For all you folks who missed it, I thought I should take some notes about the convention that was completed yesterday evening.
Once again, David Brenchley coordinated a very nice venue. And Charlottetown brought some gorgeous weather. A very pleasant week in a pleasant environment.
Notable amongst the presenters: Kathy Swords (of JR Simplot) gave a presentation on "Intragenetics", a GM method that does not cross species' boundaries, and so might be viewed as more natural, actually on the order of controlled cross-breeding, in terms of social perceptions. Apparently, by using methods within this realm, potatoes can be made to produce less of both halves of the acrylamide formation reaction: asparagine and sugar. At the same time, they can be made to have better texture and flavor characteristics, less susceptibility to sugar/glassy end formation and to carry a significant amount of campherol, an antioxidant normally found in kale, Swiss chard and Chinese cabbage.
All of which adds up to a healthier potato product. Wow.
That was not the only strong presentation. There were several others that made the conference worthwhile.
But the most valuable facet of this series of conventions that I have found is the community. There are a core of people who come to these functions, come hell or high water. Steve Johnson (U of Maine). David Hollier (UK consultant). Paul van Eijck (Food Innovation Online). Derk Somsen (Aviko). These folks live and breathe potatoes, and come for the value of the exchange of ideas that happens continually through this kind of function. I would be honored to be considered one of them, as I continue to attend these conferences.
To the vendors who come to these functions and make presentations simply to peddle wares: either become a value-adding member of this community, or please stay home. We can get your sales pitch on the Internet or by inviting you to come visit us separately. This conference is about exchange of ideas, not selling stuff.
To the processors who did not attend: I encourage you, especially you technical leaders, to come to one of these (Scotland, in late May of next year), just to listen. Have a chat over drinks or a meal. Think outside the box. You can keep your secrets with you, you will be surprised at what you will learn.
Tim
Friday, June 26, 2009
International Potato Processing and Storage Convention
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Lasers and Foreign Materials
I have been hearing more and more about foreign material (FM) removal systems being placed into potato applications. Primarily in whole potato applications (typically downstream of peeling) but also some finished product units, particularly frozen, just before packaging.
I am hearing that people are installing some systems that do not use laser.
WHAT!!!????!!!!!
These are systems that use various sensors to detect light wavelengths in the near IR. Kind of like what Key did with Vis/IR cameras for FM before we developed the first flying spot laser with less than 0.6mm spot size. And the first digital laser of any spot size. Infrared is good enough, they say, and less expensive.
Less expensive, sure, until you find you need laser anyway.
You see, foreign material removal is not really something that you justify with ROI. It is catastrophic event-based. Foreign material gets into consumer product, and once in a while, all hell breaks loose. Recalls costing millions. Lawsuits costing more. And in the end, people lose their jobs for the decisions they make.
How do you put an ROI on that?
Sure, some measure the rate of customer complaints, and the cost of dealing with them, on a monthly or annualized basis. They pencil out a number that they spend per period, and try to justify their purchase by the amount of reduction of that cost. As if FM events and their effects come at a predictable rate! They are totally missing the point. "Good enough" is really not.
People who say that lasers are not necessary usually don't have a laser to sell, they are simply selling what they have. Listen at your own peril.
If you are making the equipment decision and justification for foreign material removal, what technology do you put your own personal reputation on? Just IR? Or laser plus IR plus other camera wavelengths in a total solution? I wrote last year about FM and lasers (http://potatoprocessing.key.net/2008/05/lasers-basics.html, http://potatoprocessing.key.net/2008/06/how-laser-sorters-work.html and http://potatoprocessing.key.net/2008/06/lasers-or-cameras-or-both.html.
Understand that IR (especially SWIR, using an InGasAs sensor) detects water content, and so can remove foreign materials that include little or no water. You might be surprised at how many materials include enough water to be missed by such a device.
Come to the PPI convention on the 25th and I will fill you in on more details.
Read, learn, and choose laser plus cameras for FM control. After all, it is your career.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Potato Processing and Storage Convention
Once again, I encourage you to attend this years' Potato Processing and Storage Convention June 23-25 in Charlottetown PEI, Canada (http://www.potatoconvention.com/).
Especially in a down economy, when most of us are particularly pressed to find ways to make our companies more money, it is important to have some time set aside. Time to mix with professionals in our industry, but not from within your specific company. Time to think and discuss new ways of doing things. Time to open our minds to new ideas, different perspectives.
The people who attend this kind of convention during tough economic times ultimately set themselves above and apart from the "quadrant 1" crowd, those who can focus only on that which is urgent. Rather, these are the ones who synthesize new ideas. These are the ones who are driving the potato industry ahead to continually improve our products and profitability.
I will be giving a presentation on foreign material control. Not that it is a new topic; but new technologies continue to arise and become practical and necessary under the changing conditions of the market. People who buy and eat potato products do not want other items included in the offering! And we have known for a long time that there is room for improvement in our deliverables, and this is the time to consider what we owe ourselves and our customers.
There are other benefits to foreign material control besides consumer issues. We will address each one. But expect to hear something a bit different, a bit more than what you have heard before.
That is what I do, when I come to this convention: I bring new ideas. I trust many others will do the same, and we will all be the richer in the exchange.
See YOU there!
