Non-stop food production
An impressive sight meets visitors when you
step into the almost people free Danish Crown
production facility in Jönköping in Sweden. Every
week, fully automatic slicing and mincing lines
produce pre-packed meat at high speed. Three
large robots control the picking facility with a
high degree of precision. Throughout the factory
where possible, much of the hard work is done by
machines and robots.
In collaboration with the Swedish company Axfood,
Danish Crown has constructed one of Europe’s most
modern factories for centrally packed meat. The
new factory will supply products which are unique.
– Different and innovative cuts of meat, sausages
and seasonal products will come out of the new
plant in Jönköping.
Unique collaboration
The Swedish food retail giant Axfood has changed
its entire system from in-shop packaged meat to
centrally packed meat. For this project, Axfood
chose Danish Crown, a key player on the market
with unique know-how.
Many years of collaboration between Danish Crown
and Faerch Plast paved the way for even greater
collaboration on packaging for the new Swedish
factory. – Packaging which must meet the stringent
demands of the factory’s fully automatic packing
lines.
Clear requirement specification
The environment and minimum production stops
were a high priority in designing the new factory.
Packaging made from Mo-PP was chosen, a material in which Faerch Plast has replaced 15 per cent of the
oil-based PP raw material with a natural occurring
mineral. The mineral gives the packaging a uniform
matt look and increased stability, which means that
the tray thickness can be reduced significantly. It
was primarily these environmental benefits that
were behind the choice of Mo-PP.
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In addition, the uniformity and stacking height of
the packaging were important factors. “In a fully
automatic production facility, it is vital there are no
production stops. The packaging therefore needed
to be uniform in quality and also have a low
stacking height,” says Kim Revsbaek, a buyer at
Danish Crown.
“A low stacking height gives logistical
advantages when the packaging is shipped to
Sweden, but it also means more trays in the
dispenser.”
Full traceability
Before a pack of meat leaves the production line, it
is given a two-dimensional bar code which contains
information about the raw ingredients and other
relevant production factors, and the readability of
the bar code is checked to ensure that nothing
unintended leaves the factory in Jönköping.
“We check the bar codes on all the individual trays
to achieve complete traceability if it is deemed
necessary. It is important for us that we can
guarantee a high level of food safety for our
consumers,” says Arne Nielsen, an inspector
with the technical department.