TOMRA Sorting Solutions U.S. food division opened the doors to its new state-of-the-art facility in West Sacramento, Calif., June 18. The company’s 50-plus- employee team relocated from its previous 42,000-square-foot building on Seaport Boulevard to their new 60,000-square-foot offices on Embarcadero Drive. The relocated employees include experts in sales, service, application engineering, finance and administration.

TOMRA Sorting’s new West Sacramento facility and its Denver, Colo., sites provide comprehensive customer support and manufacturing capabilities for the United States.

“With extra space and better facilities, including test, demonstration and development areas, the new West Sacramento site will enable our U.S. team to concentrate on developing solutions for the food industry in the region,” says Ashley Hunter, senior vice president and head of TOMRA Sorting Food. “The new premises will enable them to better serve their growing customer base in terms of sales and service.”

The new site includes state-of-the-art sorting solutions centers, where customers can see live demonstrations of TOMRA’s sorting, peeling and process analytics systems and trial their own applications.

“TOMRA’s sorting solutions centers provide the ultimate experience and peace of mind for customers who can stage trials using their own produce and reflect the fact that their needs are becoming ever-more complex,” says Hunter. “The centers will also enable us to capitalize fully on our significant investment in research and development.”

The incorporation of a cold room in the test and demonstration area allows for the easy testing of individually-quick frozen (IQF) products by TOMRA’s new Blizzard sorter, which was designed specifically for this application. The sorting solutions center also features a laboratory, where tests for aflatoxins could be conducted. The new facility will also allow TOMRA to locally demonstrate the biometric signature identification (BSI) technology.

“In addition, the new site provides facilities including much improved, modern offices and more meeting and training rooms for employee and customer needs, including spacious breakout areas for teams to collaborate and brainstorm,” adds Hunter.