Sortex Ensures Pine Nut Quality

12/05/06 Frutos Secos Puig has, since 1917, specialised in pine nuts – a major constituent of the Mediterranean diet. Under the leadership of Senor Juan Puig it is a market leader in the Iberian Peninsula and is firmly established in many international markets.

"Processing pine nuts presents challenges that are unique to the product," says Senor Puig, "and these begin with the harvesting of the crop. The Royal Pine (Pinus Pinea) provides nuts that best meet standards of size, colour, texture, aroma and taste. The tree is slow to mature, the cones difficult to gather and the harvest depends on precise climatic conditions.

"Extracting pine nuts and their shells is undertaken by a sophisticated mechanical process that demands very delicate handling. The nuts are fragile and it is essential that, apart from considerations of quality and consistent size and colour, they are presented in perfect, undamaged condition."

The sorting process demands exceptional care. You could compare it to precious metal extraction in the sense that many tons of raw material result in a small volume of high value product. "Currently, pine nuts cost E16 ($20US) a kilo to produce," says Senor Puig. "As a result the greatest care must be taken to avoid damaging them in processing and to minimise waste of such a high value commodity.

"It is essential to maximise throughput of good product and keep the number of sorting passes to a minimum because repeated passes can cause damage. We must also ensure that good product is not discarded in the waste. Our success is due in large measure to the efficiency and reliability of our Sortex optical sorters."

Frutos Secos Puig has its headquarters at Les Franqueses del Valles near Barcelona and has branches in Valladolid, Seville and Pegoes Velhos near Lisbon. It operates Sortex 90000, Z1 and Z2 optical sorters – with the Z2 due to be enlarged to 3 channel operation.

"I would have to search the archives to establish the exact date when we installed our first Sortex ," says Senor Puig, "but it must have been around 30 years ago. We have installed each new model as it has been introduced.

"Sortex stands out because it provides an excellent Return On Investment and the sorters perform their tasks supremely efficiently. We find that Sortex enables us to work a two shift system rather than a three shift one, which we have to do with a competitor’s machine that is also installed. Sortex reliability is first class. We pay strict attention to routine maintenance and find that the remote diagnostic capabilities keep on site visits to an absolute minimum. Importantly, we need only a very low head count and our people are much more productively employed in quality control rather than on arduous manual sorting.

"In any human activity perfection at all times is impossible but we get very close to it. We achieve 100 per cent success in foreign body extraction and around 99.9 per cent in shell particle extraction. This is more difficult as the shell is a natural constituent of the product."

Senor Puig is the fourth generation of his family to head the firm founded by his great grandfather. "Our "Tres Pins" brand is highly respected and trusted in all our markets. We also pack for leading supermarkets and, apart from our traditional markets, there is a growing demand from discriminating, quality conscious consumers in Northern Europe where the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet are increasingly recognised."

Frutos Secos Puig is successful on many fronts. Its commitment to quality leads to growing sales and increasing status for a respected brand. That commitment to quality is buttressed by the world class performance of Sortex optical sorting.