The Global Miller: March 2018

March 28, 2018

29/03/2018: Bühler Aeroglide appoints Mark Newton regional manager, EMEA

Bühler Aeroglide, a global leader in thermal process engineering and technology for food, feed, and industrial markets is pleased to announce that Mark Newton has been appointed regional manager of Europe, Middle East and Africa

Mark Newton
Image credit: Bühler Group

As regional manager, based in Manchester, UK, Mark Newton will be responsible for business development and strategic planning that aligns Bühler Aeroglide’s overall business strategy with the wider Europe, Middle East and Africa regions.

Mr Newton comes to Bühler Aeroglide with a deep understanding of process machinery, having served global organisations in the chemical, mineral, food, waste, automotive and aerospace sectors. In his tenure with Mitchell Dryers, Limited, Mr Newton successfully led capital sales and equipment development for Mitchell’s processing expertise and market requirements. Prior to Mitchell Dryers, Mr Newton was technical sales engineer for Primatronic PLC and Cussons Technology.

“Mark is an excellent addition to our international team who can help us realise opportunities for closer regional collaboration as we continue to invest in direct sales, develop our key sectors, and expand Bühler Aeroglide’s product range,” said Vice President of Sales, Andy Britt. “His wealth of experience and appreciation of our company values will benefit our customers and our business.”

Visit the Bühler website, HERE.

The Global Miller
This blog is maintained by The Global Miller staff and is supported by the magazine Milling and Grain
which is published by Perendale Publishers Limited.

For additional daily news from milling around the world: global-milling.com

Nutriad company profile

Nutriad’s story
The global population increases 50 percent in the next four decades. Livestock production and aquaculture has never been more challenging.

Limited availability and changing quality of raw materials challenges intake, growth and performance. Growing customer awareness and governmental regulations, especially related to health & safety, challenge your business.

As a manufacturer of state-of-the-art feed additives for more than 50 years they know the agricultural market. Still every day Nutriad are passionate about their work.

Their ambition is to be customers’ first choice in palatability, mycotoxin management and digestive performance. Every day their people work on finding ways to improve your production.

Being active in more than 80 countries, they understand the global issues thoroughly.

The experience of their dedicated local product specialists is available for you. In direct contact with you, they create the best practical solutions for today and tomorrow.

Visit the Nutriad website, HERE.

29/03/2018: Pitching millets as a 'smart food of the 21st century'

By Vivian Fernandes, Editor, Smart Indian Agriculture

Karnataka is dressing them up as "siridanya" or rich grains that should be on every thinking eater's plate. For Icrisat, the Hyderabad-based international crops research institute for semi-arid tropics, they are "smart foods of the 21st century" which are "good for you -- the planet -- the farmer".

Millets are officially classified as coarse cereals or food of the poor. When I was school-going, my mother would frighten me into studying, because the alternative was possible deviancy, a term in jail and daily servings of ‘ragi mudde’ or steamed finger millet balls, which, in her view, was an agony worse than the loss of liberty.

Now, their very coarseness endears them to the city-bred with delicate constitutions and a less squeamish attitude to excess. With lifestyle diseases like diabetes and hypertension upending communicable ones as major causes of disability and death, millets have wormed their way back into urban diets, after they were banished by the Green Revolution.

Karnataka is plugging millets -- ragi and jowar, mainly -- at this cohort, hoping that gentrification of the cereals and premium pricing would persuade the state's farmers with less endowed soils to bring more area under them and give the neglected crops at least a modicum of care for better yields.

"Primarily we are developing markets," said Krishna Byre Gowda, Karnataka's young Minister for Agriculture, who went to Rome to urge the United Nations through the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to declare 2018 as international year of millets.

"We think farmers will grow what you tell them to grow. It does not work like that. Farmers look at markets. It is more important to drive demand; the supply will follow," he added.

This is a tack different from that of Sikkim, which the Prime Minister declared as India's first and only wholly organic state in January last year. No chemical fertilisers are sold in the state; so farmers have to use manure and compost. But the resultant lower yields have not been compensated with higher prices as the state failed to provide them the marketing wherewithal. The produce has to compete with non-organic fruits and vegetables from West Bengal. Local consumers are also reluctant to pay premium prices.

Half of 15,500 mall-goers in seven cities said they were eating millets daily or on a weekly basis, in a survey, based on face-to-face interviews, done for Icrisat. It is possible that the interviews were not done randomly, and there was a selection bias towards those who were older, because 42 percent of about 4,000 persons interviewed in Delhi for the survey, cited health complications as a reason for consuming them.

