As demand grows for ready-to-eat meals and high quality, affordable food products, food processors face increasing pressure to maintain efficient and consistent processes while meeting rising food-safety requirements. Provisur Technologies is addressing these needs with the enhanced Hoegger® CookChill System, designed to provide automated, traceable in-package cooking, sous-vide cooking, pasteurizing and chilling.
Many processors today rely on manual, unmonitored cooking baths, making it more difficult to maintain consistent process conditions and document what happens to products throughout the cooking and chilling cycle. Provisur’s Hoegger CookChill System provides an automated alternative that helps processors improve process control and traceability while supporting applications for ready-made meals, including sausage, pasta and other packaged foods. The system’s consistent pasteurizing process also extends product shelf life, giving processors more flexibility in distribution and giving wholesalers and distributors more time to move products through the supply chain — reducing waste and opening the door to broader regional or export reach.
“Food processors today need to prove, not just promise, consistent food safety. The relaunched Hoegger CookChill System gives our customers the automation and traceability they need to meet that bar, without adding complexity to their operations,” said Thomas Burri, CookChill Manager at Provisur Technologies.
Food safety is designed into the process. Because products are pasteurized after packaging and sealing, the system minimizes opportunities for recontamination after treatment. CookChill software continuously monitors critical process parameters, including water temperature, retention time and water flow, and releases only correctly treated product to pack-off. Real-time temperature logging and automatic process validation provide documented records for quality audits, while any trays that do not achieve the required pasteurization value or cooling temperature are automatically diverted to off-spec.
The relaunch also reflects Provisur’s expanded capabilities as part of Fortifi Food Processing Solutions. By leveraging manufacturing expertise and resources across the Fortifi group, Provisur has strengthened its ability to manufacture and support the Hoegger CookChill System for food processors seeking highly automated, high-throughput production.
The system delivers product yields greater than 99.5% while minimizing package damage and can operate continuously to reduce changeovers, improve production planning and minimize production peaks and operating costs.
Available in fully and semi-automated configurations, the Hoegger CookChill System uses hydrojet water distribution for uniform thermal treatment. The fully automated configuration provides continuous inline processing from packaging through pack-off and can connect with up to five packaging machines, allowing different products to be processed simultaneously while maintaining process visibility and traceability.
During processing, packaged products move through controlled heating and chilling zones designed for consistent, gentle heat transfer. The system rapidly chills products to less than 4°C (39.2°F) core temperature and accommodates a variety of packaging formats, including vacuum-sealed packages, pouches, cups and trays.
