Aiming to provide fresh insights towards the company’s journey to develop the most sustainable food package
Tetra Pak has commenced ground-breaking research towards advancing fibre-based sustainable food packaging, in collaboration with MAX IV – the most modern synchrotron1 radiation laboratory in the world. The research aims to uncover fresh insights into the nanostructure of fibre materials, with the first application to optimise the composition of materials used for paper straws.
This is the very first industrial research and development experiment at ForMAX, a brand new research station dedicated to studying materials from the forest, located at the MAX IV Laboratory in Lund, Sweden.
As the global demand for safe, nutritious food intensifies, and the scarcity of raw materials increases, the need to develop more sustainable packaging solutions that use less of these scarce resources has become urgent. New materials based on paper will bring novel opportunities, but they need to remain food safe, recyclable, be more durable against liquids and humidity, while meeting the increased sustainability demands.
Eva Gustavsson, Vice President Materials & Package, Tetra Pak, says: “A fundamental understanding of the structure and properties of materials is crucial as we work towards developing the package of the future. Our ambition is to provide the world’s most sustainable food package, and experiments at ForMAX will clearly support us in this mission.
“The package of the future needs to be fully recyclable and have a low environmental impact. Using renewable materials and increasing the use of fibre-based material within packages will be vital. With this research, Tetra Pak is helping to uncover fresh insights into plant-based materials as a basis for future innovations.”
Kim Nygård, Manager, ForMAX beamline, MAX IV says: “The experiment conducted at ForMAX is a milestone for both academia and industry. The research station is the first of its kind and will facilitate both fundamental and applied industrial research on how new, sustainable materials can be used going forward. We are proud to support Tetra Pak in its development of sustainable packaging materials for the future.”
About Tree search
The construction of ForMAX has been funded by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, and the operating costs are funded by the industry through Treesearch, a national collaborative platform for academic and industrial research in new materials from the forest. As an industrial partner in Treesearch, Tetra Pak is one of the initiators and facilitators of ForMAX.
1Synchrotron radiation is the electromagnetic radiation emitted when charged particles travel in curved paths perpendicular to their velocity
Britvic, one of the largest companies in the world in the non-alcoholic beverage sector, announces the adoption of SIG’s PAC.TRUST solution for the digitisation of its laboratory analysis processes at its operations in the Brazilian states of Ceará and Minas Gerais. Britvic will adopt the Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) and Digitalisation modules of the PAC.TRUST solution, enabling traceability of internal processes in minutes.
The solution is a tool to digitise monitoring and quality records at the three plants of the Britvic group in Brazil, located in Astolfo Dutra and Araguari (MG), as well as Aracati (CE). With PAC.TRUST in operation, Britvic strengthens and brings more agility to its quality control processes, eliminating the need to convert physical records to multiple spreadsheets, and providing more security to information within the respective plants. This digitisation minimises errors and deviations due to incorrect records caused by duplicate data entries. PAC.TRUST also allows Britvic to reduce the time in simulations and effective traceability actions, to simplify audits, and to bring even more reliability to all processes involved in the supply chain, reinforcing its commitment to product quality and its growth strategy.
SIG’s modularised PAC.TRUST solution helps SIG customers to have complete visibility of the production chain per package. For Britvic, SIG used two modules of the PAC.TRUST solution, LIMS and Digitalização (Digitisation). The solution was installed in 2022 and has already brought several benefits to the company, such as a 40 % reduction in quality data analysis time, an increase in the level of information security with data storage redundancy, a 75 % reduction in weekly record checking time and 8x faster traceability, providing a digital and integrated operation at corporate level.
Endress+Hauser BioSense to develop equipment and methods for fast molecular analyses
Increased safety in food production and other process applications is the declared aim of the joint venture between Endress+Hauser and Hahn-Schickard. To this end, both partners have established Endress+Hauser BioSense GmbH based in Freiburg, Germany. Its aim is to enable rapid, on-site molecular analyses for the detection of bacterial or viral contamination in water and beverages, genetic modifications in food or contaminated milk.
The research and development service provider Hahn-Schickard has been working closely for many years with the Department of Microsystems Engineering at the University of Freiburg to develop rapid diagnostic tests that can detect extremely small concentrations of infectious pathogens with portable instruments. The joint venture is now aiming to transfer this technology from the field of medical diagnostics to industrial process and laboratory automation applications.
Innovative cluster
During the first few months, Endress+Hauser BioSense will operate in spaces located at the university and Hahn-Schickard. Next year the company will move into the university’s innovation center, FRIZ, currently under construction on the campus of the Faculty of Engineering. The start-up will thus expand Endress+Hauser’s activities in Freiburg, where developers are already working on new sensor technologies, biosensors and Industry 4.0 solutions.
In the development of equipment and methods for molecular analyses for process and laboratory environments, Endress+Hauser BioSense will be working closely with IST Innuscreen GmbH in Berlin, which is also part of the Endress+Hauser Group. IST Innuscreen offers a broad portfolio of nucleic acid isolation and molecular diagnostics products and among other things supplies kits and assays for PCR diagnostics.
