There are so many possible ways to look at waste reduction in savoury snacks production that it will be impossible to cover every angle. Even so, there are some broad areas worth considering. And some useful tips to be picked up along the way.
Some waste reduction initiatives are driven primarily by environmental concerns, while others are focused on cost reduction. Happily, waste reduction can often benefit snack makers in both ways, which is one reason why there is so much development work centred around resource optimization. Another is the way of automation and digitization that sweeping across the industry, with many of these technologies opening up fresh opportunities in terms of improved efficiency and waste reduction.
with food waste in particular, under scrutiny right now, its environmental impact, perhaps that’s a good place to look first. A good starting point is to understand the primary causes of food waste inside snack production and packaging plants, perhaps one of the most common sources is false rejection. When “good” product is erroneously discarded from a production line during safety and quality inspection. Inaccurate weighing can also lead to underfilling, which results in product rejection by the retailer or overfilling, which results in product giveaway. Contamination detection, meanwhile, may result in the rejection of a whole batch of biscuits, rather than the contaminated product alone, or wastage where a false reading indicates contamination when none is present. In addition, wastage can be caused by inaccurate labelling, damaged packaging, closure errors or missing items, all of which can trigger costly product recalls and disposal,
Get it sorted
Even though every snack production facility is different, I believe that there are some general best-practice approaches to food waste that manufacturers can apply.
Integrating contamination detection technologies early in the production process will remove any ingredients containing unwanted foreign bodies. This protects down line processing equipment and ensures contaminants are removed before additional value is added. Where contaminants are detected early, there is also more potential to rework ingredients. This can in turn help in minimising food waste and associated costs. In addition, false reduction needs to be reduced or ideally eliminated.
Sorting can even play a role in determining possible alternative uses for materials, that end up in the reject pile. The improvement in yield-enhancing technology is not simply about ensuring that food can be used for its initial purpose, but also identifying alternative uses for produce that might otherwise have been discarded and lessening waste. Developments in technology such as a 360 degree surround view of the produce for optimal inspection combined with innovative detection and rejection technology, result in a more valid decision about the quality of the product.
A matter of taste
In snacks production, flavourings and seasonings are by far the most expensive ingredients, so making sure that seasonings end up in the finished snacks and not going to waste is crucial. Improved control is often the key as several recent developments demonstrate.
For instance, Heat and Control says that it’s patent-pending TASC (totally automated seasoning control system) can get manufacturers significantly closer to their seasoning targets. What TASC does is constantly measures the product, the seasoning, and the combination of those two and automatically makes adjustments to the seasoning applied to get a level of accuracy of the application rate that has not been able to be achieved before.
Meanwhile, polar systems latest on-machine seasoning system (OMS) combines three different innovations to deliver improved control and less waste inline during production calibration; a bulk density system that can recirculate or reject product that’s outside of the acceptable tolerance; and a near-infrared sensor to check for small discrepancies and enable users to trim the seasoning process moving forwards.
Oil management
Cooking oil is another expensive ingredient in savoury snacks. So oil management is another sensible target for waste reduction. Snack frying systems are typically designed to minimise the volume of oil in the fryer, helping to ensure that there is high turnover of fresh oil. This improves product quality and shelf life, as well as minimising waste fryers are also designed with features to slow down the process of oxidisation by preventing oils from ageing prematurely they save them from having to be discarded more frequently. Even so, oxidation products and debris will eventually build up an ageing oil will need to be discarded. Systems based on absorbent materials that separate out unwanted contaminants claimed to extend the life of frying oil indefinitely. Dallas group is one of the leading suppliers of absorption based clean-up systems. The goal of using DALSORB is to keep the frying oil quality at a consistently high level, thereby extending the lifespan. Most of their customers extend the lifespan to indefinitely. So they never discard their oil ever again. The DALSORB particles bind the dissolved impurities that are the result of oil degradation in a physical way is called absorption.
The powder – with the bound impurities is then filtered out together with solid particles – down to less than one micron, Dallas group stresses that the process does not add anything to the oil. It only removes the impurities. The result is an inert harmless filter cake that can be used for example as landfill, as an ingredient for firelighters, as a filler for concrete or as an additive for animal feed. The technology manages to deliver in a combination of improved sustainability cost savings and quality improvements. DALSORB maintains oil quality at a high level. That results in consistently high quality fried products, and an oil lifespan extension, at least a substantial financial savings and waste reduction. Another favourable effect is that the fried products shelf life easily doubles compared to production with that also reducing wasted food as well.
