The Grocery Manufacturers Association claims the average product recall can cost a food manufacturer $10m in direct costs alone but indirect and reputational costs can be much higher. To fall in line with HACCP requirements ensuring that products are of high quality and foreign-body free, Gericke has developed its range of Centrifugal Sifters to ensure the final product leaving the factory is the highest quality. Not only Gerickes sifting solutions are designed to give the maximum efficiency with yields of 99.99% often expected, but they also serve and protect the manufacturing process.

There are many types of foreign bodies that can appear in a factory and an effective HACCP can work to minimise these to a certain extent. Such examples include: hair nets, pens with metal detectable parts and general GMP. There are also a number of technical solutions such as magnets and X-rays that can be utilised. However, not all foreign bodies are the same. Insects, paper, string and fragments of wood are often too small to be detected with many having a size of less than 1mm.

A Centrifugal Sifter works on the principle of feeding powder at a controlled rate via an internal scroll, the material passes into a basket which has a fixed aperture size, the material is thrown out centrifugally and fine material passes through the screen, oversize particles travel the length of the basket and are rejected through the over tails outlet.

Whilst a simple process, machine configuration and process knowhow allow Gericke to produce machines capable of processing up to 100,000kg/h removing foreign bodies as small as 0.1mm. The Sifter itself can be situated either in a gravity fed configuration under Silo, Sack or FIBC emptying or can also be within inline processes such as a pneumatic conveying line.

The new Gericke Sifter has been designed for complete ease of use and is packed with features to allow easy access for internal inspection without the use of any tools. The sifting screen can be inspected in place without removal and can be interchanged if required in a matter of minutes.

A range of different size Sifter units are offered to suit all operational needs and cater for the requirements of smaller artisan producers through to large commercial enterprises.

Supported by their own in-house Test Centre, Gericke invites interested participants to test out the effectiveness of their Gericke Sifter with their materials. They encourage clients to witness all of their testing and to play an active part in this work.