Haldiram – 4TPH Aloo Bhujia Manufacturing

Project Scope

Haldirams who are the industry leader in traditional snacks and sweets aimed at setting up a new production line for Aalu Bhujia with high levels of automation. The key equipment suppliers included Flavorite, Vemag, Diosna, CEPI, among others.

The project was to be setup meeting global standards on food safety and hygienic engineering, to cater to export and domestic requirements which necessitated a rethink of all aspects of the project. The coordination and interfacing among the various foreign and local suppliers and service providers was key to project success.

PMG Deliverables

• Design and supervision for relocation of existing production line from the area designated for the new Aloo Bhujia production line.
• Floor Master Plan, Building and Equipment Layout and Elevations, with detailing of individual sections
• Equipment Design, Specifications and BOQ for Industrial Services (Compressed Air, Water, Chilled Water, Electricity, HVAC and Ducting, Fire Protection, Drainage, etc.)
• Techno-commercial Evaluation of Suppliers and Contractors
• GFC Drawings (Civil, Process, Mechanical, Electrical, etc.)
• Supervision of Equipment Installation and Commissioning Works
• Bringing new ideas and concepts to Haldiram, to meet global standards of food safety and hygienic engineering

Differentiated Value Creation

Snacks, especially fried snacks, are highly susceptible to fungal contamination on account of poor environment controls between fryer and packing machine leading to unacceptable water activity.

Also, the concept of foreign body prevention isn’t deeply integrated with each of the dry and wet raw materials, and even today, a metal detector or an x-ray is considered the best possible quality assurance measure by the senior management and operations executives of most companies. The individual batch operations, e.g. potato boiling and dough making, are connected with under-regulated manual operations, e.g. mixing, blending, feeding to fryer, wherein there is high risk of contamination. Lack of zoning and procedural controls on workers lead to cross-contamination and failure of other food safety systems.

In view of above challenges, PMG team brought a rethink to the project objectives, by convincing client management over the importance of all aspects of project, to go into details of every aspect, to meet food safety expectations, to build an overall food-safe facility. For example,

• instead of laying conduits or concealed cables, which create hollow bodies, we opted for Mesh-type Cable trays, which are 100% accessible, and 100% cleanable, while not posing any foreign-body risk on account of no painting. 
• instead of going for air washers, which are cost effective in providing local cooling to workers, but increase the humidity levels of complete area from ~60% to 75%, we recommended cooling water based Temperature and Humidity Control HVAC systems for post-fryer zones.
• instead of going for GI ducting, for supply and return air of HVAC, which are not accessible or cleanable and harbouring grounds for microbial contamination, we recommended polyester ducts for supply and only return grills for return, with F7 filtration so as to stop contamination reaching the HVAC units.
• instead of Kota Stone, use of polyurethane flooring with coving, water-seal floor traps, and several other good hygienic engineering concepts and initiatives.

The layout ensured optimal use of area, with 24 packing machines fed by the fryer along with requisite space for secondary packing. Further the project was completed within stipulated time.