Miller Magazine Issue: 112 April 2019

25 NEWS APRIL 2019 ghts IoT platform powered by Microsoft Azure. Laatu – a digital service to reduce 99.999% of Salmonella Laatu is a breakthrough microbial reduction technology for dry foods. Laatu is different from more conventional microbial reduction processes as it exposes dry foods to low-energy ele- ctrons. It is able to destroy more than 99.999% of Salmonella with minimal impact on the internal structure of the food. This maintains the quality of the food and its nutritional value. Laatu significantly reduces harmful microorganisms such as Salmonella, E. coli, and spores in milliseconds. When compared to conventional technologies, Laatu has a significantly smal- ler footprint and can be implemented anywhere in the processing line. Moreover, Laatu provides a cost-efficient and environmentally-friendly solution. It can reduce energy consumption by up to 80% in comparison to steam, without introducing water or chemicals. Today, Laatu is ready for the spice market and its implementation for other dry food markets is under development. With a connection to Bühler Insights, Laatu can be used as a powerful tool in food safety auditing as its real-time monitoring system cap- tures processing parameters, dates, times, and product batches. Tubex Pro – a smart scale system that continuously improves the production process Tubex Pro is a smart process scale system that self optimizes its measuring algorithm according to product flow characteristi- cs and the plant environment. It produces a real-time stream of production data and status information, which can be visualized remotely using Bühler Insights and seamlessly integrated into Büh- ler’s advanced Yield Management System. All data is processed in order to track production, optimize scale performance, and reveal opportunities to improve the yield and performance of the plant. Collecting and interpreting process scale data is providing a deep insight into production losses, improvement potenti- al, and the influence of input material variations. With hygie- nic design, a high level of food safety and the potential to se- curely log product data using blockchain technology, Tubex Pro with Bühler Insights, supports safe food production with full transparency and traceability along the food value chain. Yield Management System enables efficient yield monitoring and benchmarking Bühler’s Yield Management System enables yield monitoring from anywhere at any time. Based on its integration with Bühler Insights, it makes deviations between different recipes visible and comparable. Moreover, various production sites can be monitored and benchmarked. Both the additional transparency and push notifications help food producers to react quickly if deviations become apparent. That way, a constantly high yield can be achieved – which is crucial for running a profitable food processing business. A powerful blockchain system for the food processing industry Laatu, Tubex Pro, and Bühler’s Yield Management System are connected to Bühler Insights, which is powered by Azure. Together, they offer a strong food safety auditing tool, capable of generating a fast, accurate and secure audit trail for food producers globally. Re- al-time production data from Tubex Pro and over- sight in the Yield Management System allow food producers to increase production efficiency and yield. Last, but not least, data can be integrated with the blockchain where it cannot be changed. This provides consumers, retailers, and food pro- ducers an almost real-time, traceable and secure audit trail. “With this integrated food safety and yield management solution, you can capture the date, time, batch, and input parameters used on a speci- fic product and then store all that data on the blockchain. This enables customers to track, for example, that a batch of pepper- corns has been processed using the Bühler Laatu technology,” said Nicolas Meneses, Laatu Project Manager at Bühler. “Using blockchain you can see if a food ingredient has been properly processed in seconds rather than days – and with a high degree of certainty. You can then quickly take action. This helps reduce the number of people exposed to potentially unsafe food and also to cut food waste as the specific batch can be traced.” Laatu destroys 99.999% of Salmonella with low-energ electrons. Tubex Pro – the first-gene- ration Tubex process scale