FRISCO, TEXAS — GEA, an international food processing technology supplier, announced that its has opened a new state-of-the-art food processing and packaging North American Technology Center in Frisco. The company celebrated the opening of the facility in September.

The new North American Technology Center boasts 15,000 square feet and features more than 40 different pieces of GEA equipment used to produce various food products, as well as pet food. The facility will service GEA’s customers within North and South America, allowing them to test equipment and processing lines and train employees. Pet food processors can also use the facility to run product testing.

GEA recently moved the facility to its current location in Frisco.

“The move allowed us to expand and upgrade our offering to include recent innovations,” said Ananta Islam, vice president of food and healthcare North America at GEA. “We are confident that these improvements will provide additional value to current and future customers.”

During the event to celebrate the opening of the GEA Technology Center, customers and corporate guests viewed several demonstrations. Here, the GEA CookStar with the GEA SuperHeatSmoke feature was used to produce smoked chicken wings. (Source: GEA)

At the North American Technology Center, GEA’s customers can evaluate yield, quality and economic viability without disrupting their own production and packaging lines. The facility features nine complete processing lines, including a homestyle/flour coating line and a slicing line. The processing lines use various GEA equipment, including the company’s MultiDrum, OptiSlicer 6000, PowerPak PLUS thermoformer, CookStar oven, SuperHeatSmoke, MultiJector 2mm and SmartPacker TwinTube.

As well as various equipment and processing lines, GEA’s North American Technology Center also features corporate offices, a warehouse for spare parts, and an 8,000-square-foot tool shop that manufactures die sets for use in packaging and forming equipment.

“Since its inception in 2014, the goal of the North American location has been to provide partnership opportunities for both GEA and our customers,” Islam said. “In addition to welcoming R&D teams, we offer this facility for customer staff training and technical seminars with industry experts.”

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