From:FoodProcessing

Founded in Hawaii in 1851, Dole Food Company is one of the world’s largest producers and marketers of fresh fruit and vegetables, including a growing line of packaged and frozen foods.

One of Dole’s products is fruit puree products designed for the baby food market, packaged in a 90 g doypack pouch with top valves. This product requires a stringent hygiene process and high integrity of the pouch seal that preserves the product inside the pouch.

Charged with packaging the baby puree was Dole’s contract packaging company Aseptia. Seeking a safe and hygienic packaging process for the product, it selected Effytec’s HB-20 Duplex Pouch Filling Machine.

The solution provided included the installation of a laminar flow system over the machine area and hydrogen peroxide equipment for sterilisation of the valves and packaging equipment. Effytec’s patented triple sealing system is able to provide 100% sealing accuracy.

The product filling system comprises two inductive flowmeters with special nozzles for pasty hot filling (85°C) and a pressurised heated hopper with agitation of the product. The production speed of the machine is 110–120 pouches/min.

Effytec is represented in Oceania by HBM Packaging Technologies.