IFFA 2019

‘Excellence At Every Stage’ is more than just a theme. It is the promise at the core of GEA’s food processing and packaging business, encompassing the technology, the service and the people, striving to deliver maximum performance at each stage of the journey, from an idea to a delicious food product.

Homestyle coated tenders on an industrial scale? Discover how it’s made by GEA Application specialist Stuart Barnacle. To re-create the authentic homestyle coating in an automated industrial environment, GEA’s integrated line solution gives the true homestyle look, feel and taste in a highly cost-effective way.

It’s all in the mix! Discover the secret of premium quality tempura nuggets with insights from GEA Head of Sales for Further Processing Marcel Janssen. At IFFA GEA previewed a smart automation solution for grinding, mixing and forming, comprising of the GEA PowerGrind, GEA ProMix and GEA MaxiFormer. But they can also supply the complete automated tempura coated nugget line; grinding, mixing, forming, coating, frying, cooking, freezing and packaging.

Product Manager for Meat Treatment Willem Prinssen will tell you all about the art of Bacon making. At IFFA GEA previewed a ground-breaking inline production concept for bacon: beginning with injection on the new GEA MultiJector 2 mm; inline drying and smoking with the GEA CookStar; freezing with CALLIFREEZE; slicing on the GEA DualSlicer and packing on GEA PowerPak PLUS thermoformer - which includes GEA’s OxyCheck quality assurance system.

Cutting, mixing, vacuuming, slicing and packaging. GEA Head of Sales for Meat Treatment Friedrich Maier explains all about sausages.... and more! The GEA CutMaster cuts, mixes and emulsifies all different kinds of sausage products, from coarse to very fine. GEA CutMaster DUO is ideal for super-fast production of high quality dry fermented sausage products like salami. GEA is also an expert in slicing on the GEA DualSlicer and packing on GEA PowerPak PLUS thermoformer - which includes GEA’s OxyCheck quality assurance system.

At IFFA 2019, GEA Product Manager Vertical Packaging Martijn van de Mortel tells you all about the latest innovations for frozen food packaging. The sanitary GEA SmartPacker is an available upgrade on GEA’s bestsellers, the SmartPacker SX400 and SmartPacker CX400. Next to that, the SmartPacker for frozen food is optionally equipped with our new innovative ITC sealing system and a newly developed air expelling system.

Ready for the future with GEA PowerPak PLUS and FoodTray, the latest innovations in thermoforming technology! GEA Product Manager Volker Saßmannshausen explains everything about these introductions at IFFA 2019. New features of the GEA PowerPak PLUS make the customer’s job easier, more efficient and improves pack quality. FoodTray is a smart, sustainable solution comprising of recyclable corrugated paperboard and very thin plastic film, significantly reducing use of plastics in packaging, without compromising on automation and capacity.

Watch the video to get a glimpse of GEA booth at IFFA 2019.

The GEA PowerGrind represents a new generation GEA grinders with improved capacity, hygiene and safety performance. These aspects are combined with high flexibility, robustness, and modularity, making the GEA PowerGrind a reference in its class.

• High capacity grinder for fresh and frozen products
• From coarse to extremely fine grinding 
• Auto reverse function feeder worm that optimizes product flow

The way in which the product is mixed is critical to the success of the forming process. The product must be chilled to precisely the right level of crystallization before forming. Through many years of developing mixing technology GEA has perfected the process in the GEA ProMix. 

• Robust, very reliable and flexible mixer
• Best distribution and absorption of liquids, spices and additives
• Most efficient cooling system with optimal process control for formed products

The GEA CutMaster cuts, mixes and emulsifies all different kind of sausage products from coarse to very fine. It is also suitable for a wide range of poultry, fish, confectionary or vegetarian products, processed cheese and many basic products in the food processing industry.

• Excellent product quality with highest degree of fineness 
• Exceptionally fast cutting speed
• Wide variety of possibilities and applications

Equipped with two independently driven knife heads the GEA CutMaster DUO demonstrates its strength in the super-fast production of high quality dry fermented sausage products like salami. This bowl cutter can be used for coarse as well as very fine structures and ensures short processing times, uniform grain size, a clean cut and minimal temperature increase.