Read the full article, HERE.

Visit the Smart Indian Agriculture website, HERE.

Extru-Tech Inc company profile

Founded in 1985, Extru-Tech® has installed numerous extrusion systems worldwide designed for the production of human food, pet food, aquatic feed and animal feed products.

Extru-Tech® also maintains the reputation of supplying the extrusion industry with superior quality replacement parts.

Extru-Tech® currently produces and markets one of the industry's most complete lines of extrusion processing systems.

In addition, they offer a full line of ancillary equipment and customised equipment solutions for specialised processes

Visit the website HERE.

The Global Miller
This blog is maintained by The Global Miller staff and is supported by the magazine GFMT
which is published by Perendale Publishers Limited.

For additional daily news from milling around the world: global-milling.com

March 27, 2018

28/03/2018: Ardent Mills obtains rights from Cargill Incorporated to operate grain elevator AT Port of Albany

Ardent Mills, the premier flour-milling and ingredient company, shared on Monday 26^th March, that it has finalised an agreement to operate the Cargill, Incorporated grain elevator located at the Port of Albany, adjacent to Ardent Mills’ Albany, New York, community mill.

The approximately 11 million bushel elevator historically has been used to store wheat and other grains. The details of the transaction were not disclosed.

www.ardentmills.com

According to Ardent Mills Albany Plant Manager Sean Gager, the Albany elevator and associated equipment will add to its capabilities to serve bakeries, food manufacturers, foodservice and retailers across the region, and will support Ardent Mills’ vision of being the trusted partner in nurturing its customers, consumers and communities through innovative and nutritious grain-based solutions. Six existing team members will join Ardent Mills team.

“Obtaining the rights to operate this grain facility is consistent with our strategies for growth and our desire to help our customers win,” said Mr Gager. “There is a strong team in place at the elevator, and we are pleased to have them join Ardent Mills. We expect a very smooth transition as we serve our East Coast regional customers and ultimately consumers with safe, nutritious grain-based products. We are excited about the future for our community mill in combination with this new elevator. We’re confident we can leverage these assets going forward to support innovation and supply chain efficiencies.”

Visit the Ardent Mills website, HERE.

28/03/2018: 13th Food Protein Course 2018, early bird rates ending soon!

The course will take place from 18-20 April, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. There are currently 10 Places Left and early bird rates apply until 31 March saving €300.

Take 150 new business & network contacts… Enjoy 30 networking moments during the course and develop 150 new business contacts from the food proteins, ingredients and processing industries. That is a fantastic opportunity to develop new strategies.

Network with Unilever, Pepsico, Woolworths, Ferrero, Hilcona, Hellema, Nestle, Kerry, DSM, Ingredion, AVEBE, Bouwhuis Enthoven, Roquette, FrieslandCampina, F&F Group and many others.

Rewarding feedback
The course is rated quite high, which is giving us a lot of energy to continue and to further improve! The ratings are:
- Quality of insights: 8.4
- Quality of networking: 8.9
- Bridge2Food: 9.6

Combining theory & practice: why?
Using all senses will give you the best learning experience to understand the properties, functionalities and applications of food proteins: see and smell the raw materials, gels, solutions, emulsions and taste bars, beverages, confectionery etc. of egg albumin, casein, whey, collagen/gelatin, soya, pea, pulse flours, potato and rapeseed.

For more information download the brochure, HERE.

Register for the course, HERE.

Cimbria company profile

Cimbria is one of the world's leading suppliers of grain handling and seed processing technology

Global Perspective - Local focus
Cimbria is one of the world’s leading companies within industrial processing, handling and storage of grain and seed, as well as animal feed and foodstuffs and other bulk products

They offer project design and engineering and process control – as well as the development, manufacturing and service of individual machines, customised systems and turnkey installations.

Their innovation and expertise is based on many years of hands-on experience and in-depth material knowledge which enable us to provide solutions that take the requirements and problems of the individual client into account.

The core competency of the company is precise project design and engineering in proportion to the required capacity. In this way, they manage to achieve maximum machine utilisation with minimum environmental impact.

Cimbria Turnkey brings together expertise from six business areas
Cimbria’s project and turnkey installations extract and leverage all the experience and expertise acquired from the business areas of conveying, drying, seed processing, electronic sorting, storage and service. By choosing Cimbria as your business partner for major projects, you will benefit from a comprehensive range of skills and 70 years of experience

Conveying
Cimbria focuses systematically on achieving intelligent and advanced conveying solutions aimed at improved energy efficiency. They develop conveying solutions based upon their detailed knowledge of the special conditions applicable to each individual project. Focus lies in diligent and precise capacity calculations combined with extensive knowledge of the products being conveyed.

