CIBUS TEC 2016, THE exhibition for technological innovation in the food industry

A review of IFU`s visit to Parma, Italy and a summary of our Juice Workshop

The co-operation between IFU and Fiere di Parma has a long tradition, as both worked together for various workshops in the past. In 2016, we reinvigorated this cooperation: the Juice Workshop at Cibus Tec 2016 was a successful event for the experts in the juice industry, with hopefully many more to follow!

Arriving one day before the juice workshop, we could use the day to visit various exhibitors at the fair, get in touch with the speakers, make contact with companies interested in becoming members of IFU and prepare for the workshop. Thanks to the enormous support of Fiere di Parma and the staff at the exhibition center, there was not much for us to do, which gave us the possibility to visit one of our members in their factory.

CFT S. p. A. has organized a tour through their factory for their main customers, and we were lucky enough to be invited, as well. After a very interesting tour with many insights into their production and technology – where we were very honored to see the “Zenith”, for which CFT won the IFU innovation award, decorated with the award itself and some pictures and information about the award presentation ceremony - , we were invited for a reception with great Italian wine, food and music in their factory`s cafeteria. What a nice surprise, that we even met IFU`s former president, Mr. Tony Beattie from Directus Australia, and what a great opportunity to get in touch with CFT´s management and many other members of the juice industry!

The next day, the 26th of October, we had our juice workshop as part of the conference program at Cibus Tec.

Due to the great support of Fiere di Parma and our efforts to invite exhibitors, we had 35 additional participants showing up to the workshop, on top of the nearly 80 persons who have already pre-registered.

The first speaker was Mr. Martin Frei from Bucher Unipektin, a long-time member of IFU. He gave an introduction to the company, which was founded 200 years ago and has now 11.000 employees in 5 divisions worldwide. In his talk “Absorption and ion-exchange technologies – adding value to juices and by-products”, we heard about resin technology applications, why resin process should be used and how they bring benefits for the juice industry, different types of resin technology, the hardware and its capacity, and the processing of citrus peel sugar with ceramic technology. All in all, it can be said that adding value is possible by recovering food ingredients from waste material, which makes processing more profitable.

The second speaker was Mr. Mario Gozzi from CFT S.p.A., also a member of IFU. Mario examined in this presentation “Extraction of cloudy juices and fiber add-back to adjust thickness in purees. A review of established and emerging approaches” the Zenith principle and its advantages, for example the extremely good results in color – the lighter the color, the higher the value -, how we should think “3-D” and not forget, while talking about water and sugar, the fiber, and how their customers use the Zenith principle to produce a thick, high-in-fiber puree in the same process as they produce a premium cloudy juice. This gives them the opportunity to ask for a higher price for both products, the juice and the puree. Mario also discussed the pro`s and con`s of various technologies and products, as for example viscosity adjusted purees. To close his presentation, he let us glimpse into split stream processing for tomato, which offers the advantage of a better flavor taste and gives processors the possibility of a wider range of new and innovative tomato products with improved color and fresher flavor.

The third talk, “Tackling the phenomina of Flex Cracking”, was delivered by Nadia Piante, Market Manager at Goglio S. p. A., who is one of the newest IFU members. Nadia introduced us to Goglio and their wide product range. She explained the benefits of aseptic processing and packaging, for example reduced waste and a longer shelf life, and discussed the question whether aseptic packaging is a mature technology. Proving that Goglio after 40 years in the business of aseptic packaging is mature, she explained flex cracking and by what it is caused, as well as the pro`s and con`s of dunnage.

The fourth presentation was called “Organic -the new normal, from trend to standard” and delivered by Tom Wiegmans, Head of Business Unit – Fruit and Vegetable Special Products at Doehler. He talked about organic opportunities, why organic products are important for the juice industry, and gave u some insights into the consumer`s aim to buy organic products. His talk was extremely useful for marketing departments.

The last technical speaker was Antonio Aldini, R&D Manager at John Bean Technologies. He talked about “New coil architecture in heat exchanger configuration to sterilize fruit & vegetables puree and concentrate” and introduced us to the traditional use of coil, namely sterilizing mild and low viscosity juices, and how the coil heat exchange causes a better turbulence because of the Dean effect. The results of using this new technology in trials for concentrated mango and apple puree spoke for themselves.

The key note speaker was David Berryman from David Berryman Limited. The vivid talk of this legend in the juice business, called "When the going gets tough", provoked, strengthened and entertained the audience and left us with very good advice on how to act when it comes to discussions about sugar in fruit and vegetable juices.

We are very happy that we could bind David for being a speaker at our IFU Technical Workshop 2017 in Valencia, where an even bigger audience will have the possibility to listen to his words.

To close the successful day, we were invited by Fiere di Parma for their Gala Dinner in the evening, where we could taste the amazing Parma ham and Italy`s famous wines as well as use the possibility to get in touch with existing und new members of IFU.