In collaboration with its valued customer, Maple Leaf Foods—one of Canada’s foremost producers of prepared meat and poultry—Ishida Europe has significantly contributed to the launch of Maple Leaf Foods’ new C$772 million poultry processing facility located in London, Ontario.
The cutting-edge plant is equipped with 12 Ishida Flex Grader systems and four Ishida RobotGraders, working seamlessly in conjunction with four Ishida IX-G2 X-ray inspection units. This advanced Ishida machinery efficiently handles and packages all components from the 27,500 birds processed hourly, generating approximately 270,000 retail trays each day across 16 grading and packing lines. This state-of-the-art food and drink packaging system not only enhances efficiency but also reflects a commitment to sustainable packaging practices.
However, as noted by Taimur Aslam from Maple Leaf Foods, who spearheaded the factory’s acquisition and setup, it is the partnership and exceptional service provided by Ishida that have truly distinguished this project. He stated, “I can safely say that I have never experienced this level of collaboration from a company throughout such a huge flagship project. With Ishida, I have enjoyed one of the best working relationships, a true partnership where we co-operated fully and at the same time challenged each other at every stage. This made it easy for us to push the boundaries of what we could achieve.”
A primary objective for the grading and packing lines was to transition from a labor-intensive manual process to a more streamlined operation that maximizes speed and efficiency while increasing operational output. This transformation is crucial in the highly competitive food and drink packaging industry.
The Ishida equipment is designed to adapt to real-world production conditions, allowing for simultaneous handling of various packaging formats. At a minimum, each production line is capable of producing tray packs, bulk packs (5kg or 20kg), or combo bulk packs (500kg) in concert.
Moreover, the user-friendly operation of the machinery is complemented by an intuitive control system that integrates seamlessly with Maple Leaf Foods’ existing order management systems. This integration facilitates efficient workforce mobility across the factory. The ergonomic design of the Ishida graders also aligns with Maple Leaf Foods’ dedication to maintaining the highest health and safety standards.
The Ishida Flex Graders are engineered to grade products based on fixed weight, fixed piece count, or a combination of both. At Maple Leaf Foods, they achieve impressive throughput rates, grading and packing whole legs at 120 pieces per minute, while thighs and drumsticks can reach up to 400 pieces per minute.
In addition, the Ishida RobotGraders utilize advanced weighing and pick-and-place technologies to efficiently grade chicken fillets of varying weights. These fillets are packed at a specified number of pieces per pack directly into trays at high speeds, along with fixed weight bulk packaging and combo bulk grading. Each fillet undergoes inspection through an Ishida IX-G2-4027-F X-ray security system that employs advanced dual energy technology to detect low-density foreign objects, such as bone fragments, ensuring effective rework of any compromised fillets.
“We are delighted with the performance of the Ishida equipment, which delivers what we require in terms of efficiency, throughput and reliability to enable us to increase capacity and respond quickly to market demands,” concluded Taimur.
