Tag Archives: grading

Tong: Five-line potato peeling at M&F

Processed potato supplier M&F Ltd, based in Woodmansey, East Yorkshire, has installed a new potato processing and peeling facility, to increase the throughput and efficiency of its potato handling operations.

M&F Ltd supply processed potatoes to companies who further process the potatoes into ready meals for the UK’s major supermarkets and handles more than 100,000 tonnes of potatoes per year.

In order to update their current processing operations, M&F Ltd required a complete potato handling facility. As part of a turnkey project Spilsby-based Tong Engineering designed to five independent peeling lines for optimum throughput. The new facility gently handles the potatoes from receiving dirty crop in boxes to packing the processed crop ready for despatch.

Graham Stark, Managing Director at M&F Ltd, explains, “Demand for processed crop continues to increase and in line with this, our peeling facilities needed some additions and upgrades to cope with the amount and variation of crop we now need to process on a daily basis. We handle between 1,200 and 1,800 tonnes of potatoes a week and we needed a very efficient potato processing line to handle our crop. We have worked with Tong Engineering for a number of years and they have supplied us with grading and handling equipment that has helped to significantly improve the efficiency of our operations.”

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AHDB Potatoes urges growers to grade safely

AHDB Potatoes has issued a series of ‘Safe Potato operations’ training modules covering grading and other key activities ahead of this year’s harvesting period.

According to Phil Bradshaw, AHDB Potatoes Technical Executive, harvesting and grading operations within the GB potato industry have seen two fatalities and four serious injuries in the past five years. AHDB reminds growers that they have a legal duty of care to their staff in preparation for the harvest.

“These modules are designed for training groups of employees in safe harvesting and grading practices” explains Phil. “At the end of the module you can test understanding and print a certificate of training for each participant. The certificate should be retained as proof of your training.

“The training focuses on the safe operation of grading and harvesting machinery with emphasis on the safe stop procedure. This is in addition to the need for care in the set-up of machines to avoid damage, in particular the bruising of potatoes.”

The ‘Safe Potato Operations’ training modules are available at potatoes.ahdb.org.uk/safe-potato-operations.

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