Petrow Food invests in dry powder fill equipment
Dried fruit products supplier Petrow Food Group has invested £100,000 in a new powder fill machine for dry mixes at its production site in the UK.
The machine will be fully commissioned by mid-2018 at the company’s site in Perivale, London. The Auger with vertical form fill & seal packing machine (VFFS) volumetrically dispenses dry mixes such as flour and cake mixes.
The company says the line will lead to faster packing of powders and the horizontal sealing jaws will ensure a more reliable weigh and seal, and less packaging material waste. It adds that it will enable consistency in its packaged products, faster turnaround of orders and more competitive prices. It will also provide more packaging options for clients and meet increased demand for Petrow’s products.
A cone shaped hopper holds dry mixes and feeds them into a variety of plastic (PPE) film packages which are then heat sealed by equipment configured with various overprinting and coding options. The company will be able to pack materials weighing up to 400g.
Ian Tatchell, managing director, Petrow Food Group, says, “The equipment will address problems that often blight conventional multihead weighing, where the buildup of powder on weigh pans can make consistent filling difficult.
“Unlike conventional powder fillers, the Auger increases pack integrity and improves costs due to reduced ullage at filling reducing powder plume.”
The new line brings added value to Petrow’s existing two dry mix filling lines at the Perivale site. Two lines featuring an Ishida multihead weigher that feeds a VFFS packaging machine pack dry granular food products weighing from five grams to three kilograms.
Products packed on the two lines include peanuts, seeds, rice, pulses and snacks. These are fed into pillow packs, block bottom packs and quad packs, or they can be provided in retail ready packs.
Fatma Akalin-McGee, marketing and business development director, Petrow Food Group, adds, “With the growing trend for free from, customers are asking for more coconut flour, almond flour, walnut flours and other nut flours as alternative ingredients to meet the rising demands for high nutritional and gluten-free ingredients.
“With this new investment, we can now offer more flexibility in filling and packaging options alongside cost and operational efficiencies.”
The group operates from two sites in the UK in Perivale, West London and in Haverhill, Suffolk, where the company opened a new £4 million, 80,000 sq ft factory and warehouse in 2015.
