Defects in frozen herbs meet their match with Radix Systems cold sorting machine.

Sorting out insects and stalks from parsley, or brown pieces and mauve flowers from chives is hard enough to begin with. But when they're frozen, the job is even more tricky.

It's no problem, though, for Radix Systems Ltd., Romsey, Hampshire, United Kingdom. Its Autosort MC-A722 is on the job for Belgian processor Herbafrost of Hulshout, at its processing plant in Vladslo.

Herbs will defrost immediately on contact with ambient temperature machine parts. To sort or process frozen parsley, dill, coriander or leek requires the equipment to work reliably at temperatures in the range of-20[degrees]C.

The task is difficult enough for mechanical machines such as conveyors, but for high-technology electronic vision equipment this presents additional challenges. The Autosort is especially adapted to withstand the arduous temperatures without adding significantly to cost.

According to Milan Fuchs, managing director of Radix, "Its robust design and the use of the fast-flashing blue, green, red and infrared LEDs (light emitting diodes) enabled us to place the sophisticated sorter in -20[degrees]C environments, obtain first class sorting performance, and keep additional machine costs to less than 10 percent."

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This benefits frozen fruit, vegetable and herb processors, as they do not need to take sensitive products out of their coldstores. Herbafrost (www.herbafrost.be) is a case in point.

"After a disappointing experience with another electronic sorter that had been on the job, we had to be very careful before deciding to install the Radix Autosorter," commented Herbafrost's managing director, Peter van Asten.

"We carried out two sets of tests in our factory on a range of products," he continued. "Now we have been running the machine for almost a year, and it fully meets our expectations. It is able to remove insects such as ladybirds, which settle in the product. It can also improve the quality of our herbs by removing discolored parts of the plant such as brown garlic chive or the yellow parsley leaf. It is important to guarantee the quality to our customers."

The MC-A722 is capable of processing frozen herbs at a rate of 1,500 kilograms per hour when sorting for foreign bodies only, or at more than 500 kilograms per hour when sorting for discoloration. With heavily contaminated herbs it is quite common that 40,000 defects are seen every minute and rejected.

The first of the MC Autosorts was installed in 2005 and the new multichromatic inspection has found rapid acceptance in varied applications and locations in numerous countries in Europe and Asia.