As one of the largest poultry processors in Europe, Plukon Food Group is constantly looking for new developments in the market and ways to improve the products they supply to the retail and food service industries. They were facing a particular challenge with the uniformity of a cornflake-coated product when Marel suggested they trial a new range of innovative coating equipment.
Eric Verspeek, Production Manager at Plukon, explains, "The appearance of our products needs to be the same, day in day out. When working with a cornflake coating, this means we need to get exactly the right balance of large and small particles on every single product. Our coating equipment just wasn't allowing us to meet the specifications for our cornflake-coated chicken schnitzel. We were experiencing large variations in the presentation of the end product."
Marel's expertise goes much deeper than just the technical side; it covers extensive knowledge of food technology and different end products.
Eric Verspeek
Production Manager, Plukon
"We have had great cooperation with Marel for many years now," says Eric Verspeek. So when Marel approached Plukon with a new range of coating equipment, they were eager to learn how this could help them overcome this challenge and also increase uniformity across their range of coated products.
Plukon replaced their existing equipment with Marel's RevoCrumb and saw an immediate improvement in the appearance of the final products. The RevoCrumb is fitted with an innovative crumb management system, which controls the flow of fine and coarse crumbs. "During processing, large and small particles naturally separate," Verspeek explains. "This separation is something you do not want to see reflected in how the end product looks. With the RevoCrumb, we can control the crumb and ensure every product is evenly coated on both top and bottom sides. The products look better than ever before and now have the uniformity that we are looking for."
The Active Batter Applicator's unique active underbed ensures an even, all-round coating and virtually eliminates belt marks.
But the RevoCrumb wasn't the only machine involved in improving product quality and consistency. Getting an all-round, even wet coating is key to creating high-quality convenience products. To ensure consistency right from the start, Plukon used Marel's semi-automatic Active Mixer to prepare their batter. This user-friendly machine ensures a highly consistent, lump-free batter, which is then fed into Marel's Active Batter Applicator. "With the Active Batter Applicator, the products are transferred onto a bed of batter rather than a belt. This means we get an all-round layer of wet coating we just couldn't get before. There are no belt marks, and we end up with a better quality product," says Eric Verspeek.
Working with Marel gave Plukon a chance to get ahead of the competition. "We can always rely on the knowledge and experience of Marel to get ahead," Eric Verspeek says. "Their expertise goes much deeper than just the technical side; it covers extensive knowledge of food technology and different end products. Marel's team of technologists really works with us to get our products as good as they can possibly be."
Left Ger Stans (Marel sales manager), right Eric Verspeek (Plukon production manager)
The Plukon Food Group is one of the biggest players in the European poultry market, supplying chicken products and ready meals to leading European food partners. With 27 sites spread across six countries and employing more than 6,500 people, the company plays a leading international role when it comes to translating customer needs into innovative products, formats and farming solutions.
company website: plukon.nl
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