– waste minimisation through innovation

Northern Foods is a leading food producer in the UK employing more than 21,000 people in approximately 40 manufacturing sites, including in the East Midland region. Its annual turnover in 2003 was £1.4 billion. It is also regarded as an innovative business. In addition to accepted waste minimisation practices, it has employed innovation as a means to achieve waste minimisation.

To ensure that the chilled food products are kept at the required temperature for safety and quality reasons, there is a need to monitor the core temperature of the products. A typical method of measurement is the use of thermo-couple based temperature probes. These are inserted in to the food products which render the products unsaleable. These products are therefore disposed of as waste. The product loss has been estimated to exceed half a million pounds each year for Northern Foods.

There is a need for a non-invasive temperature monitoring technique. A microwave based technique is used in medical applications for non-invasive measuring of temperature in the human body. The technique known as Microwave Radiometry has been a subject of further research at Glasgow University. Glasgow University, therefore, seemed an ideal partner for Northern Foods to exploit the use of this technique in food products. As a result of this collaborative project, a prototype instrument was developed by Glasgow University which measured the microwave energy emitted by the food product and converted this into a temperature reading. This prototype was thoroughly and successfully tested for accuracy of measurement by Nottingham based Northern Foods Technical Services in a range of food products and in different environmental conditions.

Loma Scientific, a leading manufacturer of specialised monitoring and measuring instruments for the food industry agreed to manufacture and market this technology. The instrument called ‘Celsius’ is now marketed worldwide by Loma Scientific for non-invasive measurement of temperature in chilled and frozen foods.

The benefits of this innovative technology are:

• Reduction/elimination of product wastage.
• Continuous monitoring of core food temperature thus giving increased safety and quality assurance.
• Cost saving.