Bühler is working with an Italian premium food producer, to help them meet the growing demand for semi-finished products for the food industry. Milani Foods, based in Verona, prides itself on its unique blend of experimentation, tradition, innovation and craftsmanship, to deliver the finest tailor-made vegetable creams, fillings and sauces to the taste, expectations and demands of their customers. They turned to Bühler when demand for their authentic Italian products soared and to meet growing market expectations of food safety and traceability.
Milani Foods used to ‘buy-in’ pre-sorted artichokes and mushrooms, from Italy and abroad, so that it could provide the industry with vegetable bases for sauces and pasta fillings. However, as sales rocketed, the producer soon realised that to increase production and maintain quality, they needed to source and sort the ingredients itself.
Explains Giorgio De Poli, managing director of Milani Foods: “We always choose the finest, natural, raw ingredients and add our own expert flair to create exceptional products made without the use of preservatives and stabilizers. Every single Milani Foods speciality product is created with care and passion, to deliver the best flavours and nutritional goodness.”
The company chose Bühler and its SORTEX PolarVision™ technology to ensure its frozen mushrooms and diced, sliced and whole artichoke hearts did not contain foreign materials (FM) – whether insects, metal, wood or plastics. Prior to installation, Milani Foods ran the risk of costly returns due to undetected FM but since the company has been sorting all of its products itself, they have seen their order volumes increase as customers put more trust in them.
Recognising the company’s responsibility to provide high-quality products, free from FM, De Poli added, “The smallest piece of FM is very damaging in food that is otherwise made to perfection. That’s why, when searching for our own optical sorting equipment, we tested many different technologies on the market. We found that Bühler and its SORTEX PolarVision™ was one of the most powerful and innovative systems on the market offering us an unparalleled level of excellence and safety in our production line – helping to detect and remove any foreign bodies or product defects.
SORTEX PolarVision™ combines two dedicated FM detection technologies – the SORTEX PolarCam™ and the high definition InGaAsHD™ – both developed in response to industry demands for cutting-edge technology to tackle difficult-to-detect product defects and foreign materials. It is proven to deliver outstanding results across a range of frozen produce – from single products, such as peas or berries, to more complex vegetable mixes.
Says Stefano Bonacina, Bühler’s Fruit & Vegetables Segment Manager: “Milani Foods needed to remove FM, such as white plastic, wood and cardboard. Extensive trials of various technologies revealed that the best results were achieved using PolarVision™ technology installed on a SORTEX E1D machine.
“The addition of Bühler technology to the Milani Food production lines means the company has elevated safety to the highest levels, improved production efficiency and product quality. Bühler’s SORTEX PolarVision™ technology is a best-in-class solution to help Milani Foods continue its tradition of innovation and craftsmanship.”
