The convenience of a compact M&P Engineering Onion Peeler, manufactured on demand by the British M&P company and available in the United States through Fremont, MI-based Modern Produce Equipment, has taken a new twist with the addition of Tong Engineering’s packaging.
Tong, also a U.K. manufacturer represented by Modern Produce Equipment, brings a bagging option to peeled onions, which Modern Produce Equipment co-owner Mike McKnight said weighs peeled onions out for 25- or 50-pound bags or cartons.
Like the Onion Peeler, which comes in two sizes, the Tong weigher/bagger is completely automatic, and McKnight said the beauty of the system is that it is “plug and play” with the peeler.
“It is a fit we know will work,” McKnight told OnionBusiness.com.
McKnight, who co-owns the U.S. operation with Tom Karnematt, sold a peeler on its own merits earlier this year at the Potato Expo in Las Vegas. Building on that success, he worked with a food distribution operation in the Midwest during the spring and was able to provide that company, which had been hand-peeling onions, with the peeler/weigher/bagger.
“The entire footprint of the equipment is compact, all mechanical and very easy to maintain,” McKnight said. His and Karnematt’s background in farming provides the two with a unique vantage point of what’s needed as product moves from field to fork, and he said partnering with several equipment engineering companies has enhanced Modern’s service to its customers.
Mike, who lives in the greater Atlanta region, is close to the onion industry and processors. He said the M&P Engineering Onion Peeler is among the leading onion peelers in Europe, topping and tailing as well as peeling them. With Tong Engineering components, the line can handle bagging, bin tipping, grading and weighing and can handle 110 onions up to jumbo size per minute.
The smaller version is designed for shallots and specialty onions, and both can be seen at the company’s web site, http://modernproduceequipment.com
Links are also provided to associate sites as well.
When asked what might be next in the services and products offered by his company, Mike said, “Modern Produce Equipment continues to look for opportunities to upgrade existing peelers like we recently did for a company in Texas that makes onion rings. Fresh cut facilities that are peeling by hand and want to automate the process as well as companies that might be expanding their produce lines are all good candidates for the services of MPE.”
