Larco cut soup production time with Steam Infusion
Based in Holland, Larco Foods specialises in the production of soups and sauces. The company has sales offices in the UK and Germany as well as partners in three other EU countries. The company has approximately 280 employees and an annual turnover of €50 million.
How to reduce costs in a competitive market?
Larco Foods operate in a highly competitive market and wanted to reduce the operational costs and processing time for their soups, sauces and ready meals. Following trials of the Steam Infusion system, Larco Foods chose to incorporate the Vaction™ technology into their new cookhouse supplied by OAL to dramatically reduce its processing time.
Solution
OAL delivered a turnkey solution to Larco Foods, covering the design, manufacturing, automation and installation of a system to manufacture 9,000kg (19,800 lbs) of soup per hour. A 3 tonne (3.3 US ton) cooking vessel has two Steam Infusion Vaction Pumps mounted on lances to enable high speed cooking. The project also included two holding vessels, a CIP system and a recipe control system.
Steam Infusion has reduced the production time of soups and sauces by over 50% and the site can now produce up to 9 tonnes (9.9 US ton) of soup per hour. The products produced with Steam Infusion have shown an increased flavour profile, which opens the doors to the possibility of ingredient reduction, driving further savings and healthier products for their customers.
“Since purchasing the Steam Infusion system we have reduced the production time of our soups and sauce by more than 50% as well as reducing energy whilst still maintaining our exceptional product quality.
We have also seen an increase in the flavour profile of our product which will lead us to the possibility of reducing ingredients such as salt, spices and flavour enhancers making our product healthier for our customers.”