The production plant of JSC Monomakh has improved its multilevel quality control for raw materials.

“The first step is checking the supplier,” says Inna Nevmerzhitskaya, Quality Control Director of JSC Monomakh. “We examine certificates submitted by potential partners,

and make it a rule to visit the companies to observe the plantations, evaluate storage and processing conditions, and run a compete audit of the company. Only after that, we proceed to signing supply agreements.”

Samples are selected from every new batch of raw materials supplied to the Monomakh plant. They are carefully examined at the plant’s own chemical analytical laboratory.

After a positive conclusion to confirm the sample is compliant with the stated characteristics, the next stage of inspection is unpacking. The raw material is cleaned from accidental metal impurities with the use of a magnetic separator. An oscillating sieve with replaceable trays is used for extraction of impurity fractions of all sizes.

To improve the quality control, smart high-tech scanning is being implemented at the Monomakh plant. For this purpose, there will be a color grader – a multi- purpose color sorter machine for coffee beans. It will help to remove various impurities (stones or dust) and coffee beans which don’t comply with the standards. For example, underripe, broken or damaged beans.

This machine also features a computer scanning option using a preset of examples. The system can work with 60 sorting plans. In case of many impurities, they can have similar shapes, color and weight, so the entire process of the bean cleaning from impurities is rather complicated. The modern method for grading these products based on the color peculiarities is truly revolutionary.

Using the color sorter machine will ensure raw material purity of 99.99% which is in line with the highest world standards. Similar equipment is planned to be installed for tea packaging lines as well.