Fully Traceable Salad Mix Using Avery Weigh-Tronix Software

PlantPower® software from Avery Weigh-Tronix is ensuring that the ingredients put into salad mixes are completely traceable and that their tolerance weight levels are accurate for leading retailers in the UK.

The system has been installed for one of Europe’s leading growers, packers and distributors of watercress, rocket, baby leaf salads and speciality vegetables.  The company supplies retailers in the UK, Spain and Portugal along with the Food Service Sector, Food Manufacturers and the Wholesale markets.

Salad mixes consist of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, grated carrot and beetroot.  In order to create a salad mix each ingredient is added to a punnet by an operator as it passes along the line.

Real time reporting

To ensure efficiency, the PlantPower® software is used alongside the Avery Weigh-Tronix bench scale and multi-function indicator, which combine to provide a highly accurate system.  The sum weight of the product can be monitored and checked in real time via the software to ensure the constituent parts are all within tolerance.  Rather than ignoring an inaccuracy, the user has to take notice of an error and take action because they are unable to proceed if something is incorrect.

This ensures that no one element is exceeding declared weights more than is appropriate for the product. Equally, it ensures that elements don’t fall below the products legal or aesthetic levels to ensure a suitably high quality product is maintained.

Compliance with traceability and average weight legislation

The PlantPower® software provides a full historical database of the ingredients so that they are fully traceable – complying with European Traceability Legislation EU 178/2002.  Also, using the software means that the salad can maintain compliance with QUID, Average Weight legislation, Minimum Weight and standard SPC control limits.