When Foyle Food Group in Omagh, N. Ireland, went into the minced meat business in 2015 it was mainly to shorten the supply chain to ready meal and further processors – and make it more efficient.
“We see a growing demand for minced meat, ready meal and convenience products like hamburgers and meat balls. It is a tough market, though, with heavy competition and low margins,” says David Knox, Commercial Manager at Foyle Food Group in Omagh.
“The ready meal and further processors have been our customers for many years. As a part of their wish for a shortened supply chain, they had been asking us for a long time to also supply minced meat products, in addition to the whole muscles. And it made sense. Minced meat would just be an additional product in our product portfolio.” Foyle Food Group then chose to install a high-capacity minced meat line from Marel.
The line covers the processes of grinding, fat analysis, mixing, weighing, packing and labeling. With the fat analyzer in the line it is possible to act on specific customized orders when needed and correct fat lean content on small batches.
The meat mass—presently 20-30 tons per day—is created based on customer specifications and may change several times during the day.
It is very easy to work with the Marel line. The fat analyzer registers the fat content and sends feedback to the line infeed based on which more or less fat can be added to the grinder.
David Knox, Commercial Manager
Foyle Food Group in Omagh
David explains, “The change-over process from one type of grind and mix to another is uncomplicated and requires just a few hand tools for changing the hole-plate in the grinder.”
The meat used for grinding and mixing in the Omagh facility comes from one of the other Foyle Food Group plants, meaning that the trim meat has already been through the Trim Management System and so is free of bone and of a specific CL. This makes it easy to work with the different meat mass recipes.
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