Healthier, fresher and more regional: Sodexo provides the employees of the Santander Group with meals prepared on-site using fresh ingredients. The new food service concept does away with frozen and convenience products to the greatest possible extent. It instead processes fruit and vegetables in a processing center that was constructed specifically for this purpose and is equipped with several KRONEN processing lines and stand-alone machines. The food service concept has a clearly defined objective: to be healthy for employees and good for the environment – and to expand on this approach in the future.

At the multitude of Santander Group City company restaurants run by the service provider Sodexo, the company’s thousands of employees can choose from a wide range of healthy meals. The purchasing of ingredients and preparation of meals were completely revised as part of the concept, which moved away from frozen and convenience products toward fresh ingredients with the shortest possible transportation routes and less packaging. This also led to changes in the production process, which now involves the fresh processing of raw produce daily and directly on-site.

A modern center for efficient, hygienic processing

The design, fixtures, and fittings of the newly constructed processing center were developed by Sodexo and Santander in consultation with KRONEN and its Spanish representation Danmix. Lines for processing potatoes and salad leaves and machines such as a DECONWA Prep decontamination and washing system, an AS 4 apple peeler, and a KUJ V cutting machine all facilitate efficient processing of large product quantities while ensuring optimal hygiene.

“Together with our KRONEN representation Danmix, we have successfully implemented a complete and customer-specific solution,” explains Stephan Zillgith, spokesman of the KRONEN Board of Management. “We are delighted about the excellent cooperation with our partners. In addition to the machines, we also provide the expertise required for the realization of such projects worldwide. In countries such as France and the USA, among others, we are currently working in cooperation with Sodexo on comprehensive orders that aim to achieve efficient and sustainable production.”

Fresh ingredients improve the food service quality

Since the official opening of the new center, the KRONEN processing solutions have helped to provide efficient processing procedures for fruit and vegetables at the headquarters of the Spanish financial group Santander. Only a small number of staff is required to process the raw produce into prepared ingredients for freshly cooked meals.

By purchasing fresh ingredients and processing them on-site, Sodexo, a globally successful provider of services in areas such as company food service and facility management, and the Santander Group have improved the quality of the food service and reduced transportation routes and packaging material – an important step towards a more sustainable and healthier company food service. In the future, the companies aim to source 70 percent of the ingredients from local farms with transportation routes that are as short as possible.

A video of the processing center can be found here.