Business and innovation

Northern Foods & Loma Scientific

Background
Northern Foods is a leading food product producer in the UK, employing more than 21,000 people in approximately 30 manufacturing sites across the UK. Its annual turnover in 2003 was £1.4 billion and the company has strong market positions in the supply of high quality chilled foods, as well as successful brands in biscuits, frozen food and chilled savoury products. As an innovative business, the company adhere to waste and energy minimisation practices to reduce the costs of production.

The Problem
To ensure that chilled foods are kept at the required temperature for safety and quality reasons, there is a need to monitor the core temperature of the products. A typical method of assessment is the use of thermo-couple based temperature probes. These have to be inserted in to the food products which render the products unable to be sold. As the products are disposed as waste, the product loss has been estimated to exceed half a million pounds each year for Northern Foods.

The Collaboration
Northern Foods established that there was a need for a non-invasive temperature monitoring technique. Dr David V Land, School of Physics and Astronomy, leads the Microwave Radiometry research group within the University of Glasgow and has been involved in researching microwave and very-high frequency techniques which can be developed for a range of applications in industry, medical research and clinical medicine. The research team have an established international reputation, and their expertise was recommended to Northern Foods by l'Université Paris-Sud.

Previously the non-invasive temperature monitoring technique known as microwave thermography or radiometry was used in medical applications for the measuring of temperature for the human body. While making a general assessment of non-destructive temperature measurement techniques Northern Foods were advised to discuss the possibilities of using microwave radiometry on food products. This technique was subject to ongoing research at the University and the research team seemed an ideal partner for Northern Foods to develop the use of this technique in food products

As a result of this collaborative project, prototype instruments were developed by Glasgow University which measured the quickly and accurately the microwave temperature of the thermal energy emitted by the food product. These prototypes were thoroughly and successfully tested for reliability, stability and accuracy of measurement in a range of food products and in realistic production conditions.

Loma Scientific, a leading manufacturer of specialised monitoring and measuring instruments for the food industry, agreed to manufacture and market this technology. Dr. Land provided the essential scientific 'know-how' and measurement technology transfer to the company. The instrument called 'Celsius' is now marketed worldwide by Loma Scientific for non-invasive measurement of temperature in chilled and frozen foods.

The benefits of this innovative technology are:

• Reduction/elimination of product wastage
• Continuous monitoring of core food temperature thus giving increased safety and quality assurance
• Cost saving

Commenting on the new Celsius, Group Technical Manager of Northern Foods Richard Seaby said, "As an organisation, we were concerned about the amount of products we were throwing away after temperature testing.

Our 30 sites across the UK produce hundreds of chilled product lines, so we were spending over 1 million (GBP) each year on thermocouple probes.

Our initial work with the University of Glasgow convinced us that microwave thermometry technology would provide the solution, so we chose Loma to develop a system for the marketplace.

The new Celsius has brought new levels of accuracy to our testing procedures and has now been adopted across nine of our operations where losses were greatest."

Outcomes
Northern Foods no longer spend large amounts of money on traditional temperature testing methods and other chilled food producers have adopted the Celsius product. Patties Foods Ltd is full of praise of the 'Celsius' temperature-sensing device. The company is the largest pie manufacturer in Australia, producing over 30,000 tonnes of goods each year. Patties Foods also used the traditional temperature probe method to check the temperature of their products

The company has revealed that using Celsius has enabled them to save as much as $18,000 in a year due to the reduction of waste. Additionally, the quicker temperature measurement has also impacted on the work efficiency of their packaging employees.

Adrian Rijs, Scientific & Regulatory Affairs Manager at Patties Foods, says, "We are very happy with Loma's Celsius and can only commend the research team and manufacturers who developed this fantastic instrument."

The Celsius microwave thermometry system was awarded the Bob Newman Medal for Excellence in Design & Manufacture at the Processing & Packaging Machinery Association (PPMA) 2000.

For more information on this research, visit the Microwave Radiometry Research website.