Experienced leadership team
The joint venture is 75 percent owned by Endress+Hauser, with the remaining 25 percent held by Hahn-Schickard. Dr Nicholas Krohn, who has in-depth knowledge and experience in the field of food analysis, will serve as managing director of the new company. Dr Stefan Burger and Dr Martin Schulz, two long-time employees of Hahn-Schickard who obtained their doctorates in the field of molecular diagnostics at the University of Freiburg, will round out the management team.
After almost 40 years as managing director of FRITSCH GmbH, Robert Fritsch was bit farewell on his retirement on 1st January 2020. He looks back on times of modernization, economic growth and success.
In 1920 the medium-sized family business was fund in Idar-Oberstein as a technical precious stones dealer by Max and Alfred Fritsch. After the Second World War Willi and Paul Fritsch, sons of Alfred Fritsch, took over the management.
As the second generation of the company, they were looking for a new business idea, because more and more synthetic materials found their way into the application area of FRITSCH. Soon it became clear to focus on the niche market of application-oriented laboratory instruments for sample preparation and particle sizing. This specialization led the laboratory instrument manufacturer to success: Already since the mid-1950s FRITSCH has been one of the leading manufacturers in this field. The first patent application for a fully automatic Planetary Mill followed in 1962. In the following years FRITSCH continued to grow steadily, whereupon the construction of a production hall in Georg-Weierbach 1973 and later the complete relocation of the administration followed.
The third generation was characterized by Robert Fritsch, son of Paul Fritsch, who took over the management in 1982. The breakthrough in high-tech particle sizing was achieved with the Laser Particle Sizer ANALYSETTE 22 under the leadership of him. Since then research, development and production have continued steadily. Further patents in the fields of sample preparation and particle sizing followed and a new production hall was opened in 2014. Because FRITSCH stands for Quality “Made in Germany” for over 100 years and is one of the leading manufactures in the field of milling, sieving, dividing and sizing.
For the 100th anniversary, the 4th generation takes over the management: Maximilian und Sebastian Fritsch, just as their father, grandfather, great uncle, great grandfather and great grand uncle showed them. Maximilian Fritsch, who came to the company after completing his apprenticeship as an IT-manager in 2009 will in future work as Commercial Manager. In his new position, he particularly appreciates the contact to the employees as well as developing new ideas and strategies. Sebastian Fritsch, who is working in the sales department of FRITSCH for more than 10 years, is now the new Managing Director. As a child he dreamed of a career as professional soccer player, but since his apprenticeship at FRITSCH in 2006 he knew „this is my future!”.
The brothers set themselves as a goal to expand further and to lead the company as well as the team in a successful future.
The Verder Group, a Dutch family-owned manufacturer and distributor of pumps and laboratory equipment, acquires the German hygienic sales organization Koch Pumpentechnik Vertriebs GmbH & Co. KG.
The Verder Group, the fast growing niche market manufacturer of pumps and laboratory equipment has announced the acquisition of Koch Pumpentechnik, specialized in the sales of Packo hygienic pumping solutions in Germany. Koch has extensive knowledge to offer hygienic solutions for customers in the food & beverage industry, specifically milk and breweries, as well as the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industry.
The acquisition will strengthen Verder’s hygienic pump position by offering a full portfolio of high end products, extensive knowledge and full support throughout Germany. As of today the new organization will continue under the name Verder-Koch GmbH & Co. KG.
Andries Verder, CEO of Verder International, says that the Group is very excited to have Koch join the Verder family of companies. “We feel that the integration of Koch into the Verder sales organization will further fortify the position of Verder-Koch in the German hygienic market. Joining forces will give the Koch team access to a wide variety of hygienic pump principles that are produced in-house by Verder, like JEC lobe pumps, twin-screw pumps and hygienic peristaltic and diaphragm pumps from Verderflex and Verderair. The acquisition of Koch with their unrivalled knowledge of hygienic processes will also benefit the whole Verder organization.
Founded in 1980, Koch Pumpentechnik has shown continuous growth due to its strong knowledge of hygienic processes and centrifugal pump applications. This has earned them the reputation of a premium solution provider throughout Germany. Director Uwe Koch will stay on board as the managing director of Verder-Koch.
The Verder Group was founded by André Verder in 1959 as a trading company of innovative products. The Group has remained under family management and is active with its own sales and manufacturing sites in 27 countries. The two divisions Verder Liquids (industrial & hygienic pumps) and Verder Scientific (laboratory equipment) have kept an equal and substantial growth pace over the years.
The Technical Workshop has become an annual tradition for everybody working in technical fields in the juice industry, from quality managers to R&D people to staff working in the laboratory. With very low registration fees, compared to “regular” conferences in the industry, it should also give the employees that normally don`t go to conferences the chance to learn about new developments, discuss relevant topics and establish networking with fellow col- leagues.
The IFU Technical Workshop 2018 will be held on Monday, March 19th, in Cologne – just one day before Anuga FoodTec.
