Increased worldwide appetite for French fries and other fried potato products has led to a bumper serving of order wins for chilling and freezing system specialist GEA Eurotek (part of the GEA Freezing group that includes the Aerofreeze and Intec brands).
With a number of made-to-measure potato product freezers already installed around the world, designers and engineers of the in the United Kingdom based company have most recently been working on bespoke IQF and spiral systems for customers as far afield as Australia, China and India - where the latest installation was a four tonne/hour system to handle French fries at a new factory in Agra.
Many of these large-scale projects have been undertaken in partnership with potato processing equipment specialist Kiremko, which is known world-wide for its high quality turnkey solutions:
“Increasingly customers are looking for fully integrated installations from suppliers who truly understand the potato processing industry. By working closely with partners such as GEA Freezing we are able to offer customers exactly what they want,” said Kiremko Director Andy Gowing.
Most recently, Eurotek has just completed its first installation for Pomcobel, a subsidiary of Belgian potato giant Mydibel:
“This was a complex challenge, not least because of the volume, temperature and moisture loss of the potato products,” explained GEA Eurotek Sales Director David Hallifax, adding that it was vital that the system was capable of running continuously, with sequential defrost.
“The freezer was for a factory extension which was still under construction and we had to work to an exacting timescale, working closely with a number of partners.”
The sequential defrost spiral is designed to handle up to five tonnes of piping hot, freshly fried potato product an hour - achieving an output temperature of -18°C.
“It’s early days yet, but so far it’s looking very good. The machine was on time and we’re looking forward to running it at full capacity once the new factory is fully operational, “ said Mydibel Project Manager Dany Bossuyt. “We’ve had no problems with Eurotek at all,” he added.
Established in 1988, Mydibel, a family-run business, supplies potato products to over 75 countries around the world. As well as French fries, products include croquettes, hash browns, waffles and potato hearts.
French fries, just behind the fryer
A leading manufacturer of chilling and freezing systems, the GEA Freezing range includes spiral freezers, IQF and single/multi band freezers as well as carton freezers, handling products ranging from seafood to baked goods, poultry and ready meals.
