Chinese frozen food processor upgrades production line automation with TOMRA

Santao was founded in 2003 and since then has become one of the leaders in the frozen food industry of China. This was achieved thanks to its strict implementation of certificates (BRC, GAP, GFSI, GMP, HACCP); professional management mechanisms and advanced automatic fruit and veg processing lines.

A rapidly evolving industry has forced participants to respond to higher requirements and Santao chose TOMRA to upgrade production line automation to guarantee quality and improve product value.

Frozen food’s explosive growth period and labor challenges

Santao was one of the pioneering enterprises involved in China’s frozen food industry. Santao took the lead in the 80s and 90s, when frozen and refrigerated food were gaining popularity. With the constant improvement of cold-chain logistics and refrigeration technology, Santao’s frozen food business entered a period of explosive progress. However, great opportunities demand hard labor.  

First, Santao’s production line was completely manual, which obviously had limitations while processing large or emergency orders. Due to the specific seasonal characteristics of fruit and veg processing, recruitment of employees has become a problem. The insufficient availability of workers would be even more challenging when expanding capacity at the new site. 

Aimed to solve the labor issue and find a solution for processing over 10 varieties of food: green beans, spinach, diced onion, soybean/kernel, strawberry, and sweet corn, Santao researched food processing equipment, both in China and abroad. After several site visits, Santao concluded that most important frozen vegetable exporters in Shandong Province utilized TOMRA automatic sorters. 

After detailed consideration of technologies, return on investment, and other factors, the TOMRA 5B became the “guardian” in the sorting stage of its production line.

Zheng Jintao, President of Shandong Santao Food Co., commented that capacity was limited and unstable with totally manual sorting, but TOMRA sorters provide them with an ideal solution. The low rate of false rejects from TOMRA’s equipment has decreased the waste of raw materials and improved the yield.

TOMRA 5B sorter can be easily tuned for different products

Since the TOMRA 5B sorter installment, the labor force has decreased by 80%, yet the capacity of packhouse has tripled, enabling Santao to improve efficiency and quality. 

Today, Santao produces about 10 different products of quick-frozen fruit and veg. Each product is unique and has sorting priorities, but the versatility of TOMRA’s machinery guarantees the stable and efficient work of Santao’s production lines.

The TOMRA 5B sorter rejects product defects and foreign objects, and provides quality grading for shelled corn, soybean, soybean kernel, spinach, diced strawberry, etc. It is a huge advantage that operators can easily apply sorting parameters on the equipment for different tasks. 

According to Zheng Jintao, products sorted by the TOMRA 5B have very good quality. The customer complaint rate has significantly dropped. In terms of current use, this sorter should pay for itself in about 2-3 years.

Precise foreign materials removal

The TOMRA 5B is designed to boost production capacity, food safety, and quality. Equipped with an innovative algorithm and 360-degree camera for all-round hexahedral stereoscopic detection, it not only accurately removes foreign objects (metal, glass, stones, plastics, insects and stems), but also identifies defects in soybeans such as dried beans, different coloration, lack of kernel, fractures, single grain, insect attack, damage and rust.

Combination of high-resolution color camera and multi-laser technologies enables the TOMRA 5B to identify plastic film, thin and transparent glass, and objects of the same color as the product, which cannot be recognized in color sorting, shape sorting or by X-ray machines and metal detection.

In correspondence with the latest food hygiene requirements of European and American countries, TOMRA’s equipment is developed to support whole-machine cleaning, which prevents cross-contamination and microbial hazards through food processing.

Reliable automation partner

Zheng Jintao stated that TOMRA is an ideal automation partner, as it has conducted studies on different kinds of sorting challenges in the entire process, from planting to delivering products to purchasers, in order to customize solutions that satisfy or exceed market expectations.

Thanks to the remote technology support system, project communication group and providing remote video-link after-sales service, TOMRA’s technical experts can control the equipment on distance, solve problems promptly, and provide operation guidance if desired. Thanks to TOMRA, Santao now works with steadily operating production lines and healthy capacity growth.

For further information about TOMRA, see the website