Fevita Hungary ZRT., Hungary´s largest frozen food producer

Fevita Hungary Zrt is the country’s largest frozen food producer and a leading global exporter, with 200 employees processing more than 32,000 tons of vegetables every year. Established in 1967, the company boasts a 22 percent market share domestically and has built a network of customers across 20 markets including Germany, Israel and Japan. Fevita’s high-profile customers include international supermarket chains Lidl, Aldi and Tesco as well as Hungarian retailers Spar, Co-op and CBA. The company is expanding into more markets every year, so it is becoming increasinglyimportant that its products meet strict food safety and quality standards.Fevita prides itself on high-quality and locally-sourced produce, continuous improvement in its processing and dedication to customer satisfaction. A peeling solution at full capacityPeter Hegyi, project engineer at Fevita Hungary Zrt. (picture), says: “We have been processing high-quality vegetables and fruits for 50 years and have firmly established ourselves as a leading brand. “It’s very important for our business that we efficiently process the fresh produce arriving onto our production line, such as sweetcorn, peas, beans, carrots, parsnips and potatoes. Processing could mean anything from analysing and removing defects to peeling, cleaning and dicing.“Our ambition is to become a global exporter to hundreds of markets and to do that we knew we needed to increase ourcapacity. The processing line was running smoothly but had reached its full capacity just as we saw rising demand for carrots and many of our other products.“To achieve our objectives, we looked for a long-term investment with a partner organization that could provide us witha modern and reliable sorting solution – all of which led us to TOMRA Sorting Food.” Developing the correct solution with a trusted partnerFevita’s previous peeling machine processed eight tons of produce per hour, however approximately twenty percent of this was being discarded as waste.Hegyi continues: “We already owned two of TOMRA’s optical sorting machines elsewhere in our production line and wehoped the company could provide us with more efficient peeling technology.“We worked closely with the people at TOMRA to design the correct solution for our business, enabling us to produce animproved and more consistent product for our customers.”The team from TOMRA partnered with Fevita to understand the safety, quality and performance requirements for their process. The Odyssey steam peeling solution that was developed provided the customer with a fully-enclosed unit with shorterprocessing time and faster peeling; as well as a single-touch panel to easily control the line.This solution has enabled the processing line to increase capacity to 8-12 tons per hour, perform more efficiently andimprove the quality of the finished product. Better for business and the environmentThe trusted solution that Fevita has now installed has brought other benefits such as reducing water usage. Hegyi adds: “We are the first company in Hungary to own the advanced Odyssey steam peeling technology, making us more ‘green’ as a business and helping us stand out from our competitors.”Fevita’s partnership with TOMRA has also seen the company receive high-quality customer care, including training for itstechnical staff and access to TOMRA Care which provides 24-hour customer service and troubleshooting.Hegyi concludes: “We have been in contact with TOMRA’s engineers, who help us with best practice, spare parts andproblem solving. There has always been a high-quality and reliable service from very helpful staff.“We are absolutely satisfied with the new equipment and the assistance from TOMRA’s team. This technology will provide real value for the future of our company, allowing us to grow and compete in a global market on a scale that wouldn’t be possible otherwise.”