Jacob Hobbel: "My mission is to help minimize food waste and maximize yields in processed fruit and vegetables"

Belgium

Wednesday 22 February 2023

Photo: Jacob Hobbel, Global Category Director for Vegetables and Fruit for TOMRA Food’s processed business area, chats with Fructidor at Fruit Logistica 2023.

At Fruit Logistica, Fructidor chatted with Jacob Hobbel, the first Global Category Director for Vegetables and Fruit for TOMRA Food’s processed business area.

Fructidor: "Mr. Hobbel, how long have you been working with TOMRA, and what is your mission there?"

Jacob Hobbel: “I was recruited to TOMRA Food five months ago, to a new role created as part of TOMRA, sharpening its focus on specific food categories. In my case, this means specializing in sorting, grading, and peeling solutions for processed fruit and vegetables. More broadly, I will also help drive TOMRA’s commitment to work even more closely with food processors to optimize food production bit by bit. Our mission, to help minimize food waste and maximize yields, is echoed by TOMRA Food’s tag line: ‘Every Resource Counts’. And of course, our solutions continue to play a vital role in protecting food safety and brand reputations."

Fructidor: "Which particular sorting and peeling solutions would you highlight?"

Jacob Hobbel: “TOMRA offers a broad range of sorting and grading solutions for IQF and canned fruit, and for every type of vegetable product: fresh pack and fresh cut, IQF, canned, dehydrated, and freeze-dried. And let’s not forget peeling, where our solutions prevent huge amounts of saleable raw material from being thrown away. It’s worth mentioning that our Fresh Food business area – which runs alongside our Processed Food business area – takes care of the solutions needed for fresh fruit, and for fresh pack and fresh-cut vegetables.

The fact that our solutions are so wide-ranging is a result of serious R&D and technical innovation, and of working closely with customers to understand their challenges and priorities. The most recent example of this innovation, for IQF vegetables and fruit, is the TOMRA 5C premium sorting machine with our unique ‘BSI’ biometric signature identification technology. This checks every object passing down the line not only for its colour and shape, but also looks inside materials for their biological characteristics. Locating the TOMRA 5C on the processing line between the IQF tunnel and the packing station enables final checks for food safety and product quality to be made with unrivalled accuracy."

Fructidor: "What are your future plans within this new role?"

Jacob Hobbel: “As I settle into my new post, I look forward to meeting food processors all over the world, and to developing TOMRA’s close relationships with customers as we move into an era of digital transformation. Digital technologies, such as the TOMRA Insight cloud-based data platform, will become increasingly important in the quest to minimize the waste of saleable raw materials.”

If you are interested in sorting and peeling solutions for your fruit and veg business, send your inquiry.