• Extremely short processing times
• Two TopCut cutting systems (independent variable speed control)
• Different knife shapes available depending on the applicationGEA MaxiFormer - rotary drum former for meat products

GEA’s MaxiFormer is the next step in high-capacity drum forming for the continuous production of poultry, pork and meat-replacement products such as nuggets, burgers and steaks. The unique patented, low-pressure portioning system in combination with the world-class meat pomp from Handtmann, provides a better weight control and therefor a 50% lower standard deviation and significantly less product give-away. 

• Excellent weight accuracy and shape retention (50% lower standard deviation)
• Low product wastage from leakage (smearing)
• Compressed air pulse knock-out for quiet, clean operation and 30 to 40% less air consumption
• Zero water usage
• Available in 600 or 1000mm widths

Re-creating delicious homestyle breading on an industrial scale used to be a compromise. You had to choose between an authentic look but with low production efficiency, or a non-authentic appearance with better efficiency. No more! The GEA MultiDrum is an innovative multi-drum breader that overcomes all of the automated homestyle breading drawbacks to produce authentic looking natural bone-in and boneless products with a crunchy golden coating.

• A coarse, high pick-up homestyle coating
• Perfect product spreading at the outfeed
• Reduction of labor by up to 80% 
• Reduced footprint and line length

The GEA DualSlicer II 1200 with Interleaver stands for the superb slicing quality, excellent productivity and guarantees high output. The optimal machine set-up benefits from two completely independent drives for the slicing and interleaving process to handle 2 logs of irregular shaped products as well as products in differing log lengths. A great number of appealing application forms of various cheese types as well as raw and cooked ham are created in a high speed modus. 

The slicer in combination with the optionally available GEA OptiScan 600 - a pre-scanner system using X-ray technology to scan two product logs simultaneously-  performs best in resulting with low give-aways and more on-weight portions. Thanks to the high capacity, the GEA DualSlicer II 1200 is suitable for an integration into fully automated lines equipped with GEA Loading Systems and GEA Thermoformers.

• Perfect slicing and portioning quality
• 2-lane independent product drive
• Low give-away, high yield
• Easy and flexible operation

The sanitary GEA SmartPacker is an available upgrade on GEA’s bestsellers, the SmartPacker SX400 and SmartPacker CX400. The driver for this upgrade was the increasing demand from our customers, especially in the Frozen Food industry. Main differences compared to the standard execution of SmartPackers are, the Stainless-Steel film feed with sealed bearing rollers and sloping surfaces to allow water to come off easily. Next to that, the SmartPacker for frozen food is optionally equipped with our new innovative ITC sealing system and a new developed air expelling system. 

• New air expelling system, reducing the amount of air in the bag without compromising in capacity.
• Innovative ITC-sealing system improving on uptime and reliability and reducing production cost.
• Higher efficiency and less waste compared with conventional machines
• Consistent high quality of produced bags, up to 120 bags per minute
• Sanitary design with easy exchangeable parts 

Elevating service excellence to the next level: In collaboration with MachIQ, the 2016 winner of the start-up program MassChallenge Switzerland, GEA is developing a new digital collaboration channel. Under the umbrella of GEA Advance this new range of digital services, offered on a supplier-independent, cloud-based platform, will include remote maintenance options, spare parts internet trading and data analytics. Customers maintain their equipment via a single platform, irrespective of the original manufacturer, and can decide which data they want to share with the OEM. For a seamless digital experience from customer to supplier, the portal can also be integrated with most of the existing ERP systems. 

The pilot project starting in April 2019 includes the e-commerce functionality and documentation, such as operating manuals, training documents and certificates. 2020 will have a strong focus on integrating additional services into the offer: PLC connections, Condition Monitoring integration and Video Support are just some on the list.

For a complete and simplified scheduled maintenance throughout the life cycle, GEA has developed special service kits for their Thermoformers and vertical packaging machines. Maintenance can be planned according to operating hours and/or time intervals. Each kit comes with all the parts relevant for doing the respective maintenance, so customers only need to know one material number per kit when ordering.

Maximum effectiveness, increased reliability, reduced maintenance costs and a safe working environment with highly motivated employees – that’s what customers get with GEA customer trainings. Trainings can both be done on-site or in one of the GEA training centers and either done with one customer or smaller, mixed customer groups. All the courses cover what is absolutely vital to use the respective GEA technology in the safest and most efficient way, saving customers time and money and giving their employees the most productive and applicable learning experience possible.