Drying
Artificial drying of agricultural products is the most reliable and advanced method of ensuring quality and long-term storage. Intensive development work within this specific area has resulted in the most flexible modular solution on the market, strengthening their position as a global provider of energy-efficient high-capacity solutions.

Seed processing
Cimbria develops and manufactures an entire range of seed processing machines and equipment for cleaning, sorting, grading and treatment of seed and grain products. Their seed processing equipment and solutions are based on comprehensive technical experience and comprehensive product knowledge. Cimbria holds a world-leading market position within seed processing equipment, where they maintain a strong focus on quality and cost-benefit.

Electronic sorting
With their range of optical sorting systems, Cimbria offers innovative sorting solutions that are customised for the task at hand. The sorting systems are fully automatic and harbour the latest technology, ensuring both high quality and efficiency, whilst keeping the quantities of rejected seeds and grain to a minimum.

Storage
Storage of grain and seed products requires the utmost care and control at the same time. In their design, they think of treatment and technology in every part and detail. They possess valuable knowhow and experience gained through nearly 70 years of global activities. Together with their comprehensive knowledge of crop handling and processes, this contributes to a successful storage solution.

Service
Serving customers is a fundamental aspect of Cimbria’s efficacy and business sense. This goes for project engineering and installation of the plant, as well as the subsequent guarantee of a smoothly running plant. Efficient electrical-mechanical after-sales service and the use of genuine Cimbria spare parts minimise downtime and production losses. Cimbria and their local authorised partners offer exclusive after-sales service, providing the customer with qualified assistance at all times. After-sales service not only includes spare parts service, but also regular maintenance services, plant check-ups and consulting services. A team of experienced engineers and technicians remains at the disposal of the respective plant operators and customers – also after handover of the plant.

Visit the Cimbria website, HERE.

28/03/2018: Combating over-fertilisation

by Aiste Baronaite-Lund, Vultus, Sweden

Farmers around the world are using different organic or synthetic fertilisers in hopes to boost a healthy growth of their crops and, in turn, produce higher quality plants. However, the fertilisation process can be trickier than it seems. The miss-use of fertilisers can cause the irrepearable damage or even death of some crops and create severe problems on a much larger scale.

So what, in fact, are fertilisers? Well, fertiliser is a substance, that is used to provide plants with valuable nutrients. If used properly fertilisers can help farmers achieve the optimal health of the plant and increase the vegetation of their soils. However, the lack of tools and knowledge of how to properly fertilise the crops is common, and very problematic. When used in access, these fertilisers can cause tremendous damage to the yield, the environment around us and even our health.

The problem affects us all
Many farmers are simply not properly equipped to precisely measure their crops health and, as such, they cannot exactly know how much of the nutrients their plants need. Therefore, they end up guesstimating the dosage of the critical input of the fertilisers and spreading them evenly across the fields. This practice typically results in the drastic misuse of the fertilisers, because the nutritious needs of the plants within those fields can vary significantly.

This unbalanced nutrient dosage can severely damage or even kill the plants, as the access amount of the fertilisers makes it very hard for the plants to absorb water. As a result, farmers often find that the crop quality within their fields is highly uneven, which in turn, makes it very difficult to harvest and ensure high quality of a product to a final consumer – all of us.

Due to a lack of knowledge of how much nourishment do different plants may need, over 60 percent of nitrogen fertiliser goes to waste. This waste leads to the yield loss of approximately five percent. However, it also creates bigger problems, which affect populations all around the world at a much larger scale. Over-fertilisation significantly contributes to environmental degradation, increases various risks for animal and human health and creates enormous costs not just for the individual farmers, but also the nations worldwide.

Farmers are, of course, aware of these issues. Although, existing methods that would enable them to adopt precision farming practices typically require them to spend extensive amounts of money and time, because in this case, farmers need to scout their fields manually.

Read the full article, HERE.

VAV company profile

VAV Conveyor Parts and Solutions is a Dutch supplier for conveyor parts for the dry bulk handling industry.

Drop forged chains and drag link conveyor chains mounted with “VAV” plastic flights are common used in feed industry over the entire world, forged chains with welded scrapers for heavy industrial duties are custom made fabricated in VAV design.

Other parts as elevator belting and buckets in steel, PEHD and nylon are available ex stock in order to serve clients as quick as possible.

Free engineering is available for capacity questions and other conveying problems.

