Station 01 of 06

Food & Beverage Processing

Food and beverage processing is the first station on the line, where raw ingredients are turned into a product by cleaning, cutting, cooking, mixing, heat-treating or shaping them. It is where most of a plant's value is added and where most of its energy, water and labour are spent. The machines here include peelers and slicers that prepare fruit, vegetables and tubers; fryers and seasoning systems for snacks; extruders that cook and shape cereals, snacks and pet food; pasteurisers and homogenisers for milk, juice and other liquids; and dough mixers and tunnel ovens for bread, biscuits and cakes. Processing equipment sets the product's quality, yield and food safety, so buyers look first at hygienic design, how well a machine handles their specific raw material, how easily it can be cleaned and changed over, and how its throughput matches the packaging and cooling stations downstream. Every other station on the line is sized around what processing delivers.