Page 49 - Sept 2017 Food Business

SORTING 47

TOMRA: Trusted global partner
of Nestlé group
Nestlé implements strict quality standards
across its entire product portfolio, from foods
and beverages to services. Recently, Nestlé
identified TOMRA as a long-term partner to
assure a solid quality control solution, with
several of its processing lines across the world
installing TOMRA's state-of-the-art sorters,
helping to ensure the quality of raw materials
and final food products, meet Nestlé's uniform
global standards.
In China, Hsufuchi Foods is already leading
the industry in terms of food quality control
measures, and the brand has enjoyed
increasing popularity among local consumers.
In terms of aflatoxin control, Hsufuchi's products
meet national food safety requirements of TOMRA’S Helius at Hsufuchi Foods
below 20-ppb (1ppb=1Qg/kg).
Nestlé understands the potential lethal threat Zhang Ahfung, deputy general manager in
of this substance, and implements a strict charge of production, comments: “From August
standard across all its hubs. Driven by business 2015 to February 2016, we had six-month on-
ethics, Nestlé asked Hsufuchi Foods to look into site test with TOMRA's Helius sorter. During this
improvement measures to further bring down period, we tested several different peanut
aflatoxin levels in peanut products. varieties, and TOMRA's application support
To ensure its final products meet Nestlé's engineers could adjust the sorting parameters,
targeted aflatoxin level, Hsufuchi Foods asked per quality features of the different varieties.
its suppliers of raw peanut materials to “We used several quality inspection
improve quality, but soon realized that it was measures to validate the aflatoxin content in
not enough. the sorted products, and all the validation
To overcome this, the company decided that results proved that the aflatoxin level conforms
in-house aflatoxin detection and removal was with Nestlé's high internal quality standards.
a necessity. Understanding the bottleneck, Meanwhile, the sorter ensures that the loss of
Nestlé recommended Hsufuchi Foods work good product is kept to a minimum, in line
with TOMRA for an effective aflatoxin with Hsufuchi's sustainability goals. We are
detection solution. very pleased with the sorters' performance
and user-friendliness.”
Building customer confidence via a six-
month test period Global resources, local service and
To tackle the aflatoxin issue, TOMRA third-party inspection
recommended its Helius sorter with Detox “During the on-site testing period, TOMRA
technology as it is able to recognize aflatoxin, offered comprehensive support and technical
which is invisible to the human eye, in foods consultancy. TOMRA's local application support
such as peanuts and almonds, and dried fruits engineer would spend days on-site, and
including figs. technical experts from Belgium also flew in to
To validate the effectiveness of the Helius, work on the challenges we had with sorting
Nestlé's R&D team and TOMRA's application some specific raw peanut materials.”
support teams conducted a six-month test in On top of technical support, TOMRA also
Hsufuchi's processing line in Dongguan. During actively cooperated with Nestlé on quality
the testing period, over 500 tons of peanuts of inspection and invited a third-party inspection
different varieties and origins were sorted, with agency to define validation protocols,
all the final products passing Nestlé's stringent ensuring the validation process and results
quality standards. After extensive testing, the are representative enough. Zhang Ahfung
company decided to install two Helius sorters. continues: “TOMRA's technical support has

SEPTEMBER 2017 FOOD BUSINESS GULF & MIDDLE EAST