Visit the VAV company website, HERE.

27/03/2018: Bühler, Geelen and Henry Simon win GRAPAS Innovation Award 2018

Too close to call! That was the result of the compilation of results from a panel of international judges evaluating this year's finalists in for the GRAPAS Innovation Award in Bangkok, Thailand.

Milling & Grain magazine is Patron of the GRAPAS Awards for the cereal milling industries and announced the joint-winners at Victam Asia 2018's Reception which was held at the city's BITEC this evening.

Congratulations Sander Geelen (Geelen Counterflow), Andreas Hummel (Bühler) and Peter Marriott (Satake/Alapala) joint winners of 2018 GRAPAS Innovation Award at Victam Asia in Bangkok, Thailand. Roger Gilbert of Milling and Grain presented the awards

In judging this year's nominations, the international judging panel gave weight to the criteria identified in the entry categories for equipment which is particularly applicable to use in cereal (wheat, rice, maize etc) milling, but could not separate the final three winners.

The features required are novel, have significant practical value and be of benefit to the user as well as being clear in terms of efficiency, safety, hygiene and cost effectiveness, say the judges.

Of the nine submissions two were specific products for the milling of cereals while the other seven were suitable also for wider applications in the handling of powdered and/or granular materials.

The three winners
1. Counterflow Electrical Dryer – Geleen (Stand C102)
“Any attempt to reduce energy consumption and improve our CO2 footprint can only be good for the industry and importantly the planet. This air system will enable mills to dry their products without using fossil fuels and will be of significant benefit to those who use it,” says one of the judges.

“The new Geelen Counterflow Electrical Dryer, after testing in 2016/17 is due to go into production this March.

Meanwhile another judging panel adds, the approach of a combined counterflow cooler with a heat pump seems to be a trend-setting, complete-product to achieve a more efficient production. The outlet air is characterised by its ratio of saturation and its temperature. Regarding the demand of energy and water in future, the solution offered by Geelen Counterflow will be recommends it for a winning position in the GRAPAS Innovation Award 2018.

The Counterflow Electrical Dryer has benefits for petfood and aquafeed applications. The costs of drying for other industries is also of increasing concern and thus if it can be applied for the drying of grain before milling it is to be welcomed.

2. Atta Process with PesaMill – Bühler (Stand A080)
The ‘Atta Process with PesaMill’ took time to perfect, achieving the right amount of starch and water absorption; in the end success was achieved. It produces a higher yield and one machine can do the work more efficiently than 20 sets of millstones, saving 10 percent energy over the traditional Chakki stone mill.

This new process promises to substantially improve on the way that Atta flour is produced by enabling the replacement of the less efficient and hygienic traditional stones for particle size reduction. This innovative new process is a significant application for the Indian subcontinent and East African regions.

3. Henry Simon’ Rollermill (Stand D090)
The ‘Henry Simon’ rollermill is the submission for the 2018 GRAPAS award which applies most specifically to the milling of cereal grains in the broadest sense.

Although this ‘Henry Simon’ rollermill follows established principles in its fundamental design, the incorporation of advanced sensors and controls raises its operating potential to a new level.
‘Rollermills are ‘core’ machines in most milling processes and thus advances in design or operation are of particular importance.

It is to the credit of the manufacturer that they have revived a brand that pioneered the original introduction of the rollermilling process and in addition they aim to emulate the ethos of design and innovation for which it was renown.

The Highly Commended
Pikasen FMS2000-F Optical sorter – Satake
Optical (colour) sorters are now well established for the removal of impurities and discoloured kernels in the cleaning of cereal grain. The increasing need in the milling industry to meet ever higher food purity standards has hastened the adoption of this technology. The Pikasen takes this a step further in its ability to detect shape as well as colour in a single pass and thus will have great potential to further simplify and improve the ability to clean grain before milling.

The product is not specifically limited to milling and would therefore have wider applications for handling other materials.

Tubex Hopper Scale – Bühler
In this iteration of the well known ‘Tubex’ concept the manufacturer has taken a fundamentally sound and proven concept and raised it to a higher standard with the innovative incorporation of electromagnetics, ergonomic controls and have refined the construction to gain an improvement in hygiene.

The design and application of the product is, however, not specific to milling of cereals and could also be used for weighing a wide range of other powdered or granular materials.

The Tubex scale offers an energy saving way of weighting products at process time. Its innovative controlling and monitoring for mobile devices and seems to be easily mounted in existing process lines. By its promise of saving up to 95 percent of energy using electrical drives, a more efficient food production can be realised.

