Case Study: Fumagalli
Italian cured meats are loved throughout the world. While global demand for the products has inevitably led to the introduction of mass production and the automation of many processes, the original traditions and heritage of manufacturing are still fundamental to many of the food companies in the Lombard and Brianza regions of Italy.
Certainly this has been a key reason for the continuing success of specialist pork producer Fumagalli Industria Alimentari S.p.A, a family-run business, whose antecedents date back to the 1920s, when the family owned a ‘Salumeria’ (delicatessen) in Meda, Milan.
Both weighers are offering excellent accuracy on pack sizes of 100g (two x 50g compartments) and 154g (two x 77g).
Product giveaway is no more than 1.2% over an entire month’s production.
16 head versions from Ishida’s RS series are capable of handling around 20,000kg of product each month.
It is hardly surprising that this success has led to significant increases in production – from 2000 to today the company has doubled its volumes. This in turn has meant that the sophistication of the production processes needs to be matched by the further automation of its packing operations in order to maximise throughput and efficiencies.
In the 1930s the business started to expand with the establishment of its own slaughtering house, which both increased the range of products in the shop and allowed the sale of these to neighbouring regions. In the following decades, the company continued to invest and expand with the opening of new facilities.
By the start of the 1990s this ongoing investment had opened up several new export opportunities for Fumagalli, particularly in Northern Europe. At the same time, many customers in these markets began to seek further assurances as to the quality of the products, particularly in areas such as supply chain control, safety and health.
The first weigher was installed in 2006 to pack diced pancetta, supplied to leading retailers in Europe. More recently a second model has been added, both to help cope during periods of high demand and also to handle a new range of snack products.
The new line in particular is able to focus on Fumagalli’s recently launched snacks range of sliced salami with a variety of accompaniments including bread sticks, olives and cheese. The weigher operates in twin mode with eight heads dedicated to each product. A specially-devised moving distribution system beneath the weigher transfers the product into thermoformed twin-compartment trays, which are then top-sealed.
*Please note the above video is used for demonstration purposes and not the actual product within this case study.
For the high-volume diced pancetta line, products are discharged into twin-compartment trays, the weigher features Teflon coating to enable the product to move freely during the weighing process. Both weighers offer excellent accuracy on pack sizes of 100g (two 50g) and 154g (two 77g).
All of these developments have enabled Fumagalli to offer a range of products of unsurpassed quality, which combine traditional methods with modern manufacturing to meet the highest standards of some of Europe’s top food retailers, and achieve 60% of its revenues through export worldwide in countries including Japan, South Korea, and Canada.
