Case Study

Tasteful Selections’ Bite-Sized Success Automating Baby Potato Packing

Tasteful Selections leverages FANUC robotics for a cleaner, safer, and more productive work environment.

Results

Higher production to keep up with demand
Reduce rejected product for less waste
Reduction in workplace accidents
Current staff shifted to more rewarding roles

Baby potato producer gets a grip on growth via robotics.

Story

Tasteful Selections, located near Bakersfield, CA, is the largest grower, shipper, and packer of bite-sized potatoes in North America. The company first started its robotics automation journey by installing palletizers using Schneider Packaging, a FANUC Approved Systems Integrator. The solution using FANUC palletizing robots has not only boosted efficiencies but also helped to keep Tasteful Selections’ employees safer by reducing the number of accidents and injuries.

As the company increased the speed of the processing lines, manually packing the bags of potatoes in boxes became a bottleneck. The automated solution needed to be food safe and gentle to produce the best quality baby potatoes. Tasteful Selections invested in five FANUC M-3iA Delta robots for case packing that are equipped with Soft Robotics’ mGrip soft gripper.

With the investment in automation, Tasteful Selections has been able to grow very quickly as well as maintain the quality bite-sized potatoes customers and food retailers like Costco have come to love. Plus, this has all been done at an attractive price point.

Before we had the robotics, everything was done by hand, so for food safety, that’s a little bit of a concern because there’s a lot of hands touching the product. Since we put in the robotics with the soft gripper – you know, it doesn’t eliminate a person, it just moves them to a different role – it allows less human contact. Our philosophy here, in regards to food safety, is we want to make sure that the potatoes people are consuming are the safest that they can be from farm to fork.

Lindsey Mebane

Food Safety Manager

FANUC Products Used

M-3iA Series Delta Robots

M-410 Series Palletizing Robots

Schneider Packaging Equipment Company, Inc.

With more than 50 years of industry problem-solving in end-of-line automation, Schneider Packaging Equipment Company, Inc. is a leading manufacturer of case packing and robotic palletizing solutions.

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About Tasteful Selections

Tasteful Selections began with multi-generational potato farmers who recognized an opportunity to expand the baby potato category to meet the busy consumer’s preference for simpler, convenient meals. Today, the Tasteful Selections brand is the leader in this unique potato category. They pioneered bite-size potatoes as a convenient source of nutrition, flavor versatility, and variety for everyday meals.