The Bühler Group has completed a turnkey installation processing Chinese rice and beans at the Hangzhou Wahaha Group’s plant in Haining, China.
Dedicated to the production of historic Chinese eight treasure porridge under the Wahaha brand,
The new Bühler cleaning and grading plant has allowed the Chinese company to improve the quality and lower the cost of producing its Chinese eight treasure porridge product.
Popular ‘fast food’
Dating back more than 2200 years, to the Han dynasty, when it was consumed on the eighth day of the 12th month in the Chinese lunar calendar, eight treasure porridge is now a popular favorite in China and consumed every day as a convenient, cost effective and nutritious ‘fast food’.
It is made with ingredients such as red beans, cranberry beans, myotonin (Chinese barley) and oats, as well as sticky and black glutinous rice varieties to create a rich porridge that can be simply opened and consumed.
Automation needs
Hangzhou Wahaha wanted to produce the finest porridge and engaged Bühler to create automated operations, a more hygienic working environment and achieve high quality products.
Replacing the existing, largely manual cleaning and sorting process, the Bühler installation involves two complete, compact and advanced lines, each of which can clean and grade the various raw materials.
Currently, one line is dedicated to rice and the other to beans.
Each line incorporates Bühler’s MTSD De-stoners, MTRC Vibrosifters, metal detection equipment and SORTEX Z+ sorting machines.
The incoming product is mechanically cleaned to remove impurities that are larger and smaller than the product.
Stones and metals are targeted for removal, as they are passed automatically to de-stoners and magnetic metal detectors.
Detecting foreign materials
The produce is then fed through Bühler‘s SORTEX optical sorters, which can identify and remove product defects as well as foreign materials.
The sorters eliminate contaminants such as glass, stones, wood, sticks and soil blocks, as well as deformed or discolored beans and rice and unwanted varieties of rice.
Each machine in Hangzhou Wahaha’s compact cleaning and sorting solution is fitted with an aspiration system that extracts any dust or dirt particles, to create a hygienic working environment that also reduces the risk of fungal growth.
By automating the entire process and creating a closed system, human intervention for checking or adjustments is minimized.
Bühler has removed the chance for cross contamination and boosted Hangzhou Wahaha’s throughput significantly.
“Our investment in Bühler’s advanced technology and custom-designed solutions have surpassed our expectations. It has drastically reduced our customer complaints about foreign body contamination, reduced our operating costs dramatically; and given us consistent quality in production,” said a spokesperson from Hangzhou Wahaha.