The Commended
The judges deemed the remaining five submissions ‘Commended’ for introducing innovations which could directly and indirectly benefit grain and milling processes.

M007 Grain Dryer – Agentis Innovations
Most cereal grain processes rely on accurate control of the grain moisture if optimum results are to be achieved in addition to the claimed reduced losses due to spoilage and mould growth. This product offers lower cost of the drying processing as well as ensuring a more reliably consistent feed to subsequent processing.

Laser Marking integration – TMI
Bagged products remain an important sector in the marketing and sale of milled products. For these milled products traceability and thus reliable labelling is of vital importance. The improvements in labelling offered by this product are significant for this purpose as well as reducing wastage.

HRT 3-A Filter – Schenck
Effective dust filtration is an essential requirement in most milling processes, often requiring time consuming upkeep and maintenance. The Shenck design will reduce the process downtime, maintain operating efficiency and improve plant hygiene standards. The filter has applications in many industries and is not confined to cereal processing.

Stud Bolt – Sukup
A small but significant and useful development for elimination of water ingress into bins and other structures. When you consider how many thousands of bolt wholes are needed in a grain silo, making their fixtures waterproof against moisture ingress will have a significant impact of the overall quality of stored grains for milling applications.

Mr Roger Gilbert, the publisher of Milling and Grain announced the awards and told the gathered Victam Asia exhibitors when congratulating the winners that here are no losers in the GRAPAS Innovation Awards.

"All nominees are winners, winners for our industry and we should not stop encouraging innovation to progress our industry."

The GRAPAS Conference 2018

Glen Ferriol, The Area Manager for Nutriad in the Phillipines, Indonesia and Malaysia was first to speak on the topic of Mycotoxin management of stored grain, at this years GRAPAS Conference - taking place today as part of Victam Asia.

March 26, 2018

27/03/2018: Nutriad presents at PP&DFA Asia

Belgium headquartered Nutriad, global leader in feed additive solutions for livestock and aquaculture participated with species and product application experts in the Pig, Poultry and Dairy Focus Asia 2018 (PP&DFA) in Bangkok

The PP&DFA, organised by VNU Exhibitions and Positive Action Publications is one of the leading technical conferences for the Asian pig, poultry and dairy sectors. The conference hosted more than 300 participants from across the region attended technical presentations that zoomed in on feed efficiency and food safety.

Image credit: Nutriad

BK Chew, Regional Director Asia Pacific for Nutriad said, “We are excited about our robust growth in the Asian market in recent years. It confirms that we have managed to transform scientific research data into practical solutions that support producers across all species. At the PP&DFA we had the opportunity to share our latest scientific trials in the areas of mycotoxin management and gut health, with the aim to provide an alternative to AGP use, offering new insights to the ever-challenging pig, poultry and diary production.”

At the Poultry Focus, Dr Glenn Ferriol delivered the presentation “Effectively counteracting the effects of Fusarium Mycotoxins.” He stressed the importance of proper mycotoxin management tool as the raw materials in Asia are usually highly contaminated with multiple mycotoxins. Applying the right mycotoxin deactivator product at the right dose is crucial for any successful Mycotoxin Program. The study presented has shown the effectiveness of a multifunctional mycotoxin deactivator in the presence of a very high level of a combination of mycotoxins.

Dr Hassan Taweel’s, Business Development Manager Ruminants presented” Intake in dairy cows: the influence of palatability and fibre digestion.” Dr Taweel emphasised that high producing dairy cows in early lactation fail to consume enough feed to fulfil their energy requirements and consequently suffer from nutritional and metabolic disorders.

Combining palatability additives with rumen modifying additives could offer a great opportunity to modulate and improve DMI in dairy cows and other ruminants. Palatability additives would provide improvement in the sensory characteristics of the ration, while rumen modifiers would improve and optimise rumen function and fiber digestion, sending positive post-ingestive signals and re-enforcing the positive effect on DMI. Trial data on inclusion of Aroma Fruity or Gusti-Plus in the compound feed fed in the robot showed that the number of milking per cow increased from 2.4 to 2.8 times per day.

This 15 percent increase led to 0.9 kg increase in milk yield per cow per day and six percent improvement in feed efficiency. Another study on the effect of adding Nutri-Ferm Prime (Nutriad’s specialty DFM) to different rations based on alfalfa and grass hay or grass and maize silage led to a staggering seven to 10 percent improvement in NDF and OM digestibility and a six percent improvement in feed efficiency.

