M.& W.Mack Limited

The use of machines to automate previously manual tasks has revolutionised many aspects of agriculture, such as seed planting, weeding and harvesting of some fruits and vegetables. However, many jobs in agriculture are still manual, despite their apparent simplicity, largely because of a combination of the programming/set-up costs for robots to do them ar...

Our project will demonstrate the feasibility of a new robot motion planning algorithm that will increase the productivity of industrial robots. We will demonstrate the algorithm on a robot packing fruit and vegetables. The technology can be applied much more broadly to help manufacturers reduce costs and the CO2 footprint of their industrial robots.

English Growers' ability to obtain the large seasonal (75,000 strong)(5) workforce to harvest field vegetables has been severely impacted by Covid-19, Brexit and declining migrant worker availability across Europe(10). Domestic labour ('Pick for Britain') cannot replace the need(11). As price-takers with low margins, growers cannot profitably offer higher...

The food retail industry is experiencing increasing demand from consumers for UK grown fresh produce and would like to substitute imports with home produce. The demand for home grown plums cannot currently be met due to unreliable and inefficient cropping systems. This collaborative project will develop integrated new technologies that will address the ma...

This project brings together the University of Leeds and Grantham Institute with commercial developers from BioCarbon Tracker and ESRI UK to provide Sainsbury’s with insights into site-specific, multi-parameter environmental risk profiles, both for now and for future forecasting. Risk profiles will combine three categories of data: multiple layers of geos...

Plums and cherries are among the favourite fruits of the consumer, but currently much of the demand is met by imported fruit. With new plum and cherry varieties and new production techniques the UK industry has the potential to increase production. However, post-harvest losses can be significant due to fungal rots and rapid loss of fruit quality. The obje...

The aim of the project it to reduce and ultimately eliminate labelling, date coding and packaging mistakes caused by human error in the produce and wider food supply chain. Each year many millions of pounds of produce is disposed of before it reaches the customer because it cannot be sold due to the information or date code on the pack being incorrect, wh...

MACK Multiples Ltd. and Onnic International Ltd. have joined forces to develop an ozone generating, point delivery system that will work effectively, in container shepments of fresh produce, to reduce ethylene promoted and microbial spoilage waste. The interval between loading and discharge can range from 20 to 50 days, with the shipments subject to level...

This project aims to improve commercial practices in maintaining produce quality and reducing waste within the food supply chain. A novel environmentally friendly antimicrobial solution will be developed and delivered using unique fogging and spraying technology. These solutions will be used to wash, fog and/or spray fresh fruit and vegetables to reduce t...