When tomato paste becomes a pain in the back

The FeedX mobile dosing and emptying system from Lutz Pumpen enables ergonomic dosing in the food industry

In many food-processing companies, highly viscous ingredients are still dosed manually. Employees often have to lift heavy containers and pour ingredients such as tomato paste directly into mixers. This places a strain on employees and makes consistent, reproducible dosing more difficult. To address this challenge, the pump manufacturer will showcase its FeedX mobile dosing and emptying system, which enables more ergonomic and precise transfer of ingredients from drums, at Cibus Tec 2026 in Italy from 27 to 30 October (Hall 5, Stand I 069).

Consider a food manufacturer that is producing pasta sauce. To prepare the sauce, tomato paste has to be added to a mixer. An employee lifts a 20-litre container and manually pours the highly viscous ingredient into the machine. “In many businesses, manual dosing is still common, especially for smaller batches and frequent recipe changes. The drawbacks are obvious,” says Andreas Rössler, Head of Sales at Lutz Pumpen. “It is difficult to add quantities in a consistently reproducible way, heavy containers put a strain on employees, and open handling increases the risk of contamination. To help food-processing companies dose highly viscous media more precisely, ergonomically and hygienically, we are presenting the FeedX drum emptying system at Cibus Tec 2026."

No heavy lifting required: FeedX doses up to 50 litres of highly viscous liquids per minute
FeedX is a mobile dosing and emptying system: It is based on a mobile stainless-steel frame with a vertical lifting column and a horizontal boom arm. The B70V SanitaryPlus drum pump is mounted at the end of this boom arm. Its 1,100 mm long stainless-steel pump tube can be lowered hydraulically into a drum.

Inside the pump tube, a stainless steel rotor turns eccentrically within a stator. As the pump rotates, its progressing cavities transport even highly viscous media, such as tomato paste, directly into the process through a hose. A follower plate rests on the surface of the medium and moves downward with the decreasing fill level, following the pump tube as it advances. This ensures reliable suction performance and clean drum emptying.

“Food-processing companies no longer have to empty heavy containers by hand and can automatically dose up to 50 litres of highly viscous media into the process per minute,” says Andreas Rössler. “In addition, the B70 SanitaryPlus is designed to meet the hygienic requirements of food production. It is 3A-certified. All components in contact with the medium are designed for hygiene and, thanks to thread-free, quick-release connections, can be quickly dismantled for cleaning.”

PLC enables precise dosing of highly viscous liquids
FeedX also features a programmable logic controller and indirect quantity measurement at the pump tube, enabling precise dosing. The user simply needs to specify the desired dosing quantity, for example 30 litres of tomato paste. The system transfers the corresponding quantity and then switches off automatically. The PLC also includes integrated recipe management. “For each medium, the amount the pump delivers within a specific period of time is determined once. The PLC saves this value as a recipe,” explains Andreas Rössler. “This makes reproducible dosing easier when products are changed frequently.”

About Lutz Holding GmbH
The name Lutz Holding GmbH has been synonymous with professional fluid management since 1954. The Lutz Group is an international consortium of companies active in the pump technology, water treatment and disinfection sectors; it operates 16 sales and production facilities in over 80 countries throughout the world. The group includes Lutz Pumpen GmbH (Wertheim, Germany), Lutz-Jesco GmbH (Wedemark, Germany) and Lutz-Jesco Suisse SA (Couvet, Switzerland). Its portfolio encompasses pumps, systems and accessories for performing dosing, pumping, emptying and mixing processes for a range of media. Lutz Group products are deployed in numerous areas including the chemical, food, automotive, water and wastewater treatment and the paint and lacquer industries.