APRIL™ wins Cambridge Open Innovation Food & FMCG Pitching Event

Our game-changing food processing innovation APRIL™ won over judges from Tesco, General Mills and Mars at the fourth Food & FMCG Innovation Pitching Event. The Cambridge University event took place at Food Matters Live In London, where we pitched APRIL (Automated Processing Robotic Ingredient Loading) to the esteemed group of judges. The judges recognised APRIL's ability to change the way we manufacture food by offering "chef-standard" food whilst significantly reducing production costs.

APRIL is the first of its kind and represents a step change in food processing; enabling parallel food processing and the emulation of a professional chef on an industrial scale.

APRIL will be available for demonstrations in early 2016 at our test centre at the National Centre for Food Manufacturing. 

OAL leads research project into cryogenic cooling

We’re pleased to announce the launch of our latest research project set to revolutionise ready meals with cryogenic cooling in partnership with BOC, The University of Lincoln and Iceland Manufacturing. The £969,000 project, part funded by Innovate UK will last two years and aims to develop an innovative cooking and cryogenic cooling system for ready meals providing a step change in product quality and healthiness. The project seeks to help tackle the current levels of food waste and increase the speed of production.

The project will combine our rapid cooking Steam Infusion Vaction™ technology with a cryogenic cooler from BOC. It follows our first major Innovate UK project ‘Nutrition for Life’, that has focused on understanding the full operating envelope of our Steam Infusion cooking technology and it's effects on nutrition and food safety.

Over the two-year project, the team plans to gain a full scientific understanding of the effects of rapid cooling using liquid nitrogen on sauces and soups, and the vegetables, fruits and meats they contain in order to maximise nutritional values. Product shelf life could also be increased and waste minimised as we will develop a fully flexible process that will reduce production, cleaning and changeover times for increasingly variable supply requirements.

Interview on APRIL™ & Food is Life at PPMA 2015

At the PPMA Show 2015, we were interviewed about our involvement with Food is Life and APRIL™, our food processing robot. APRIL will enable food processing without any platforms or pipework in a smaller factory. Bringing together state-of-the-art technologies, she will increase capacity, significantly reduce the number of operators and produce safer, better looking, tastier foods.

Developed with the University of Lincoln at the National Centre for Food Manufacturing, APRIL enables parallel food processing and can emulate a chef’s method of cooking on an industrial scale. Utilising grant funding from Innovate UK, we have put our expertise and skills into making this research concept a reality with a demonstration available early 2016.

We have been working closely with members of the Food Is Life consortium in the development of APRIL™. Food is Life  firmly believes that the food industry can benefit from learning and exploiting technologies from the automotive industry to improve production and safety of food.

Join us at Food Matters Live 2015

Join us at Food Matters Live 2015 to find out how OAL is working with The Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) to bring best practice automotive manufacturing technologies to the food industry. The three day event running Tuesday 17 to Thursday 19 November at the Excel in London is the UK's first cross-sector event bringing together professionals from across the food and drink industry to address the most important challenges facing the food industry today including nutrition and population well-being.

Following two successful Innovate UK projects, OAL has been invited to speak on the KTN stand about both our Steam Infusion and cryogenic cooling projects. We will also be available to talk about our latest development APRIL (Automated Processing Robotic Ingredient Loading) following widespread anticipation for the launch of the new system early 2016. APRIL was recently covered in bakeryandsnacks.com.

Both KTN and OAL are members of Food Is Life, a consortium, which will also be at the event with the stunning BMW i8, seeking to bring disruptive change to the food industry. If you’re interested in joining, it would be great to meet up at the show, you can either catch us on the KTN stand or at the BMW i8 (which will be positioned near the VIP lounge).

The free to attend event attracts thousands of visitors every year from backgrounds such as R&D, food science, manufacturing and retailing so register here to come along  and we may even let you take a seat in the car!

Transforming food processing at Gulfood Manufacturing, Dubai

We're speaking about disruptive change at the Next Generation Manufacturing Conference, part of Gulfood Manufacturing 2015 in Dubai on Tuesday 27 October at 15:30. We were approached by organisers following the launch of our revolutionary APRIL™ food processing system. APRIL uses principles from the automotive sector to link proven state-of-the-art cooking and materials handling technologies with automated robotic ingredient loading.

The talk will provide insights into how APRIL™ style systems will change both factory layouts and the flow of materials through a food processing facility. By removing the need for pipework, pumps and valves, APRIL will produce more consistent and better quality products, faster than current processes with significantly reduced ingredient wastage and energy costs, whilst taking up to 80% less factory space.

APRIL™ has been developed in partnership with a leading global robot manufacturer and the University of Lincoln, with a full-size demonstration due for installation December 2015 at the National Centre for Food Manufacturing. The development has come off the back of two £1 million Innovate UK funded government projects into improving the efficiency and quality of food products. APRIL™ will integrate and enhance two existing technologies being researched under the two Innovate UK collaborative research projects into cryogenic cooling and rapid heating and mixing (Steam Infusion).

The three day show is the region's biggest food and beverage processing industry event and brings together suppliers from over 60 countries, showcasing the very latest improvements in manufacturing. The show is a popular knowledge transfer and sourcing event which allows attendees to explore solutions for potential expansion on production capacity, creating greater efficiency and much more!