March/April 2023 - 18

PEELING
a focus on hygiene. All bacteria traps
can be removed, so machinery is now
up to date.
And the third is automation: Emergency
stops and fail safes are now incorporated
into machinery. There is no more turning
knobs by hand.
2
Growing demand
Another reason is that vegetable
processing has changed over the years.
More big businesses are now participating
in the industry, and more are responding
to the growing demand for peeled
vegetables as an ingredient for prepared
meals. This has led to lines increasing
both the volume and the variety of the
vegetables they handle. Whereas lowvolume
processing lines might operate
only for a few months each year during
the harvesting season of one type of
vegetable, medium- and large-volume
lines handle different kinds of vegetables
with harvesting seasons at different times
of the year. Waste that's tolerated for a
few months annually is intolerable when
seen every day of the year.
One of the benefits of steam peeling is
that the product retains its shape. Steam
peeling treats water below the product
and heats it. Also, paring will grind off
some of the product.
North America was the first place to
introduce high pressure steam peeling.
Heinz Foods was one of the first processing
plants. It decided against working with
chemical peeling systems.
3
The third reason is that huge
advances have been made in
peeling technologies. It remains true
that mechanical peelers are wasteful
and lower-tech steam peelers are also
inefficient - but the more sophisticated
steam peelers are something else.
Technical innovations have greatly
improved operating speed, peeling
efficiency, controllability, energy use,
and safety. Peeling quality is higher,
uniformity greater, food waste usually
lower than 10% and sometimes as low
as 6.5%. On some lines this prevents the
loss of an estimated 1,000 kilograms,
or 2,204 pounds, of vegetable material
every hour. That's an estimated saving of
€200,000, or $241,176, per year.
18 MARCH/APR I L 2 023
 Eamonn Cullen inspects the Orbitt 80 at TOMRA's peeling lab.
4
And the fourth reason? Taking action
to reduce food waste demonstrates a
commitment to sustainability. This matters
both for economic and environmental
reasons. Because the global population
is growing so fast, food production
will need to increase by 70% by 2050,
according to the United Nations' Food and
Agriculture Organization. Yet the food
sector already accounts for about 30%
of the world's total energy consumption
and 22% of greenhouse gas emissions.
To make matters worse, some 14% of
food produced is lost between harvest
and retail. And it's not only the UN that
cares about these things: food buyers do,
too. Consumers increasingly expect food
businesses to adopt sustainable practices,
and food retailers expect the same from
their suppliers.
Peeler versatility is a big advantage
TOMRA Food, known for its optical
sorting and grading technologies, has
ongoing investment in research and
development, a deep-rooted culture of
innovation and decades of experience
working closely with processors to truly
understand their operational challenges.
More than 500 TOMRA steam peelers
are currently in operation around the
world. Approximately two-thirds of these
process potatoes and one-third process
other vegetables - mostly carrots, but
also beetroot, butternut squash, kohlrabi,
parsnip, pumpkin and root celery. Some
processors peel all these products in the
same factory, sometimes on the same line.
This is made possible by the versatility
of TOMRA's sorters and steam-peelers;
by these machines being designed to
be easy to clean, which helps prevent
cross-contamination; and by the machine
controls having menus which allow
operators to switch easily from one type
or size of vegetable to another.
Machine versatility is also important
on lines that process only one type of
vegetable because the crops coming out
of the ground can be so variable. It's not
easy achieving consistent product quality
when vegetables are irregular in size,
shape, and quality. This challenge has
become tougher in recent years because
of climate change: once-predictable
seasonal temperatures and rainfall are
now erratic, affecting crops. This makes it
even more important to have a peeler with
processing flexibility - an advantage that
must be designed into the peeler's batch
weighing module, pressure vessel, steam
exhaust system and control program.
Peeler performance depends
on design
In addition to versatility, another key
for unlocking greater yields is peeler
performance. Best performance is attained
March/April 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of March/April 2023
