Named after Clarence Birdseye, who invented the fast freezing process in 1924, Birds Eye is the leading frozen food brand in the UK and is synonymous with high-quality, great-tasting food. Birds Eye has been providing healthy, freshly frozen food since 1946 when the first frozen peas were produced.
Since the introduction of frozen peas, their product range has been expanded and diversified to now include:
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Potato Waffles
Low in saturated fat and made using real potatoes, potato waffles have been a staple of family meals since 1981 and it was the production of potato waffles that led Birds Eye to contact the team.
To find out more about how Birds Eye make potato waffles, watch this clip from the BBC Series Inside the Factory in which Greg Wallace visits the Birds Eye factory in Lowestoft and sees how 140 kg of mashed potato is turned into 750 potato waffles every minute, all precisely 15 mm thick and weighing 68 grams.
Nigel Jackson, Process Technologist at Birds Eye said:
“I first contacted the team in May 2021, when I was trying to source a moisture and fat analyzer, that could measure the fat content of a freshly fried potato waffle, after the fryer, in a range of 5% – 8%. The reason that we were looking to implement an analyzer was twofold, firstly to speed up our analysis process and secondly to attempt to make cost savings.
At the time, we were sending potato waffle samples off to an external lab. and it could take up to ten days or more for us to get the results back, which just isn’t efficient enough. We also wanted to gain greater insight into our processes and more effectively control the amount of oil absorbed by the waffles.
After finding Control Metrix online, I got in touch and was promptly contacted by Kevin Goodison, the NDC product specialist. After a telephone call with Kevin, we decided that the best option would be to look into implementing an InfraLab Food Analyzer. Kevin did some initial sample tests and then came to our site to do a demonstration.
The demonstration went well, so we proceeded with the order. We are very happy with the InfraLab Food Analyzer, we are now able to perform more tests in a shorter time frame (a few seconds) and we have already made significant cost savings.
Kevin’s industry experience and product knowledge were evident and it has been great to have one point of contact throughout the process. Kevin even wrote our standard operating procedure (SOP) for us, which was much appreciated.
We have been using the InfraLab Food Analyzer for ten months now and we can honestly say that there has been a massive improvement in our production processes and ultimately the quality of the end product. The potato waffles are now the crispiest that they have ever been and are now Birds Eye’s star product, thanks to the Infralab Food Analyzer and the guidance and support provided”
The InfraLab Food Analyzer
The InfraLab Food Analyzer is designed to give production and quality management personnel rapid access to reliable, repeatable and accurate data from samples collected from the process. The InfraLab Food Analyzer is a cost-effective viable alternative to the time-consuming gravimetric or loss-on-drying methods used for moisture analysis, as well as the chemical methods used for parameters such as fat or protein.
The InfraLab Food Analyzer has a 5-second measurement speed – even for multi-component analysis and every measurement is stored in the substantial onboard memory, recording the measurement value and standard deviation for each parameter as well as who made the measurement and the time and date.
Each InfraLab Food Analyzer is optimised for the required measurement parameters in the products to be measured and is delivered with linear factory calibrations over the desired measurement range. The InfraLab Food Analyzer can be used as a stand-alone device, networked to your factory network, or incorporated into a LIMS network.
If you would like to find out how the implementation of an InfraLab Food Analyzer could benefit your company, please visit the InfraLab Food Analyzer product page or contact our product specialist.
As featured in Potato News Today – No-nonsense, no-frills potato news stories from around the world.
