22/04/2023
Frozen food processor Shandong Santao Food trusts the TOMRA 5B sorting equipment as "the guardian" of its production line
Since its establishment in 2003, Santao has become one of the leading enterprises in China’s frozen food industry by virtue of its unique advantages: an ecological base, professional management mechanisms, advanced automatic fruit and vegetable processing lines, and strict implementation of GFSI, BRC, GAP, GMP and HACCP.
As the frozen food industry has developed rapidly, higher requirements have been placed on participants. Santao chose TOMRA as its partner to upgrade production line automation to ensure quality, improve product value, and build its brand with cutting-edge technology.
Labor challenges during frozen food’s explosive growth period
Santao was one of the first enterprises engaged in the frozen food industry in China. In the 1980s and 1990s, when frozen and refrigerated food were in an emerging phase, Santao took the lead. With the increasing perfection of cold-chain logistics, the
continuous improvement of refrigeration technology, and the popularization of frozen food, Santao’s frozen food business ushered in a period of explosive growth. Yet at the same time as great opportunity, labor has posed a challenge.
Before Santao’s production line was upgraded, it was completely manual, which inevitably had limitations when dealing with large or emergency orders. Due to the strong seasonal characteristics of fruit and vegetable processing, recruitment of workers has become a major difficulty. In addition, the insufficient availability of labor would be even more of a challenge when expanding capacity at the new plant.
In order to solve this labor challenge and find a solution for processing more than 10 food varieties - such as spinach, green beans, diced onion, strawberry, soy bean/kernel and sweet corn - Santao researched much food processing machinery and equipment, both at home and abroad. After detailed
