Page 38 - Food&Drink Magazine Jan-Feb 2019

FRESH PRODUCE
Cultivating quality
Blueridge Produce has removed bottlenecks and improved efficiency with VERYX Digital Sorters from Heat and Control.
BLUERIDGE Produce cleans and packs millions of pounds of fresh blueberries in an eight- to 12-week season. To increase production efficiencies and reduce labour while maintaining the highest product quality, the company installed a VERYX digital sorter from Key Technology, which is represented in Australia by Heat and Control.
Tailored especially for Blueridge Produce, this sorter removes colour defects and soft fruit as well as foreign material (FM) such as stems, leaves, metal, glass, rocks, paper, plastic and rubber of any colour.
“We wanted a sorter that could handle more than 10,000 pounds of product per hour with at least 95 per cent accuracy. Our priorities were speed and precision at a cost effective price. We decided the VERYX C140 was right for us,” Blueridge Produce general manager Rhonda Driediger says.
“We replaced 12 sorters with this one VERYX. At the same time, we increased our throughput by 35 per cent and reduced approximately 30 manual labour positions, because we no longer have to rely on hand sorting after digital
ABOVE: The VERYX digital sorter at Blueridge Produce.
38 | Food&Drink business | January-February 2019 | www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au