being more conscious about food waste as a global problem. “The amount of food left on the production line can add up significantly, so there is increased motivation for potato processors to reduce waste and by extension reduce inefficiency, lower overheads and increase profits. “The primary solution for addressing this lies in the continuous innovation of processing equipment and material handling. Awareness of where food waste occurs is critical to knowing where to focus this innovation. “The more companies can reduce food waste within their organizations, the more efficient, and thus profitable, they will be. Waste can often be seen as a normal overhead, but developments in certain areas can now offer new possibilities to reduce waste and bring improvements in profit.” TOMRA Sorting Food is helping to tackle this issue within the potato industry with its Eco steam peeling machine, which has the ability to peel 1,000 potatoes in 4-5 seconds. The speed of steam peeling potatoes ensures the minimum amount flesh is lost, while at the same time making considerable savings in steam usage.  Eamonn explains: “Steam peeling is achieved by heating the moisture beneath the potato skin, using high pressure steam. When the steam exhaust occurs, the moisture expands rapidly - in less than one second - and separates the skin from the flesh. This results in the user keeping the shape of the potato and achieving the minimum amount of waste. “The processor can use the steam peeling process to make various food waste savings by repurposing potato peel as a secondary product such as dehydrated starch products. Potato peel can also be transformed into a number of products such as adding it to bread to extend shelf-life.” TOMRA Sorting Food is not only targeting existing and potential customers with its innovative and efficient steam peeling solution, but is also looking at its role in further addressing the worldwide food waste issue. Eamonn expands: “Globally, climate change can affect the growing conditions for potatoes. The irregularity of size, shape and quality mean that we continuously need to optimize the process for different international markets. “Growers and processors in many countries are concerned about the conditions for the 2016 harvest. Factors such as the increase in rain and rise in global temperatures bring greater risk of disease and low quality potatoes, so processors inevitably have to change their requirements and expectations. Our role is to therefore continually develop systems and applications for potatoes which can handle constantly changing environmental conditions. “Currently across the world, TOMRA’s steam peeling machines are processing around 20 million tons of potatoes every year. With a possible yield improvement of up to one per cent, and an average person consuming 25 kg of potatoes per year, that one per cent saving could provide potatoes to more than eight million people without the need for extra resources or additional land being farmed.” Food companies are also looking at increasing their sustainability plans as reducing food waste will soon become crucial to preserving corporate sustainability. “Introducing the Eco steam peeler to our customer’s production lines, has seen them achieve a significant reduction in raw material and energy usage,” Eamonn continues. “For example, a typical French fry production line consumes 280,000,000 kg/yr of potatoes. By introducing the TOMRA Eco steam peeler, the processor can expect savings up to 2,800,000 kg/yr of potatoes and still achieve the same output. When shown in a statistic such as this, it is clear the type of budget savings that can be achieved.” A major French fry producer and customer of TOMRA Sorting Food is already realizing significant savings not only in the reduction in food waste, but also due to the reduction in the amount of steam being used during the potato peeling process since introducing the Eco steam peeler. In its latest sustainability report the customer announced that 20 per cent less steam was now being required per ton of potatoes and that the machine was much faster at peeling than before installation, demonstrating that the Eco peeler saves both money and time. Eamonn concludes: “TOMRA Sorting invests eight per cent of its turnover in research and development and has 15 test centers spread across all the world’s continents. We are totally committed to helping existing and potential customers get the most out of their potatoes by simultaneously significantly reducing waste and providing them with a competitive advantage.”Pictures1 - Eamonn Cullen, TOMRA Sorting Food´s Market Unit Manager for Peeling2 - TOMRA Sorting Food - Eco Steam Peeler3 - TOMRA Sorting Food - french fry sorting4 - TOMRA Sorting Food´s sensor-based technology