Success in Automating Griffith Foods' Packaging Line with TMI: Ensuring Food Safety and Optimizing Efficiency

Griffith Foods, a leading food ingredient producer with a global presence, faced significant challenges at its Herentals plant in Belgium. Food safety was paramount in their production process, especially on the bagging line, where the variety of products and strict hygiene standards required special attention. Additionally, efficiency and ergonomics became key concerns due to labor shortages and the need to improve work processes.

Griffith Foods partnered with TMI, a respected machinery manufacturer specializing in packaging solutions, to address these challenges. Together, they designed and implemented a comprehensive solution that included a flexible Form Fill Seal (FFS) bagging machine as the core of the operation. This machine was designed to handle the variety of products from Griffith Foods and meet their strict food safety and cleanliness requirements. Moreover, innovative features such as the mobility of the bagging machine and the optimization of the cleaning process were incorporated to further enhance efficiency and productivity.

The successful implementation of TMI's solution provided highly significant results for Griffith Foods, driving tangible measures across various operational aspects of the company.

• The new packaging line ensures food safety by meeting the highest standards of hygiene and cleanliness. The validation of the cleaning process has led to a 100% guarantee in the elimination of contaminants, reducing the need for constant testing and increasing confidence in the quality of the final product.
• The automation of the packaging line has significantly improved operational efficiency. Production times have been drastically reduced, allowing faster bagging and a greater responsiveness to market demands. The mobility of the bagging machine and the optimization of the cleaning process have further contributed to improved efficiency and productivity.
• The project has not only delivered results in terms of food safety and efficiency but has also facilitated knowledge transfer within Griffith Foods. The company's headquarters and other facilities have been able to learn from the experience in Herentals, leading to greater synergy and collaboration throughout the organization.

"We take bacterial swabs and micro-samples and perform all kinds of tests. When they all came out negative, we knew we had our cleaning process under control. We have now gradually phased out testing for more processed products, although we are still testing some complex blends. Spice blends and other simple products now automatically cross the line, allowing us to clean without testing. Because now we have a 100% cleaning guarantee. So we no longer take swabs every two hours, but we still repeat that regularly," notes the Griffith Foods team.

Thus, the collaboration between Griffith Foods and TMI has resulted in a successful solution that addresses the presented challenges, ensuring food safety, improving operational efficiency, and promoting ongoing learning within the organization.

Following the success achieved, this collaboration demonstrates the value of innovation and sets a higher standard for excellence in food production. "Our headquarters closely followed this project, and we have already had visits from colleagues from America. They came here to learn about cleaning and flexibility." For Griffith Foods, this project clearly tastes like more.