Tata Steel has unveiled a mobile canning line concept to help farmers process and preserve food onsite.
The concept will help to lower food loss at source and generate additional revenues for farmers.
As per the United Nations Environment Programme, a third of all food production across the globe is lost or wasted before it reaches consumers.
The food is lost in postharvest handling, storage, processing, packaging and distribution stages.
The new mobile canning line concept will enable producers to set up a production line for making cans and fill them with fruit or vegetables on site, allowing to preserve crops before spoiling.
Mobile canning and processing line will comprise two trucks to accommodate canning line and food processing facilities.
These can be moved directly to any farm or field and distribution trucks will collect and deliver cans straight from the farm.
The process will use two-piece, drawn and redrawn (DRD) cans, which are made by using the firm’s Protact specialist laminated steel with a polymer coating.
Protact circular blanks will be fused directly into the canning line, and will be placed in one of the two trucks to save space and reduce scrap from steel sheets.
The cans will be placed in the filling truck for processing, and fruits and vegetables will be sorted to ensure quality.
Later, they will be washed, prepared, canned, seamed, sterilised, visually checked and labelled in situ. Filled cans will be directly placed onto the trucks for supplying to customers.
Tata Steel Europe marketing, packaging and Nordics head Steven Dijkstra said: “In India, 44% of food harvested is lost before it reaches consumers through the postharvest stages, often because it simply cannot be packaged and preserved quickly enough.
“Tata Steel’s mobile canning line will allow farmers, even in the remotest of rural areas, to preserve their harvest, producing canned foods, ready for distribution on site. In India alone, we have the potential to save 84 million tonnes of food per year.”
