Ishida’s advanced x-ray technology has enabled one of Slovakia’s leading tea and coffee suppliers to further enhance its quality and safety standards for the introduction of retail packs of roasted coffee beans. Since the installation of the Ishida IX-EN-2493 at Baliarne obchodu, a.s. Poprad, the company says that consumer complaints resulting from stones in the beans have been eliminated.

Residual stones in coffee beans is a common problem. Despite Baliarne’s already rigorous quality control procedures, including using magnetic separators and passing the beans through a de-stoner machine, stones can still be present. As well as impacting on the perceived overall quality of the coffee, the stones can also damage the blades in domestic grinders and professional grinders for espresso machines if they go undetected.

Prior to the installation of the Ishida x-ray inspection system, quality checks for stones were carried out by hand but operators were not able to detect all the stones, leading to frequent consumer complaints. Having already used Ishida weighing equipment for a number of years, Baliarne turned to the company to help solve this problem.

Solving an almost-impossible task

“We knew that Ishida was easy to work with, that the company takes a detailed approach to every project and that if we have an almost impossible task, Ishida is the most likely to find a solution,” explains Peter Paciga, Baliarne’s production director.

Initially the IX-EN-2493 was tested on packed product, but the number of bags still containing stones proved to be too great, so the decision was taken to inspect bulk product prior to the bagging of the coffee beans. “From that moment, we have not had any further instances of stones in the beans,” confirms Peter.

The IX-EN-2493 features Ishida’s unique Genetic Algorithm (GA) technology, which uses image data analysis over a number of generations to achieve an extremely high level of inspection accuracy with the machine being ‘trained’ to spot particular foreign bodies. In addition to the supply of the x-ray system, Ishida project managed the installation, designing the infeed, gantry and elevator that takes product for bagging. A special diverting reject system quickly removes any rejected product to minimise losses. Baliarne reports that the machine is easy to set up, operate and clean.

Currently the beans are packed into pre-made bags but Baliarne is now introducing packs for the foodservice sector as well and if demand continues to grow, the intention is to create a fully-automated inspection and bagging line. As part of this, the Ishida x-ray has the capacity to check up to 30 tons of coffee beans each day.

“The highest product quality and safety is essential for us to maintain our premium brand image,” concludes Peter. “The Ishida IX-EN-2493 has enabled us to deliver this. The machine is very reliable and user-friendly, and Ishida provides great service and support.”

Baliarne obchodu, a.s. Poprad is one of Slovakia’s largest producers of coffee and tea, employing 220 people at its factories in Poprad and Spišská Belá. The company does not manufacture for private label and maintains its leading position in the coffee market with its Popradská káva (Poprad coffee), and in the tea sector with its brands Popradskȳ čaj (Poprad tea), Mistral and recently-launched premium brand Mistral Grand Selection for the HORECA (hotels, restaurants and catering) sector.