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Custom fabricators Brendan Firth (middle), Michael Firth (left) and Mohammed Hasan (right) were at Foodpro to showcase their company’s capabilities in creating custom designed processing equipment.
According to Brendan Firth, visitors to the show were especially interested in solutions as opposed to standalone offerings.
“We like to understand what our customers are trying to produce before we make something,” Firth said.
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Wiley was demonstrating an augmented reality Dematic storage and retrieval system in action on its stand.
The company ‘s director of commercial technology, Brett Wiskar (pictured), also took to the stage at Foodpro to discuss mixed reality and its role in empowering decision making in food and beverage plants of the future.
At Foodpro, however, Wiley's focus was less on its stand, and more on its supplier relationships, according to Wiley’s digital PR & communications manager Rachael Hedges.
With this in mind, the design, build and construction company was promoting its new LinkedIn group, the Project Partners Guild, which links its suppliers with industry information and news
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Andy Hamilton of Deighton Manufacturing UK, which makes processing equipment that’s sold in Australia by Symetec, was on the Symetec stand to show a forming, battering, crumbing and frying system.
According to Hamilton, strong visitor interest at Foodpro three years ago in protein bars and products had given way this year to interest in more standard fish, chicken and beef products.
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At Vaughan Constructions’ stand, there was a bit of fun to be had with an interactive golf game, with the visitor to get the closest to a hole-in-one is in line to win a trip to Tassie.
The company has been working on a number of projects, Vaughan’s Colette De Maria said, including an expansion of the Melbourne operations of wholesale grocery company PFD Food Services.
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Mettler Toledo was demonstrating its newest checkweigher, the CM 3000, which is more accurate and has more features than previous models.
Visitors at the show were also showing interest in the company's service and support offerings, according to Mettler Toledo’s Andy Ceshen.
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Rob Blythman of Total Construction was on the stand talking about the company’s main message at Foodpro.
According to Blythman, who heads up business development in food and beverage, the company's key message at Foodpro was that manufacturers to get the company involved earlier in the construction phase, when they are evaluating potential sites and conducting due diligence.
“This can save a client a lot of money and pain,” Blythman said.
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Mary Mercuri, export manager, and her son James Mercuri, R&D Engineer, of Ennio, which has recently announced new partnerships with casing providers Devro and Viskase, and has also released a new range of casings to improve the flavour and texture of meat.
The EnnioSmoke casing is pretreated with smoke designed to impart flavour onto the meat, according to the company.
Its new EnnioSeal forms a barrier also helps to keeps ‘yield’ (or moisture) inside the product, while EnnioPeel, which is a quick release agent for whole muscle products, to prevent coating from binding to the product.
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Process designer, RMR Process, took the opportunity at Foodpro to speak to mid-tier food manufacturers about the benefits of its approach to design and construction projects.
“Because we are not builders, but process designers, our business model works best when we work direct with a business owner, to understand where the inherent risks are with their new facility,” said RMR director, Peter Taitoko.
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Matrix Process Solutions' Kumar Naidu was on the stand and spoke to Food & Drink Business about its latest sanitary pigging system from LIAG. The DMV Pigging System has been designed specifically with food in mind.
Its special shape and valves mean it can go around standard pipework, and is CIP-capable and the company has sold several major systems since it’s launch at the last Foodpro.
According to Naidu, in addition to boosting output, customers claim say they have also seen major reductions in water wastage.
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NSD TupH is a lightweight alternative to stainless steel which NORD Drivesystems has developed for its drive equipment deployed in harsh environments. Paint can easily release at very low stress levels, so the NSD TupH provides a base layer that is permanently bonded to the aluminum substrate for improved adhesion of the surface sealant.
According to Martin Broglia, Nord’s managing director, its sealed surface makes it particularly suitable for heavy-duty washdown operations typical in the meat processing sector, where it is currently being trialled.
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Kiel Industries’ Colin Kiel was on the stand, showing the company's food-grade hopper bins, which have a slide gate at the bottom to empty discharge, and are finding favour among coffee and nut processors, according to Kiel.
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Peter Loveday, general manager of sales and marketing at Hastings Data Loggers, was on the stand to show the company’s latest portable radio loggers which can gather data on things like temperature, humidity, and vibration for food, transportation and other industries.
The radio data logger, Tinytag, has only been available for a couple of years, and uses a “mesh network” so users have no need for software, although the latest model can be plugged into a company’s LAN, Loveday says.