The weigh of the world

Food labelling was big news last year, but if companies are going to deliver when it comes to most accurate labels on their meat products, they must also have the most accurate weighing equipment to get the best possible data. But with increasing demands on more accurate labelling, where does that leave processors with their weighing machinery?

Past challenges

At leading weighing providers, such as Ishida Europe and Loma Systems, there have been big challenges in the past year, as customers considered how to rein in their costs. Yet saving money is not just a phenomenon of the recession, as Ishida Europe's marketing director Paul Griffin explains. "In recessionary times, it is inevitable that companies take a closer look at all their costs, but this does not only happen during difficult times," he says. "Fierce competition means maximising efficiencies and cost-savings are always high on company agendas. Nevertheless, in a recession, the need is even greater and the focus more acute. And inevitably, when cost pressures are intense, the temptation is to go with the cheapest option."

For weighing equipment, however, the cheapest option can be a false economy, he says. While the price of a machine may seem good value, there are several other questions that potential purchasers should consider, such as: the build quality of the machine; whether it can cope with the specific characteristics of the product or the production environment; whether the speed and accuracy are sufficient; whether the supplier offers any training; whether the machine can deliver consistent and reliable performance; and whether, if something goes wrong, there is any after-sales support, how fast the response time is and how quickly spare parts are delivered.

"These are all critical factors in today's pressurised and just-in-time production environments," adds Griffin. "Unplanned downtime can wreak havoc with orders and targets and risk damaging relationships with retailers, built up over a long time. Excessive product giveaway can put pressure on already tight profit margins."

At Loma Systems, getting the exact prices and weights on labels is a key concern for the company and its clients. In 2009, Loma launched the CW3 Checkweigher, designed to help producers meet increasingly strict weight regulations. Said to be extremely accurate, the CW3 is claimed to be easily integrated into high-speed processing lines, with belt speeds up to 120m/min allowing it to cope with a wide range of flexible and rigid packs, weighing up to 1.5kg.

A Loma spokesperson says: "Pre-packed meat is a good example of the changing attitude to prices and weights. Traditionally, meat was cut to a particular size, rather than packed to a particular weight. This meant consumers had to check each meat joint before they purchased, as every individual slice had a different price dependant on its weight.

"In a modern retailing situation, it is not efficient to price each slice individually and many food producers use automatic checkweighing to simplify this process and ensure product labelling is accurate."

Getting a handle

Ishida's Griffin notes that, in the food industry, a large number of products require special handling. So a 'standard' weighing or packing machine will be unlikely to deliver the required high performance, speed and accuracy desired in today's marketplace.

"Phrases such as 'you get what you pay for' and 'buy cheap, buy twice' may have become clichés, but they are still based on truth," he says. "Perhaps a more meaningful phrase for equipment purchases is 'total cost of ownership', where the initial purchase price of a machine is just one factor in determining its overall performance during its lifetime. In addition, factors such as downtime, labour, giveaway, spare parts required, energy cost and waste are also included. Such a calculation often demonstrates how higher-specification equipment and very often a bespoke design appropriate for a specific application is the more prudent option.

Ishida recently installed its Fresh Food Weigher at foodservice meat supplier Fairfax Meadow's processing plant in Derby, automating the previously time-consuming and inaccurate hand-weighing of diced and minced meat. The sticky nature of the products proved a challenge, making them difficult to handle with traditional weighing systems, but the FFW's linear multihead design, fed by belts from an infeed table, proved the solution to the problem. The FFW can handle pack sizes from 500g to 2.5kg. Different pack specifications are stored in the weigher's remote control unit for call-up at the touch of a button and speeds range from 450-480 pack an hour depending on size. The installation in Derby has proved such a success that the factory is now also packing products for Fairfax Meadow's sister facility in Kentish Town, London.

"Adopting a solutions approach when devising new weighing and packing lines is key to deriving maximum value and this is the direction that Ishida has taken its business over the past 10 years. By working closely with our customers we have been able to keep in touch with market trends and, as a result, create a wider, more dynamic product range."

With the game on what is legally required for weighing and labelling in constant flux, one thing is certain: the industry can only expect more change and innovation in the year ahead.

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