Direct Table Foods Bacon Processing Facility, United Kingdom

Direct Table Foods, a subsidiary of Tican UK Holdings (part of the Danish cooperative group), is one of the top four bacon processing companies in the UK. In November 2004 the company suffered a major tragedy when its facility in Bury St Edmunds burnt down.

The company immediately doubled production at its other site in Cuffley, Hertfordshire and by doing this did not let any customers down. A night shift was instigated, staffed by employees from the Bury St Edmunds plant who were transported in.

The company held an estimated 15% market share of the UK bacon market prior to the fire and lost about 30% of its business due to the fire. The company sells its products under private brand marks in the UK, under its own brands such as Suffolk Crown, Lark Valley and Direct and also Sainsbury’s own brands.

Following the tragedy the company was presented with a unique opportunity – to design and build a new state-of-the-art bacon processing facility.

New facility

A new site adjacent to the A14 was chosen for the replacement factory, suitable for improved logistics but still conveniently close to Bury St Edmunds. The new factory started construction in late 2005 and started production in mid July 2006. The facility required an estimated £20m to build, currently employs 350 workers and has a production capacity of 400t of bacon products a week.

The factory was constructed to the very highest standards and uses new technology to provide low running costs and maximum efficiency. This technology includes heat pumps, special glass for retaining heat while letting in maximum light without glare, grey water recovery and remotely controlled temperature, storage and energy-efficient refrigeration technology, recycling heat from refrigeration compressors and a syphonic water recovery system to collect rain water from the roof for use in toilets and yard cleaning.

The construction of the plant was carried out by Clegg Food Projects, an East Midlands food sector development specialist. The equipment for the plant fit out was provided by AEW Delford, which had supplied equipment for the old plant.

The new factory produces rashers, gammon steaks and joints. It uses four different types of processing lines to cover the full range of retail and bulk packed products. The company also has a dedicated line for customers to trial specialised products and to produce short runs. The factory had a capacity for 300t a week production when it was initially constructed and was designed to allow for future expansion. This could be seen with the refrigerated warehouse, which might be easily enlarged by moving an internal wall.

The new factory produces rashers, joints and steaks using what are claimed the latest pork curing, control, slicing and packaging technologies, has nine production lines and a large pallet storage despatch area, which allows for on-site picking.

Process

Direct Table uses a longer, more traditional way of curing that involves leaving the bacon in a curing tank for up to four days, leading to a better tasting product. Pork is delivered at one end of the facility into a storage area and then goes into the curing hall. In the curing hall there is a specially designed tank where pork is cured in a traditional manner. Curing solutions are mixed using traditional recipes and natural ingredients.

The initial cure uses a precise multi-needle injection system followed by the prolonged tank curing. After this, bacon to be smoked needs to follow a different process.

Direct Table has installed friction smoke generators that smoke at a cooler temperature and offer a higher degree of control over the level of smoke that products receive. All bacon (smoked and unsmoked) is then tempered before being sliced into rashers.

The sliced bacon is then taken into the refrigerated warehouse prior to packaging and customer delivery. A quality control section tests bacon packs from the production line every 30 minutes for gas content, weight and labelling, ensuring the product achieves the required standard.

Processing equipment

Direct Table uses a range of processing equipment provided by AEW Delford Systems, including slicers, checkweighers and weigh price labellers.

The inventory includes: five IBS2000 high speed bacon slicers, each coupled to a G2200 checkweigher and consumer buffer line; one Smartslice Vision for cutting fixed weight gammon joints; one APC slicer complete with G2200 checkweigher for slicing horseshoe gammon steaks; nine G1000 ends-of-line checkweighers with metal detectors and a three channel grader for grading pork loins.

Labelling

Herma UK has supplied Direct Table Foods with Herma 692 labelling systems for its new bacon-processing plant in Bury St Edmunds in early 2006. Each machine is fitted with three Herma 400 servo-driven label applicators. Two are on the top – one equipped with an Opendale hot foil printer for coding and applying the primary label and the second for ‘flash’ labelling during promotions.

The third unit is housed under the split conveyor for applying a base label. Custom length outfeed conveyors feed the finished product through a wall into the packing area at speeds of 80 packs per minute.