VISITUS - Food Business Gulf & Middle East

10NEWSIshida Solution helps open upnew snack opportunityIshida Europe has developed a versatile mixweighingsolution for Benelux frozen snacksmarket leader Ad van Geloven for theintroduction of a new product range in theimportant savoury snacks market.In many European countries, frozen snacksthat can be heated in minutes in an oven,frying pan or air-fryer are very popular asappetisers and for meeting unexpecteddemand from family or guests. Ad vanGeloven has now introduced 'Funmix' under itswell-known Mora brand, a range of mixedsnacks that offer consumers the added value ofvariety within a single pack.The product is packed in an attractive standupbag to create maximum impact in glassfrontedfreezer cabinets. For consumerconvenience, the bag is also resealable. Inorder to ensure that every pack contains thesame number of each variety - the 426g bagfor example features six pieces of four differentproducts - the company selected an Ishidamultihead weigher in a four mix version.At the same time, as well as delivering thenew Mora mixture range into two differenttypes of bag, the weigher also needed to beable to handle single products at high speedand have the facility to weigh mixtures of thecompany's other brands into windowed boxes.The Ishida solution adopted at Ad vanGeloven's Tilburg factory is based around thecompany's 20-head advanced R Seriesweigher. In addition to the weigher, the workcarried out or supervised by Ishida includedgantry construction, conveyors and a feedsystem to deliver product from the existing flowfreezer.In its mix-weighing set up, each section ofthe machine acts as an individual weigher,allowing the different items in the mix to begiven a specific target weight to ensure thatthe final product contains exactly the rightproportion.The new line also meets every demand interms of versatility. In order to change packformats, for example, operators roll thebagmaker forward about a metre, enablingthe weigher to fill the windowed boxesinstead of bags.Fast cleaning of the feeding and weighingequipment requires washdown with water. Theinstallation was therefore designed so that thejunctions between the upper levels and thebagmaker can be sealed off with watertightcovers.Ishida collaborated closely with thebagmaker manufacturer and other suppliers inorder to ensure that the entire line was up andrunning within two weeks.“All parties worked during the summerholiday period in order to ensure that ourproduction was not disrupted,” explains Albertvan der Vliet, Head of Technical Services.“We saw a market opportunity and both theequipment and the service from Ishida helpedus to exploit it,” he concludes.MBLM launches social campaignto promote local waterMBLM, an agency focused on creatinggreater intimacy between people, brandsand technology, has launched the “I DrinkLocal” initiative. The initiative aims to bringattention to the fact that many restaurantsand cafes in the UAE do not serve localbrands of bottled water.Observes Jae Hwang, partner at MBLM,“We began to notice that local water was notavailable in many of the establishments weFOOD BUSINESS GULF & MIDDLE EAST OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2012