Putting Extra Care Into Convenience Foods
Food safety is critical in any market. But when producing meals that are supplied to vulnerable groups of people or preparing post-surgery meals for hospital patients and care home residents, Huuskes ensures that extra inspection, preparation and hygiene measures provide an added level of food safety assurance.
Jansen Techniek has supported Huuskes with food safety for more than two decades. At various intervals the Dutch team has installed over 20 Fortress Technology conveyor and pipeline food metal detection systems. Most recently, six ultra-hygienic, clean in place Fortress Stealth metal detectors were added to production lines to inspect over 15,000 meals prepared and packed daily at Huuskes. Two more investments in Fortress conveyor metal detectors were recently confirmed by Jansen.
50 FDPP- www. fdpp. co. uk
Located just one mile from the German border in Enschede, Huuskes has grown into one of the largest and most trusted Dutch food and beverage suppliers dedicated to serving the European healthcare and corporate catering market. Founded in 1956, the Dutch firm, which started out preparing and packing meals in small batches by hand, now has over 1000 employees with an increasingly automated production facility. Testament to its size, Huuskes even has its own butcher’ s shop, poultry processing plant, meat slicing, vegetable processing plant, green agricultural department, commercial-sized walk-in freezers and refrigeration, and professional kitchen.
Each day, Huuskes’ chefs prepare thousands of meals and food products which are cooked, cooled, frozen, packaged, labelled and delivered fresh to the company’ s central logistics centre. Here, they are picked and crated along with a wide selection of groceries and despatched fresh to caterers, care institutions and hospitals across Europe, particularly the Netherlands and Germany.
“ Every meal from our extensive menu of more than 600 recipes receives the same attention to detail. Although a lot of the chopping, preparation and portioning is now automated due to the volumes of meals we prepare, like many high-end kitchens much of the cooking process continues to be done by our chefs to ensure taste and high quality are maintained,” confirms Convenience Manager Geert Dimmendaal.
Failsafe and flexible
Huuskes’ extensive product range also includes special diet derivatives, including meals free of