At the Pig Focus, Dr Wei Wang, Technical Manager Nutriad China, presented “Getting the most out of butyrate to reach AGP potential” centered on the possibility of using butyrate as a part of a strategy to reduce or eliminate the use of AGP-s. The data focused on comparing the mode of action of both and to maximise the effect of butyrate in the entire gastrointestinal tract. Using a unique coating technique, butyrate with precision delivery property (ADIMIX Precision) can improve the animal health and performance under different situations. Research has shown that ADIMIX Precision can improve animal performance, especially the growth of young animals, reduce the impact of epidemic diseases, like porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) and help avoid Salmonella contamination.

Visit the Nutriad website, HERE.

27/03/2018: IPACK-IMA and MEAT-TECH 2018, almost sold out and expecting great attendance

The forthcoming exhibitions IPACK-IMA and MEAT-TECH 2018, events organised by Ipack-Ima Srl (the exhibition management company set up as a joint venture by the Italian packaging machinery manufacturers’ association UCIMA and Fiera Milano), were presented to exhibitors on Monday 5th February at the Club House in the Fiera Milano exhibition centre.

Riccardo Cavanna and Domenico Lunghi, respectively Chairman and Managing Director of Ipack-Ima Srl, outlined the new features of the programme to the more than 100 people present. The 2018 edition will mark a turning point for the two shows, which are set to be larger, more international in scope and packed with more innovative content than ever before.

The showcased sectors
Four months before the shows are due to begin, more than 90 percent of the exhibition space has been assigned to leading Italian and international companies. The two events are growing in terms of both occupied space and number of exhibitors. IPACK-IMA in particular will extend over eight halls divided up according to exhibitor business communities or the specific types of products.

Halls 1 and 3 will be devoted to technologies, materials and accessories for the pasta, bakery, milling and confectionary industries. The presence of leading Italian and international companies confirms IPACK-IMA’s position as the most important exhibition in the world for this sector. In the adjacent halls 5-7, visitors will have a chance to discover the latest new products for food processing and packaging, with a special focus on fresh & convenience. The offerings for non-food sectors, particularly cosmetics and industrial goods, will be located in hall 4 along with the liquid filling segment, which will also be well represented in the halls devoted to food industry technologies.

www.ipackima.com

Offerings will also include machinery, equipment and devices relevant to different product sectors. Technologies for labelling, coding & tracking will be located in hall 14 while companies operating in the end-of-line stage will occupy halls 6 and 10, complemented by the products showcased at Intralogistica Italia, the event devoted to internal logistics organised by Deutsche Messe and Ipack-Ima.

Last but not least, a new satellite show focused on innovative materials and premium packaging called IPACK-MAT will be making its debut at IPACK-IMA 2018 in hall 14, where other thematic and display spaces will be available. All halls will showcase specific materials for the various business communities. The leading companies in the field of technologies for automation and robotics will also be present at IPACK-IMA.

Technologies, auxiliary equipment and ingredients for meat processing will be on display in hall 2 at the East entrance of the exhibition centre. Now in its second edition, the exhibition is the most important European event for the meat industry and will see the participation of the leading companies in the sector.

Major themes
The circular economy and sustainability will take centre stage in the space organised by Conai, while the products competing for the Packaging Oscar will be displayed in the area set up by the Italian Institute of Packaging.

Digitisation and themes relating to e-commerce will be discussed at a conference organised in collaboration with the Italian e-commerce consortium Netcomm. The appointment follows on from the successful event organised in late January. The exhibition companies will showcase solutions specially designed for sale through digital channels.

Other transversal themes that will be explored through dedicated events and product offerings will include anti-counterfeiting and serialisation in the food, fashion and personal care sectors. Production specifications for “free from” food and sanitary design, own brands and private labels will also be amongst the offerings targeted at food and beverage industry companies.

Exhibition 2.0
B2B meetings will be organised as part of an innovative online matching platform called My Matching, which will allow for a high level of user profiling and will make suggestions for meetings. Another tool that is already facilitating meetings between exhibitors and visitors is the smart catalogue.

This innovative online catalogue combines the classic information provided in trade fair catalogues with the information published by companies on their web channels. It also integrates seamlessly with promotional activities conducted through the two exhibitions’ official social channels on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

The Innovation Alliance
IPACK-IMA and MEAT-TECH will also benefit from being held concurrently with the other exhibitions in The Innovation Alliance, namely Plast, Print4All and Intralogistica Italia, which together will occupy a net exhibition space of more than 140,000 square metres extending over almost the entire Rho-Fiera Milano exhibition centre. A single entrance ticket granting admission to all five shows will simplify attendance for visitors.