Tim
Friday, May 22, 2009
Last Month of the Season
We are headed down home stretch.
Storage season (northern hemisphere- apologies to those of you in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and other southern points) is drawing to a close, 30-60 days of processing are left for most plants. Defects are getting worse, lots of rot. Retaining workers is a sore issue. Life in the potato lane!
We have seen lots of change since the new crop started coming in. The economy was growing with no end in sight then; just a few weeks later- BOOM, the market is in free-fall, salaries, jobs and benefits are being cut, it is a whole new landscape.
The restaurant market slowed, retail expanded. People are eating at home more. No big surprise.
Then the dollar weakens. Production is shifted from the US to other countries. Canada, EU. Australia gets hit by reduced overall demand. Potato blight breaks into Ireland, zebra chips down under.
But, through it all, there is no real cliff to fall from. Because we are talking about potatoes. Tasty, low-cost nutrition. People eat them and always will. Sometimes one segment or the other tweaks up or down. But we work in a relatively stable industry, one that others would envy. You don't want to be working in autos today. Or the computer chip industry. We are on solid ground.
Friday, May 8, 2009
The Economy, Revisited
Folks, I must say, the economy seems to be affecting our industry more than I expected 6 months ago.
We are definitely seeing a slowdown. Production is down a bit in many regions, varying from practically flat to an 8% or so drop. Simplot has reported they cannot process all the potatoes their Tasmanian growers produce. We are seeing many projects get delayed by 6-12 months, plus a few are getting cancelled. Processors are looking to invest only in those projects with the very highest returns; the threshold has been raised, and fewer projects are making the cut.
Further confusing things is the strengthening of the US dollar: This makes production relatively more expensive in the US, which in turn shifts production to other countries, particularly Canada. So those companies who were considering US capacity expansion two years ago are now using up excess capacity in Canada. Not the best thing for us in the equipment business.
What is Key doing about this?
First, we firmly believe that recovery from this downturn is in the not-too-distant future. At that point, we expect processors will need to invest in areas that have been deferred for the last year or so. So we expect a bit of a spending flurry for several months after the recovery.
Second, because we expect the recovery and the flurry, we are investing now in new product development. We are definitely not "hunkering down" to try to simply survive this period. We want to emerge from it on a ramp of business, and so are developing new solutions to serve our clients better. You have seen recently our announcements of a wide chip/crisp sorting system and a whole potato sorting system. Expect other announcements for new products on a fairly regular basis over the next several months.
Tim
Friday, May 1, 2009
A Word on Whole Potato Sorting
With the recent press release and emailing to many of you (http://www.key.net/about/news/optyx-wps/default.html), a few comments are in order:
To get to the details, click on the above link, and then click on the "Optyx WPS for Whole Potatoes" link on the page. It will take you to our brochure and a video clip that shows the concept. We think it will be quite a bit different from what you have seen before in whole potato sorting, in several ways:
Minimal product drop. Most whole potato systems drop the potato about a meter or more, this one less than half that. Avoiding such elevation drops will help with many line layouts, preventing the need for a downstream elevation step.
Gentle product handling. The minimal drop, along with the gentle deflector action enable this. Many applications need very gentle product handling to avoid later discoloration.
Laser identification of foreign materials. Laser has been proven to do this extremely well in many applications, but has not yet been applied to whole potato 3-way sorting. Now the power of laser is combined with high resolution cameras to identify practically everything that is not a potato, and remove it.
Air ejection of foreign materials. Most other systems use mechanical paddles. They work well, as long as the foreign material falls like a potato- same trajectory and speed. Problem is, foreign materials are not potatoes (by definition), and so many categories do not fall like potatoes. Think about plastic films and worker's gloves. The Optyx system sends an air blast just a few millimeters after the laser identifies the object. Point blank, it can't miss. Check out the video- seeing is believing.
Ant the end of the discussion, I am excited about what we are bringing to the industry. No more same ole, same ole. If you are serious about foreign material removal, take a close look at our system, and come to the Potato Convention (http://www.potatoconvention.com/)- I will give a presentation on foreign material control that might be of interest.
Tim
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
More and More on Acrylamide
Folks, this just keeps going on and on. Check out http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Publications/Food-Beverage-Nutrition/FoodNavigator.com/Science-Nutrition/Dietary-acrylamide-not-linked-to-lung-cancer-risk-Study/?c=%2BlZ8zGql8moeqNT7u5MAZg%3D%3D&utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Newsletter%2BDaily
Now, no one in their right mind would buy into the notion that acrylamides prevent lung cancer in women. But it seems clear that there is no harmful effect for any one. Tie this tidbit together with all the recent studies that fail to show a link between acrylamides and cancer in actual humans. It seems that the data are converging on a conclusion: there is no such link, given normal human exposure levels. Now, that cannot yet be a firm conclusion, but it certainly appears to be where the tracks are heading.
How much science was actually performed to form the basis for California's actions against Pepsico and others of a year or so ago? Who determined that 270 ppm was a safe level of acrylamide, but 271ppm is dangerous? As I mentioned a few months ago, I do not personally shrink from hard facts, but I am not a believer in throwing lots and lots of money at perceptions that are not based on fact.
It seems that we need to consider a more sane approach!
Tim