From May 4 to 9 at IFFA, Frankfurt (Germany) GEA will present their process expertise, technology leadership and customer-centric services for the meat industry under the motto ‘Excellence at Every Stage’. The technology leader will be exhibiting at booth D06 in hall 8 and focus on four main application areas that link back to this year’s theme, specifically: tempura-coated and homestyle coated products, the art of bacon making and sausage. Key processing and packaging exhibits will be linked to the four application areas, demonstrating the benefits of automation; optimal process control; as well as the efficient use of resources, energy and labor in meat manufacturing. Excellence at every stage is more than just a theme; it is a promise found at the core of GEA’s food processing and packaging business, which encompasses our technology, service and our people, who strive to deliver maximum performance at each stage of the journey from ingredients to a delicious food product.

Technology in focus
Key innovations from the equipment side include the new GEA MultiJector 2mm, the new multi-purpose brine injector with flexible needles; the new thermoforming packaging machine PowerPak PLUS, the first inline smoking application SuperHeatSmoke on GEA CookStar and the CutMaster DUO, a powerful raw sausage cutter with two independent drives, each with variable speed control. Additionally, attendees will get to see the new decanter series, GEA ecoforce for processing high quality animal by-products and GEA’s inline freezer control system CALLIFREEZE.

IFFA attendees visiting the GEA booth will have the opportunity to engage with the company’s technology at varying levels via live demonstrations of innovative food products made on GEA equipment, through VR tours and interactive presentations.

Uniform injection thanks to unique 2mm OptiFlex needles
The new brine injection system in the GEA MultiJector 2mm is specifically dedicated to precise bacon and poultry processing, for 700 mm wide lines. The system features two millimeter OptiFlex needles, to date only available from GEA, which deliver a tight injection pattern, allowing for exceptional injection accuracy, product quality and consistency. The new equipment is seamlessly integrated within the GEA SuperChill brine chiller and the GEA MultiShaker, which removes excess brine, closes needle marks and activates proteins, ultimately resulting in low standard deviation during production and thus increasing quality, yield and profit.

Where there’s smoke, there’s flavor! – GEA CookStar with SuperHeatSmoke
For more than 25 years, the GEA CookStar has been the leading oven in the food industry. The third generation GEA CookStar has evolved, offering a three-phase cooking concept and is able to cook any product in virtually any style. By combining double spiral oven technology with the SuperHeatSmoke concept, allows food processors with in-line production to produce and brand their products with a CleanSmoke label. SuperHeatSmoke is the innovative and award-winning solution for the in-line smoking of meat, seafood and meal components and is generated using a Red Arrow purified smoke condensate. The smoking process is conducted at temperatures above 100 degrees Celsius. The oven provides a controlled environment for a more consistent smoke flavor and authentic coloring, like a traditionally smoked product. The technology further enables taste and color variation by using smoke condensate with various colors and flavor intensities and by adding smoke to one or both oven sections.

GEA PowerPak PLUS promises less film consumption and superior packaging quality
The thermoformer in the GEA PowerPak product family opens up new possibilities in the packaging process thanks to a wealth of technical innovations. New features contribute to making the customer’s work simpler, which means greater efficiency with improved packaging quality; reduced film consumption; simple handling, as well as safe process sequences and greater availability. This includes the sophisticated motor driven unwinding system for both top and bottom film which synchronizes the advance speed and significantly reduces the forces on the films. Additionally, the axial position of the top and bottom film is constantly monitored. It significantly compensates the deviations in film reel and material quality – it will make the operation and production better managed and faster, avoids manual and mechanical adjustments and ultimately result in better production quality. In addition, the new machine features new sliding safety doors which allow full visibility during production on the sealing chambers which allow monitoring and timely reaction during production.

Processing high quality meat and by-products with decanter series GEA ecoforce
Animal by-products from meat processing, such as skin, bones, blood and flare fat, are valuable raw materials. They can be processed into lard, tallow, collagen or gelatin. In addition to the processing itself, producers within the food production chain must meet high hygienic standards in terms of raw material quality and handling. The newly developed decanter GEA ecoforce provides the highest sanitary standards available on the market. This is achieved via special adaptations required for food processing, including the use of FDA-approved components, modification of the surface roughness from Ra 4.0 μm to Ra 0.8 μm, and via the design of corners and surfaces to ensure optimal cleaning, as well as a defined arrangement of spray nozzles.

CALLIFREEZE – a unique inline freezer control system
The freezer control system CALLIFREEZE continuously measures the level of product frozenness at freezer outfeed and adjusts freezing time, air temperature and fan speed to achieve the exact freezing quality with minimum energy consumption. The new system reduces power consumption by 10 percent and therefore improves the plant efficiency. The control unit can be configured for GEA S-Tec and A-Tec spiral freezers, handling a wide range of food products including meat and fish as well as ready-to-serve meals.

Cloud-based open service
Under the umbrella GEA Advance, GEA is developing a digital collaboration channel for its service business in partnership with MachIQ, the 2016 winner of the start-up program MassChallenge Switzerland, which GEA is sponsoring. This solution is a supplier-independent, cloud-based platform for digital services, including remote maintenance, spare parts internet trading and data analysis for technologies maintained by GEA. The portal can also be integrated with most ERP systems, enabling seamless digitization from the customer to supplier. In April 2019, the partners will begin the pilot project with e-commerce and documentation; customers will be provided with certificates, operating manuals and training documents, for example. Additional services will be integrated in the future, such as video support.

Simplifying service with easy to use service kits
GEA has developed special service kits to maintain the performance of its thermoformers and form fill and seal machines throughout the life cycle. Customers can use this to plan their maintenance according to operating hours and/or time intervals and order all the parts relevant for doing the respective maintenance with one-part number per kit. With this offer, GEA continues to strengthen its proactive service offer, which adapts easily to the conditions of production.

Meet GEA at booth D06 in hall 8 at IFFA 2019 in Frankfurt, Germany.

For more information visit www.gea.com.