International scope
“The Innovation Alliance" is also expecting around 1,000 selected buyers who have been invited to the five trade fairs with the support of the Italian Ministry for Economic Development and the Italian Trade Agency ITA. In particular, IPACK-IMA and MEAT-TECH will host buyers from Europe, Africa, the Middle East, South America and the United States. The recently initiated pre-registration process is also seeing excellent results with an increase in the number of professionals applying for entrance tickets.

These results owe much to the intense international promotional campaign carried out in recent years, including participation in around 50 exhibitions worldwide, 5 press conferences organised in major markets, partnerships with 230 Italian and international publishers, activities on social networks and partnerships with associations and international organisations, all of which have generated more than one million contacts.

The quality of these activities and the importance of the exhibition as an international showcase for companies has been endorsed by the US Commercial Department Certification, the prestigious Trade Fair Certification (TFC) granted exclusively to international exhibitions capable of offering US companies access to expanding markets with excellent business opportunities and export growth potential.

For more information visit the IPACK-IMA website, HERE.

Behlen Grain Systems company profile

Behlen Mfg. Co. is a leading international manufacturer of grain storage systems. These structures are used worldwide in a multitude of locations storing a wide variety of grain.

Behlen bins range in size from a few thousand bushels to over 1,500,00 bushels.

The Behlen grain storage buildings can be custom designed for many applications.

The entire line of Behlen equipment can be manufactured to handle high winds, seismic conditions, as well as high filling and unloading rates.

Visit the website HERE.

27/03/2018: Adverse weather does not necessarily mean adverse results

by Chris Jackson, Export Manager, UK TAG

Today I write these notes, winter is taking a hold in the UK rather late as spring approaches with snow and frost - affecting most of our country, which has in recent years had so little winter weather we are not used to or equipped to easily deal with it.

Chris Jackson

For those people of my age we still remember being frozen solid for most of March so nothing really new. It means a great deal more work for our livestock farmers, who will be looking forward to the spring regrowth and the ability to start grazing again.

Faced with difficult transport conditions logistics for moving food to the farms and stock away becomes yet another problem to be coped with. It is really heartening to see however under adverse conditions how communities pool resources for the common good.

As you read these notes with our magazine, I will be attending VICTAM, which incorporates FIAAP and GRAPAS in Bangkok.

This event outlines the interdependence that our industry relies on, we start all of the food production process with primary production in livestock, crops, fruit and vegetables not to mention arboriculture and fish production. But very little produce is suitable for human consumption until it has undergone some process.

For livestock and fish farming we rely heavily on our milling industries to supply feed that meets all the necessary nutrient requirements for efficient production, delivered in a format that is highly digestible and palatable.

As our industries become more globalised and specialist, then milling and feed formulation for all species takes on technology and investment in plant and machinery, making best use of the raw materials that are readily available in the local markets.

In the rapidly developing markets of South East Asia, co-operation is vital to effectively supply farmers with properly formulated rations that would not be available to the small scale individual producers.

With the advanced animal genetics that have been successfully deployed, rations have to be produced to allow the farmers to maximise the genetic potential. Indeed I have seen where the feed is not of sufficient quality the animals are suffering from lack of nutrition, a problem not seen using native breeds that have adapted to low nutrition and consequently low production.

Read the full article, HERE.

Mühlenchemie company profile

Established way back in 1923 and a member of the Stern-Wywiol Gruppe since 1990, Mühlenchemie is one of the world’s best-known enterprises in the field of flour improvement.

Mühlenchemie’s core field of competence is developing solutions for standardising and optimising flours – from classic flour treatment to concentrates for ready-mixed flours.

Mühlenchemie puts great effort into maintaining and strengthening its leading position in the market. We are constantly widening our know-how to ensure that we are always among the leaders in technical development.

Visit the company site HERE.

March 25, 2018

26/03/2018: Cargill Canadian beef sustainability pilot yields positive results

The first three months of Cargill’s Canadian beef sustainability pilot project yielded encouraging results, proving the model works and demonstrating significant potential to scale the program to deliver a greater volume of certified sustainable beef to Canadian consumers.

Image credit: Fiona MacGinty-O'Neil on Flickr
(CC BY-ND 2.0)

The pilot is currently encouraging additional ranchers to participate in the pilot for the remainder of 2018. The pilot was launched to test and validate the audit and traceability systems necessary to meet the requirements of the Certified Sustainable Beef Framework established by the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (CRSB).

