Success stories - Bertagni 1882

Bertagni 1882 expresses his satisfaction with the Stalam Defrosting equipment..

The company

Bertagni is an Italian fresh filled pasta producer, founded in Bologna by Luigi Bertagni in 1882. Luigi Bertagni, with his brothers Ferdinando and Oreste, not only made high quality fresh tortellini, but also developed a method in order to package and conserve them.

Thanks to the entrepreneurial spirit of Bertagni brothers, their tortellini were appreciated more and more in Italy and abroad. The Bertagni brothers entered their pastas in numerous world fairs, winning the bronze medal at The World’s Fair in Paris in 1889 and at The Chicago Fair in 1894, and the gold medal in St. Louis in 1904.

Nowadays Bertagni 1882 is present in over 50 countries and sell its products through the best food retailers.

The challenge

Before purchasing the Stalam RF defroster, the defrosting process was carried out in temperature controlled rooms (around +8°C). Frozen food was therefore placed in bins and left to thaw at positive temperatures for 3-7 days, depending on the product.

The long defrosting time used to cause 5-7% drip loss and hundreds kilos product were wasted per week due to the excess amount of defrosted food. Also, due to the poor system flexibility, the company often had to refuse last-minute orders since they were unable to defrost the raw material on time. In fact the vegetables took 3 days for complete defrosting, whereas fish and meat took 6-7 days.

One person was busy in the thawing process for 4-5 hours per shift.

The solution

With the Stalam RF defrosting equipment the heating process is uniform and controlled. The frozen food achieves uniform tempering in 10-30 minutes without drip loss, thus leading to a great increase in product yield. Bertagni can defrost only the raw material required for processing, avoiding product waste, and is now able to handle sudden orders. Also, the quality of the filled pasta increased in terms of taste and consistency.

Last but not least, the company could obtain significant labour savings: handling the whole defrosting process takes now 20% less working hours.