Internal quality is a hot item in the onion sector. After the US, Europe has now also started optically sorting. Since 2014, there’s a cooperation between Ellips/Elisam and JDC. The camera-sorting machines from Ellips/Elisam and the suction systems from Jongejans Luchttechniek have proven themselves in such a manner in the US that it’s been decided to continue the cooperation in Europe. TOP Onions recently decided to also switch to their optical sorting system.
In recent years, sorting for internal quality has become a core business for Ellips. “We mostly did large onion projects in the US in recent years. The European onion sector was reserved for a long time, but thanks to improved technique, we are now also advancing here,” says Erwin Bakker from Ellips. “Onion packers are still skeptical, but when we’re looking at the sorting results of electronic compared to manual together, discussions tend to evaporate. During a good season, internal quality is hardly used, though there’s always a bit of internal rot.”
“We are mostly devoting ourselves to the grey area in which you can decide how many bad ones are still mixed in with the good ones, and vice versa. We try to make this area as small as possible. People have to realise that the worse a batch is, the better they have to sort to get clean product. A bad batch can of course never get well properly, but when, from a batch of 50 per cent tare, 20 to 30 per cent of good onions can be sorted out that would otherwise get thrown away, that’s naturally quite an improvement, and no manual labour can compete with that.”
One sorting scheme in development
What he says is a major advantage of the Ellips systems is that there is no learning time. When a sorting line is installed, the operator can start immediately. “Large strides have been taken over the past period. We have noticed that the onion sector here is really open to optical sorting now. It’s now important to boost sales with even more development. We hope to roll out one sorting scheme for white, yellow and red onions soon. Various schemes are now used for that. For example a red onion absorbs more light than a yellow onion, and there are also differences between an American and a European red onion.”
Swiss onion company Gugger-Guillod SA recently brought a new optical sorting line into use, for which Jongejans Luchttechniek supplied the suction installations. Gugger works with local Swiss growers who produce onions for them. These onions are sent to the largest Swiss distribution centres for retail. “We annually process about 6,000 tonnes of onions,” according to Roland Gugger. “We enjoy being frontrunners in the field of technique and want to continue operating at the top of the Swiss market. The improved technique of optical sorting was reason enough for us to invest.” Before this, the onions were inspected and sorted manually. The new sorting line therefore provides quite an improvement. “We can now guarantee better quality, give our producers equal treatment regardless of size, and look back at all activities at a later time. The automation also results in a reduction of employee costs.”