This framework, the first of its kind in the world, is a voluntary program that enables cattle producers and beef processors to demonstrate the sustainability of their operations while at the same time supporting the retail and food service industry in their sustainable beef sourcing efforts.

For contributions made during the first quarter of the pilot, participating cattle ranchers were rewarded $10-per-head for qualifying cattle that could be tracked through audited sustainable operations from farm to fork.

“We are encouraged by the pilot’s first quarter results. It proved that a significant volume of beef can be successfully traced through a certified supply chain for the participating customers,” said Gurneesh Bhandal, Cargill’s beef sustainability manager in Toronto. “By adding more producers to the pilot, we can supply more customers with Canadian beef from sustainable sources.”

Visit the Cargill website, HERE.

For more information and to enroll, click HERE.

26/03/2018: 300 jobs to come from new Jamaica Grain and Cereals factory

Some people are expected to be employed at the Jamaica Grain and Cereals factory, which officially opened in March 2018. The $3 billion investment will employ state-of-the-art technology for production.

Image credit: Håkan Dahlström
(CC BY 2.0)

According to Seprod's Chief Executive Officer, Richard Pandohie, the facility will enable the company to boost its production for the local and export markets.

Prime Minister of Jamaica, Andrew Holness said at the official opening, “puts the country on a good footing for continued growth. It is an important signal when one of the largest food manufacturers in the Caribbean undertakes such an expansive investment.”

He added, “What Seprod is doing is taking a calculated risk to ensure its success and is confirming its significant role within the virtuous cycle of business success and national economic growth."

According to Seprod's Chief Executive Officer, Richard Pandohie, the facility will enable the company to boost its production for the local and export markets.

For more information visit the Seprod website, HERE.

Alapala company profile

Establishing plants at any desired capacity, Alapala Machine is a company that exports 95 percent of its current production today and has hundreds of references in over 75 countries in 4 continents including developed industrial countries such as Belgium, France, Italy, Canada and USA. Alapala continually develops and expands thanks to its superior technology infrastructure, perfectionist staff and management, and its quality and customer-oriented approach.

It renders the best before-sales and after-sales services with its staff specialized in their industry, overseas representatives, strong service networks and spare-part stocks.

Alapala can manufacture quality and high performance machinery where the best efficiency ad products can be obtained in the production facilities that have the most developed and state-of-the art technology.

Alapala’s lines of business:

•    Wheat flour mills,
•    Semolina mills,
•    Corn flour mills,
•    Rice processing plants,
•    Feed mills,
•    Cereal storage systems,
•    Weighing, conveying, packing equipment
•    Harbour facilities under the licence of Tramco Inc-USA

Visit the company website HERE.

26/03/2018: The development of new technologies for feed and food milling

by Clifford Spencer, Chairman, Milling4Life

A fertile area for the milling industry over the next few decades is the development of new technologies and machines for milling in both the feed and food areas.

Clifford Spencer

Interest in the development of drought-tolerant grains is increasing in several developing countries such as India, China, and some countries of Africa because of water scarcity and increasing populations. In addition, the earmarked funds to scientific research, for purposes of improving and increasing their production and utilisation as food have also been increased. In particular the area of an expanding crop feedstock choice and with that the need for dealing with the processing of these crops previously not considered, and the potential range of new products from these crops is one that the industry can profitably address.

My colleague Dr Andrew Ormerod is currently working in this area of research and I saw an email of his about the Fonio grain mill and the inventor’s Rollex Award over 20 years ago. He was asking if Sanoussi Diakite, the inventor was continuing research in relation to developing appropriate technology to process other traditional crops and if there was a network of people in the industry innovating to develop appropriate equipment for post-harvest processing.

Fonio is a staple crop in western Africa and because the fonio grains are so small, it is difficult to remove the brittle outer shell. For hundreds of years, African women have carried out the painstaking task of preparing fonio by pounding and threshing a grain and sand mixture with a pestle and mortar. After one hour of this tedious work, only two kilograms of fonio are available for consumption and 15 litres of precious water are needed to remove the sand. The whole process has been reduced from a one-hour job to a six-minute job. Diakité's solution was a 50kg device that gently abrades the surface of the seed before passing through a rotating mechanism, which removes the husks.

Another crop, millet is one of the most important drought-resistant crops and has resistance to pests and diseases, a short growing season, and good productivity under drought conditions, compared to the current major cereals. As a result, millet grains are now receiving specific attention from these developing countries in terms of utilisation as food as well as from some developed countries in terms of its good potential in the manufacturing of bioethanol and biofilms.

Read the full article, HERE.

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