TOMRA Food presents new organisation and AI-based solutions at Fruit Logistica

TOMRA Food has unveiled its new leaner and more streamlined organisational structure, presented its sorting, grading and packaging solutions, and launched three new AI-based sorting and grading solutions in Berlin.

 

The announcements were made at a press conference at the Fruit Logistica Berlin exhibition in Germany by Harald Henriksen, Executive Vice President and Managing Director of TOMRA Food, and Karel Strubbe, EMEA Region Manager of TOMRA Food.

 

In the afternoon, Sebastian Stoof, Vice President and Head of Customer Value Chain at TOMRA Food, gave a presentation in the "Tech-Stage" of the event. He talked about how sorting and sizing solutions in the food industry have evolved thanks to AI.

 

The Fruit Logistica Berlin, held on 7-9 February at the ExpoCenter City in Berlin, is the world's leading event for the fresh produce industry, attracting visitors from 140 countries.

 

Closer to the customer with the new organisational structure

TOMRA Food's new structure creates an organisation that is closer to customers, more agile and responsive, innovative and able to offer effective solutions to the market.  To achieve this, it has adopted a new regional structure consisting of 3 regions: EMEA, Americas and APAC. 

 

Within each region, the company has merged its TOMRA Processed Food and TOMRA Fresh Food business areas into a single TOMRA Food team. In addition, and as a key point of the new structure, a new central Hub has been created to bring together R&D, product development and operations in order to increase TOMRA Food's operational efficiency and agility in terms of innovation. 

 

Mr Henriksen explained during the event: "Throughout its history, TOMRA Food has proven its ability to adapt and innovate in order to offer the solutions our customers need at any given moment. This is what we are doing with our new organisation. It is a change that will benefit them in several ways. The regional approach will allow us to operate as your local partner, maintaining a more direct dialogue with our customers and responding quickly to their specific requirements. The unification of our two business areas into one TOMRA Food team will allow us to leverage the best practices of each, work more effectively and deliver world-class solutions and services. Finally, centralising our R&D and operations activities will allow us to leverage the collective expertise and efforts of our entire team, further our ability to innovate and deliver better solutions to our customers to lead the resource revolution with them.

 

Part of TOMRA Food's commitment to meeting the real needs of its customers globally is its excellent collaboration with its partners. Such is the case of ICOEL, the Italian manufacturer of fruit handling, processing and packaging equipment, whose stand at Fruit Logistica shares the reception area with TOMRA Food.

 

New AI-based grading and sorting solutions

TOMRA Food presented three solutions that demonstrate how artificial intelligence is changing food sorting and grading. The first is TOMRA Neon, a new blueberry pre-sorter that incorporates AI to detect bunches with unprecedented accuracy. It is a compact, durable and easy-to-clean machine that adds value to downstream blueberry sorting and packing operations. Extensive validation tests have shown that the TOMRA Neon removes more than 95% of clusters and more than 90% of unwanted cranberries and blueberries to optimise the efficiency of the optical sorter. With its entry into the market, TOMRA now offers a solution package consisting of its Harvest Cleaner, Small Fruit Eliminator, TOMRA Neon and KATO260, all of which form a complete solution for simple and effective processing of mechanically harvested blueberries.

 

Finally, TOMRA Food unveiled TOMRA's LUCAi® software for its InVision2 sizing platform for cherries. TOMRA's Deep Learning technology improves packaging and minimises fruit waste. It can detect, with millimetre accuracy, all kinds of edge cracks; pacman cherries (half cherries); bruising in the suture area as well as aesthetic defects and pedicel browning. It also ensures better detection of rotten, split or defective cherries, especially in the pedicel area. With this launch, customers will benefit from an improvement in the quality and consistency of their final product, while reducing product waste and maximising their production.

 

Three-dimensional hologram for grading, sorting, sizing and packaging solutions

TOMRA Food's hologram showcased a wide range of the brand's solutions. It showed 3D animations and videos of the well-known TOMRA 3A, TOMRA 5A, TOMRA 5C and TOMRA 5SA sorters; the CURO-16 small fruit packaging system; the KATO precision sorting system for blueberries; the Spectrim sorting platform with UltraView inspection module, the Inspectra2 internal inspection system; and the new TOMRA Neon pre-sorting technology for mechanically harvested blueberries for the fresh food market.

 

Presentation on the new developments in AI-based sorting and grading

Sebastian Stoof, Vice President and Head of Customer Value Chain at TOMRA Food, gave a presentation on the "Tech-Stage", the technology stage at Fruit Logística. He spoke about AI developments and how AI is used to solve complex problems in the field of food sorting. Sebastian explained that in order to successfully apply AI to food sorting, a number of essential conditions must be met: high quality images for training and operations, extensive experience and knowledge of the industry and Deep Learning technology, as well as a suitable organisational structure that allows the company to expand.

 

Sebastian also highlighted how the introduction of AI in food sorting is changing customer expectations in terms of sorting accuracy, adaptability of the technology, operator skills and the support they receive from their technology providers.