The fruit and vegetable wholesaler based in the Netherlands processes a wide range of salad, fruit, and vegetable products every day for the food service and catering industry. With a modern processing line and additional machines from KRONEN, the company has continuously expanded and modernized its production in recent years, focusing on efficient processes, consistently high product quality, and optimal hygiene standards.
For more than 20 years, the company has been supplying restaurants, canteens, snack bars, caterers, and large-scale kitchens with fresh processed fruit and vegetable products. Its extensive product range includes a wide variety of fruit and vegetables, including unusual vegetable varieties and algae, as well as ready-to-cook vegetable mixes and raw vegetable salads. To meet the growing demands for product quality, flexibility, and increasing processing volumes, the company has been working in close cooperation with the Dutch KRONEN representative Synergy Systems for many years and has continuously invested in modern KRONEN processing technology.
A wide product variety requires flexible processing
The fresh-cut producer processes a wide variety of different products every day with various cutting styles. In addition to vegetables cut into cubes, sticks, or slices, its product range also includes vegetable mixes, potato specialties, salad mixes such as leaf salads, coleslaw, or cauliflower and broccoli salad, and fresh-cut fruit. Accordingly, the company’s production requirements are diverse: Different products must be processed efficiently, handled hygienically, and delivered with consistently high quality. Customers from the food service sector expect rapid delivery of freshly processed products, helping to reduce preparation work in their kitchens.
Automated processing line for lettuce and leafy vegetables
A key component in the production of salad mixes is the automated processing line for lettuce and leafy vegetables. The line includes a HEWA 3800 V PLUS washing machine with an insect removal drum and a lateral fine particle removal drum, a K650 drying system with conveyor belts, a Multihead XXL FFW weigher and a FLEX M packaging machine from the KRONEN partner GKS Packaging.
The individual components of the line are optimally coordinated to enable a continuous processing workflow from washing and drying through to weighing and packaging. Recipe-controlled weighing allows the products to be portioned automatically before being packaged in bags. As a result, the integrated line has reduced manual handling, improved production processes, and contributed to greater efficiency.
Modern standalone machines complement processing
In addition to the line, the company also uses several other KRONEN machines, for example a GS 10-2 belt cutting machine with various knife disks, a recipe weighing belt from the KRONEN partner iWEIGH, a KS-100 PLUS vegetable and lettuce spin-dryer, and the S021 vegetable spiral cutting machine with different cutting inserts.
These machines enable the flexible production of a wide variety of fresh-cut products with different cutting styles. This allows the company to rapidly respond to individual customer requirements while ensuring consistently high processing quality, thus enabling the efficient production of an extensive product range.
Continuous production development with processing solutions from a single source
The company has continuously expanded and modernized its machine portfolio over several years. In addition to increasing the level of automation, it has particularly focused on maintaining consistently high processing quality, as well as optimizing hygiene and production safety.
Throughout this process, the company has maintained close cooperation with the Dutch KRONEN representative Synergy Systems and KRONEN itself. As Menno Jongsma from Synergy Systems explains, “Thanks to our long-standing cooperation, we know the company’s requirements very well. A major advantage is that we can supply not only individual machines but also complete solutions for all processing steps. For the customer, this means optimized processes due to the smooth product transfer between KRONEN, iWEIGH, and GKS Packaging machines, as well as the single point of contact for the entire solution.”
Obtaining a complete processing solution, including weighing and packaging technology, from a single source was an important factor for those responsible for production in the Netherlands. Within the line, perfectly matched machines ensure efficient processes and a high degree of production reliability.
The machines used support the gentle processing of delicate products and help reliably meet the high quality requirements of customers in the food service sector.
