Pre-Sorting

A FIRST FROM US: PRE-SORTING THAT GIVES YOU WHAT YOU WANT

With the unit in Zoutleeuw we stand alone at the top in Belgium and are among the leaders in Europe. The machine guarantees reliable and fast sorting based on IQS: Intelligent Quality Sorting.

NO DETAIL ESCAPES THE ATTENTION OF IQS

This advanced IQS system assesses apples day and night for their size, bloom and base colour and also for their skin quality. It is composed of an ingenious combination of computers and advanced digital colour and infra-red cameras. We have written the computer’s sorting programs. We based our ideas for this exceptionally precise and objective inspection on current consumer demands and market requirements.

IQS: SUPERHUMAN QUALITY CONTROL. HOW DOES IQS OPERATE?

• Each piece of fruit is photographed 72 times: 36 times in infra red, 36 times in colour.
• Afterwards the computer calculates the coloured percentage of the surface and compares the photographs with a pre-programmed databank. Thus it is able to recognise all deviations, and each grower is given the same objective treatment.
• This detailed job is performed at an extraordinary tempo. Some 20 tons or 1 full trailer passes before its all-seeing eye per hour.

EXACT SORTING YIELDS A WEALTH OF BENEFITS

This ultramodern pre-sorting system offers both grower and customer alike nothing but benefits.

We sell the fruit immediately in the correct packaging

This is because we know some time in advance the destination of each batch. Fruit of lesser quality is sent immediately to industrial buyers. Fruit of exceptional quality is placed in small-scale packaging, such as foil-covered mini-packs or bags without passing through any intervening stages. In this way, we avoid considerable additional costs from interim packaging, further sorting and cold storage.

We avoid costs for particular customers

Some buyers only want uniform qualities in plastic bulk bins. They are able to get this without any detours thanks to the BFV’s pre-sorting methods. This also enables the grower to find a buyer for his fruit quickly.

We can deal with sudden surges in demand

The new unit enables us to sort a large capacity in a short time and thus solve any urgent problem immediately.

We sort large, homogenous batches extraordinarily quickly

Thanks to IQS, all apples in a particular quality category conform to identical conditions irrespective of the batch, grower or time of sorting. Moreover, the fast throughput of sorting guarantees better retention of quality as well.

We take industry’s demands better into account

As a result of pre-sorting, we get a good picture of the percentage of fruit from the new harvest that will be suitable for industrial use as early as at the picking stage. Consequently, we are able to make a prognosis of the quantity of industrial fruit in the cooling units and are better able to take industry’s demands into account. Furthermore, this enables us to give added value to the qualities A3++ and A4++ of industrial fruit by sorting them in advance as well. And that counts considerably against the costs of pre-sorting.