Energy Efficiency
Energy is front and centre of the environmental debate, as well as being a major business expense. So it’s a little wonder that a veritable army of suppliers have overhauled their equipment and processes to help snack makers optimise energy consumption during snacks production. However, many production sites could go even further by optimising the electrical energy supply rather than simply choosing energy efficient equipment for particular process operations.
For instance, a technique called voltage optimization can typically shave between 6 and 15% of the electrical energy consumed by an industrial installation in the UK, although that will vary accordingly to the application, It can also help in some other European markets. Although the available savings will depend on local electricity supplies, and other factors.
Voltage optimization aims to match the voltage coming into an electrical system precisely to the requirements of each device. This might mean installing a single big transformer to control the overall voltage coming into the factory, or it might mean using separate Transformers to target electrical equipment, where controlling the voltage will make the biggest difference.
There are many sites across Europe, where voltage optimization can save energy. But it is especially useful in the UK, where historical reasons mean that the incoming voltage is often higher than needed.
Voltage optimization improves efficiency by optimising the incoming voltage to a site which consistently leads to a reduction in the site’s overall electricity consumption and costs
Amorphous Alloy core distribution transformers, provide an upgrade on conventional transformers by providing a quicker rate of magnetization, which leads to slower losses and improved efficiencies, to ageing high voltage infrastructure. Power factor correction is another important tool for managing electrical energy. The power factor is a measure of how much the energy supply is available to do actual work. The ideal power factor is one, but, it drops away if the current and voltage in an AC supply are out of phase, which tends to happen when there are induction motors in the system. When that happens, only some of the power entering the system is useful with the rest of wasted so called reactive power.
We find it helpful to visualise it as a pint glass with the beer being useful power while the head is wasted or reactive power. So a power factor of one is a full glass with no head, but some sites can drop as low as 0.5 power factor correction brings the current and voltage back into sync, achieving an efficient power factor closer to 0.95
Water works
Agriculture is probably the biggest focus for water management measures when considering the snack supply chain as a whole. Even so, manufacturing facilities have an important role to play.
The challenge in snacks production, as in other food and drink sectors. Is that water reuse and recycling schemes must overcome concerns about possible cross contamination. Since, any contamination issues could obviously impact on food safety and quality. In one good example. The continuous loop water management in the mechanical seals on process pumps could virtually eliminate wastewater from the source. Yet many food companies would remain reluctant to embrace it, to function correctly there’s several phases in a mechanical seal on process pumps need to be flushed with fluid, often water to prevent dry running, which could otherwise cause overheating, and ultimately seal failure and pump breakdown in many applications this fluid is provided from a separate system and the way the system is configured heavily influences the amount of liquid used, and energy consumed.
In a typical flush to drain application on our food processing pump between 6 to 12 litres of flush water is required to flush seal phases, for just one minute, and continuous operation that amounts to roughly 3.2 to 6.3 million litres per year for each seal or pump. Typical food process plants can have hundreds of pumps. So that’s an acceptable level of waste by anybody’s standards.
The continuous loop water management system constantly recycles this seal flush water, rather than discarding it, reducing waste to around one teaspoon for a day in the form of vapour. That being the case, why aren’t more food processors embracing this quick win solution. The most common reasons cited is fear of contamination from bacteria growth. And in recycled fluid, Yet a continuous loop barrier fluid vessel has been specifically designed to help ensure these exacting hygiene standards demanded by the food, drinks, and pharmaceutical sectors are met. Unlike standard sealed vessels, where access to the interior of the vessel is very limited. This can be disassembled for easy inspection and cleaning. Internal filter welds also minimise the presence of bug traps, which could allow bacteria to build up and breed. In fact, the wrap around solutions are available that should, when used correctly, enhance hygiene practices and reduce risk.
The operational benefits of upgrading to more environmentally sustainable sealing technology, is more easily quantified than the enhanced reputation that comes from being able, not just to declare a commitment to the global effort to conserve water, but evidence it. As well as such generic water savings measures, snack makers can also rely on suppliers to offer systems, targeting some of the most water-intensive processes within the snacks production environment. For example, Heat and Control highlights its water clean-up system for washing systems, which reuses wash water and concentrates starch and fines for more efficient removal. The company says it reduces freshwater usage by up to 50% compared with conventional processes.
Eye on the prize
There are many potential targets for waste reduction in typical snack production facilities, and the focus of efforts will vary widely between businesses. However, the overreaching message from observers, is that waste reduction should not be viewed as a done deal. And the search for potential improvements is never over.
