Loma wins Crown Chicken inspection tender
The firm won a tender for the supply of two X5 Spacesaver X-ray machines to Crown Chicken’s processing plant in Norfolk.
Crown Chicken is a poultry company offering all stages of feed milling, breeding, hatching, rearing and processing at a capacity in excess of 450,000 birds a week.
The firm has used Loma’s IQ3 metal detection systems and has installed the X-ray systems at the end of separate lines where they are operating at speeds up to 40 packs per minute.
Julian Hine, engineering manager at Crown Chicken, said it has eight Loma metal detection systems.
“They also have an in-depth understanding of all aspects of poultry processing and recognise the need for high performance contaminant inspection technology for optimum plant efficiency and that meets BRC and retailer standards.”
Crown Chicken recently launched whole birds skin packed in aluminium foil trays as a measure against Campylobacter. By using this packaging substrate, it was required to source an alternative method of contaminant inspection.
Hine said: “As part of the X-ray equipment buying process, we invited three companies to tender for the project, but Loma’s X5 Spacesaver unit met our functionality, hygiene and cost requirements. Plus the fact it measures just one metre in length makes it ideal for our limited production space.”
