Tetra Pak Innovates With New Technology

Seeking to improve efficiencies for their ice cream producer customers, global packaging and processing company Tetra Pak has just launched a new ice cream cutter, which will ultimately allow producers to increase outputs without impacting efficiency.

A little bit about Tetra Pak: founded in 1943 in Sweden by Dr. Reuben Rausing, the global food processing and packaging company provides technologies such as filling machines and processing for dairy, beverages, cheese, ice cream and prepared food. They also sell tools such as conveyors, crate packers, film wrappers, and straw applicators. 

They promote environmentally sound practices throughout their organization. As stated on their website:

We are committed to reducing the environmental impact of our operations and to enhancing the environmental performance of our products and solutions, including the continued development of environmentally efficient packages that protect food and prevent it from being wasted.

Dr. Rausing had a tenet that the company still holds on to today: “A package should save more than it costs.”

This certainly aligns with their latest initiative, which not only reduces waste, but also helps ice cream producers maintain high quality and low production costs. The new extrusion line uses an independently-controlled horizontal cutter to cut ice cream as it leaves the extruder. According to Global Manufacturing, the cutter has the ability to go through 5,000 to 18,000 products an hour, which gives manufacturers volume flexibility and allowing them to increase or decrease output without affecting efficiency. 

Tetra Pak has been recognized for their production reliability and efficiency. In 2016, the company won the World Class Total Production Maintenance (TPM) Award by the Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance. The company has been using TPM methodologies since 1999, implementing a culture of ‘zero accidents, zero defects, and zero breakdowns.’ Tetra Pak is one of approximately 20 companies who have received this award in the last 40 years.