New potato peeler to make McCain's Timaru factory more efficient

Timaru's biggest potato peeler will make McCain's Washdyke french fry factory more efficient, the company says.

The vegetable processing company has installed a new $2.7 million machine capable of peeling 35 tonnes of potatoes every hour, McCain spokesman Tony Rasman said on Friday.

The machine was productive enough "to future-proof the plant against possible further investment to increase capacity".

Rasman said Timaru's was the first of the company's factories in the world to use the new model of peeler. It offered "large" reductions in potato wastage and used less water and energy than the old peeler, which was at the end of its useful life.

The peeler's camera system automatically controlled how much peel it removed, and allowed operators to monitor the potatoes' quality.