At its booth in Cologne, KRONEN GmbH presented both its classic products and new machines, including the DECONWA Prep for decontaminating entire fruits and vegetables and the K850 large centrifuge for salad greens, fruit and vegetables. The drying system for large capacities of up to 5,000 kg per hour is already in operation in Great Britain and was showcased in the virtual showroom, where KRONEN’s latest processing line was also presented. The exhibits received positive feedback from the visitors, many of whom came from locations outside of Germany. KRONEN was satisfied with its trade show presence.

The KRONEN GmbH booth at this year’s Anuga Foodtec 2022 also attracted a great deal of attention among international guests, with around 80% of visitors to the booth coming from locations outside of Germany. “The visitors to our booth came from around 55 different countries. We are delighted about both the quantity and quality of contacts whom we were able to welcome to our booth at the trade show. All in all, KRONEN’s experience of the first Anuga Foodtec after the Covid-19 pandemic was indeed positive,” states the spokesman of the KRONEN Board of Management, Stephan Zillgith.

As is usual at KRONEN trade show appearances, the company ran live demonstrations of many of its machines so that visitors could experience their product processing skills in person. In a change of plans, KRONEN was unable to exhibit its K850 large centrifuge, so instead presented it in its virtual showroom. One K850 is already in use as part of the new processing line that has been in operation in Great Britain since the start of the year. Another is currently in the final stage of production, after which it will be shipped directly to a British manufacturer of fresh produce.

Innovative, safe and hygienic food processing technology
The K850 drying system is a further development of the K650 drying system. Its main features are its upgraded drive system and improved hygienic design, which have resulted in new highlights such as an increased capacity or an additional spray system. The fully automatic system for dewatering cut fruit and vegetables, as well as cut lettuce and whole leaves, processes large quantities of up to 5,000 kg per hour. The innovative processing line for up to 1,000 kg of baby leaf lettuce and the corresponding quantity of mixed lettuce, in which the K850 is already being used, contains further new developments such as the GEWA AF pre-washing machine and the GEWA XL helical washing machine.

Visitors also had the chance to experience the DECONWA Prep for the hygienization of whole fruits and whole vegetables live. The unique washing system developed by KRONEN improves hygiene and therefore extends the shelf life of end products. It is used to decontaminate raw produce before further processing stages such as peeling and cutting. The machine can be placed in the low-care area while the outfeed belt discharges the decontaminated product to the high-care area. The raw produce is washed with cold water and a washing additive such as CITROCIDE® PLUS, chlorine or citric acid. Its capacity depends on the product being washed and the dwell time. With a dwell time of 30 s, for example, the machine can process pineapple at a rate of 980 kg/h or potatoes at 2,400 kg/h.

The semi-automatic PDS4L for coring and segmenting up to 3,360 peppers per hour, which was launched on the market in 2021, celebrated its premiere in Cologne. The machine enables two to three people to process up to 750 kg of bell peppers per hour. Using the PDS4L therefore means that at least two to three fewer people are required for product preparation. The peppers can be halved and optionally quartered by the machine. With its optimized operation, the system guarantees perfect cutting quality and a yield of around 85%, depending on the pepper variety and quality.

Another product showcased for the first time at the Anuga Foodtec was the DEW 200 dewatering press, which is used to remove excess liquid from products such as canned mushrooms and pickled or thawed vegetables with a capacity of up to 1,600 kg/h. Visitors could also experience plenty of classic products from the comprehensive KRONEN portfolio at the company’s trade show booth: the GS10-2 and GS 20 belt cutting machines, the KUJ V cube, strip & slice cutting machine, the KS-100 Plus and KS-7 ECO spin-dryers, the AS4 and AS6 apple peeling & slicing machines, the PL40-4 K potato peeling machine, the AMS220 pineapple & melon peeling machine, the CP 350 PLUS form, fill and seal packaging machine from the KRONEN partner GKS Packaging and many more.

The virtual showroom at the KRONEN booth provided an insight into its latest developments, including:

• the GEWA AF pre-washing machine with the new “Active Flume” washing system, which is suitable for large capacities of, for example, up to 1,500 kg of baby leaf lettuce, up to 3,000 kg of iceberg lettuce or up to 1,000 kg of baby spinach per hour and is optimized in terms of hygiene and low water consumption

• the KRONEN CITROCIDE® washing system, an effective and organic-certified solution for the hygienization of products and process water, which is an alternative to chlorine-based disinfection and also significantly reduces water consumption
• the UVC Lock disinfection lock, which enables surface disinfection without heat, undesirable additives or residues and can hygienize up to 3,000 kg of cabbages, 2,000 kg of carrots or onions or up to 900 transport crates per hour