The Austrian company Insort GmbH will receive a silver medal at this year's Anuga FoodTec(International FoodTec Award 2012) for its development of the Sherlock Separator and associated technology.
The Sherlock Separator employs state-of-the-art Chemical Imaging Technology to bring recent advances in near-infrared spectroscopic imaging to the food industry-with the aim of bringing an extra dimension of quality assurance to food production.
Detection of Sugar-ends in the production of French Fries
Potato sugar-ends are the result of the accumulation of reducing sugars at the ends of potatoes. This common defect is invisible to the naked eye when a potato is raw, however when potatoes are fried it becomes noticeable as an unsightly and unwanted browning of the ends of French fries (due to Maillard reactions).
The potato industry only produces partially fried french fries, and, hence, the end customer will be the first to discover the sugar-end defect. Insort GmbH has developed the Sherlock Separator to be a targeted solution for problems that are relevant to the food industry.
"With this technology, it is possible to detect and sort all the fundamental defects associated with potatoes, such as incomplete peeling, green potatoes and spoilt potatoes. Every kind of foreign object, and more specifically any defects that are normally invisible, can be detected and rejected," explains Matthias Jeindl, chief executive of Insort GmbH.
SOURCE: Insort GmbH