NTI East Midlands

Lincoln firm produces perfect peas

Posted: 14/11/2006

Perfect peas…that’s what Dunns of Long Sutton are aiming for. The agricultural and grain merchants have now invested in new, sophisticated metal detectors for their factory lines to weed out unwanted objects from their peas and beans.

Dunns sort, clean and package peas, marrowfat peas and beans from local farmers for wholesalers and food manufacturers around the world. Up to 70% of their peas are sold internationally with buyers in Asia and the Far East.

Each batch of pulses is thoroughly checked for quality and colour but, until now, lead shot that falls into the fields during pigeon shoots over farmers’ fields has been a potential problem. Undetected lead shot and stones can ruin a batch of peas resulting in costly losses and wastage.

So Dunns turned to the East Midlands New Technology Initiative (NTI) Food and Drink Network through the University of Lincoln’s Holbeach campus for the answer.

East Midlands NTI is an initiative backed by the region’s leading colleges and universities. NTI provides matched funded grants of up to £10,000 to small and medium sized firms to invest in state of the art technology, and gain advanced technology skills through NTI approved courses. It is funded by the East Midlands Development Agency (emda), Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and Learning and Skills Council (LSC).

East Midlands NTI also co funded the purchase of a label machine that takes designs direct from computer to packaging.

Staff have had training in health and safety and hazard analysis at the Holbeach campus.

Judy Jeffries, Dunn’s Financial Director said: “The University of Lincoln’s Holbeach campus team have been brilliant. They put us in touch with the NTI so we could get grants and industry specific training.

“People’s food expectations have changed in the last decade. They now require 100% perfection, full traceability back to individual farmers, and an assortment of label information – use by dates, batch numbers and sell by dates.

“We have had buyers from abroad visit our plant and, by showing them the new equipment, have retained their confidence in our product. Lead shot detected in our peas during the manufacture of a soup in Malaysia, for instance, can be extremely costly to us, even wiping out possible profit. Now we can reassure customers that our product is metal free. The new labelling machine can incorporate logos, foreign languages and characters, saving literally hours of labour time.”

Chris Wilcox, business development manager at the University said: “Dunns have embraced many areas of training, going beyond their obligations, and giving employees opportunities to study for engineering, food hygiene and health and safety. By taking up the grant offer they are using new technology to give manufacturers, and ultimately consumers, a higher quality of product.”

To find out more about East Midlands NTI Food and Drink Network telephone 01636 817043.

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