Vitacress has installed several new machines to help speed up the output of its prepared mixed leaf salads.

Ilapak Ltd of Middlesex has supplied three high-speed, vertical form, fill and seal machines. These combine exceptional speeds with the ability to handle delicate produce while maintaining excellent pack quality and sealing integrity.

Vitacress, which supplies many of the supermarkets, is experiencing a significant increase in turnover and, to meet the growing demands for its produce, has increased its quantity of Ilapak Vegatronic 3000 machines to seven.

Paul Walsham, Vitacress's engineering manager, said: 'Ilapak's Vegatronic 3000 was the only proven packaging machine of its type that performed efficiently at the speeds we required. It is capable of high speeds, even when handling delicate salad produce and gives excellent pack quality.

'The Vegatronic 3000 machines have helped us to improve performance and efficiency throughout the plant, as well as producing major cost savings thanks to reduced manning requirements.' The Vegatronic 3000 achieves exceptionally high speeds by using a continuous film motion to form a bag from a single reel of wrapping material unwound at a constant speed while filling and sealing the bag simultaneously.

Vitacress is now packing mixed baby leaf salads and watercress at speeds exceeding 60 packs a minute.