ProFood World December 2021

Booth C11505

SSV Sanitary Drum Motors DECEMBER 2021

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11/30/21 2:47 PM

SSV Sanitary Drum Motors Reduce Washdown Time & Water Consumption by 50%

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Drum profile available for a variety of belt manufacturers, including Gates®, Habasit®, Intralox®, Volta®, Wire Belt®, and Cambridge®.

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Booth C11505

11/30/21 2:48 PM

December 2021

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Multi-Line Expansion Enhances Mac and Cheese Production Efficiency Untap Hidden Potential in Your Asset Base How to Improve Sanitation Efficiency Dry Processing Solutions Tech Today: Mechanical Conveying

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11/29/21 12:50 PM

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11/29/21 10:20 AM

DECEMBER 2021

CONTENTS 32

63 DEPARTMENTS 6 From the Editor Carnivores, herbivores, omnivores… Meet me where you are.

9 In the News How to shape a new way of work.

16 OpX Intel Untap the hidden potential from your asset base.

20 Packaging Technology Café egg bites hit retail shelves.

47 Plant Floor New Products Take an inside look at the latest machinery and technologies for production facilities.

55 Case Study: GC Farms A vegetable ingredient supplier goes digital.

58 Case Study: Lakeshore Metal contamination removal is key to success.

63 Tech Perspective A polymer surface treatment improves sanitation efficiency.

22 ON THE COVER Kraft Mac and Cheese Modernization Completed on time during the height of the pandemic, a multi-line expansion project for Kraft Heinz’s macaroni and cheese product increased production output without disrupting the Wausau plant’s existing production schedule.

FEATURES 32 Tech Today: Flexibility, Reliability Keep Products Moving Particularly with the uncertainty that the pandemic brought with it, industry suppliers are working to provide more flexible, reliable, hygienic conveyors, with an increased level of automation.

DRY PROCESSING SOLUTIONS 41 Case Study: Cerealto Siro Foods An automated system from Radar Process provided biscuit-making operations with more accurate weighing, elimination of foreign matter, improved inventory control, and significantly reduced safety risks for its workers.

42 New Products

www.profoodworld.com

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| December 2021 | PROFOOD WORLD

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11/23/21 6:28 PM

ProFood World ISSN 2476-0676

BLEND ROTARY BATCH MIXERS • 0.25 to 600 cu ft (0.01 to 17 cu m) • 100% uniformity in less than 3 minutes • Uniform liquid additions • Ultra-gentle • Complete discharge • Fast sanitizing

EDITORIAL

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF AARON HAND 312/488-3392 ahand@pmmimediagroup.com SENIOR EXECUTIVE EDITOR JOYCE FASSL jfassl@pmmimediagroup.com

VEE-CONE BLENDERS

MANAGING EDITOR NATALIE CRAIG ncraig@pmmimediagroup.com

• 1 cup to 200 cu ft (0.5 to 5663 L) • Gentle, 5 to 15 minute cycles • Complete discharge • Ultra-fast sanitizing of smooth internal surfaces

CONNECT WITH US @ProFoodWorld @ProFoodWorld www.linkedin.com/showcase/profoodworld

NEW PRODUCTS EDITOR MORGAN SMITH msmith@pmmimediagroup.com CONTRIBUTING EDITORS MELISSA GRIFFEN, HANK HOGAN, STEPHEN PERRY, STEPHEN SCHLEGEL, JEFFREY BARACH

B U S I N E S S S TA F F PUBLISHER PATRICK YOUNG 610/251-2579 pyoung@pmmimediagroup.com

RIBBON BLENDERS • 1.0 to 1,150 cu ft (0.03 to 32.56 cu m) • Blends dry bulk to pastes • Shear reduces agglomerates • Low cost

BRAND OPERATIONS MANAGER CLAUDIA SMITH 312/222-1345 csmith@pmmimediagroup.com

ART CREATIVE DIRECTOR DAVID BACHO

REDUCE

ART DIRECTOR KATHY TRAVIS

AU D I E N C E A N D T E C H N O L O GY SENIOR DIRECTOR, DIGITAL AND DATA ELIZABETH KACHORIS

LUMP BREAKERS • Throat widths 12 to 48 in.

(30.5 to 122 cm) • Bed screens 1/32 to 2 1/2 in.

(0.79 to 64 mm) • Quick screen cleaning, inspection, removal

DIRECTOR, WEBSITES + UX/UI JEN KREPELKA SENIOR DATA ANALYST LAUREN SANZ

PUBLISHING PRESIDENT JOSEPH ANGEL EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT DAVID NEWCORN PUBLISHER PATRICK YOUNG

CLASSIFYING CUTTERS • Throat widths 10 to 72 in.

(25 to 183 cm) • Bed screens 1/32 to 2 1/2 in.

(0.79 to 64 mm) • Precise sizes with minimum fines

VICE PRESIDENT, CONTENT AND BRAND STRATEGY JIM CHRZAN SENIOR CONTENT STRATEGIST KIM OVERSTREET DIRECTOR, MARKETING SHARON TAYLOR SENIOR MARKETING MANAGER AMBER MILLER FINANCIAL SERVICES MANAGER JANET FABIANO

ADVE R TI S I N G

PIN MILLS

PRODUCTION MANAGER GEORGE SHURTLEFF

• Controlled sizing down to 400 mesh • No screens, hammers, knives or rolls • Coarse & fine grinding of friable materials • Conditioning of cellulose fibers

SENIOR DIRECTOR, CLIENT SUCCESS AND MEDIA OPERATIONS KELLY GREEBY DIRECTOR, PRODUCT STRATEGY ALICIA PETTIGREW

ADVE R TI S I N G SALE S PUBLISHER PATRICK YOUNG pyoung@pmmimediagroup.com • 610/251-2579 REGIONAL SALES MANAGER BRIAN J. GRONOWSKI bgronowski@pmmimediagroup.com • 440/564-5920 REGIONAL SALES MANAGER DANIEL SMITH dsmith@pmmimediagroup.com • 312/205-7935 VICE PRESIDENT, SALES WENDY SAWTELL wsawtell@pmmimediagroup.com • 847/784-0520 REGIONAL MANAGER LEO GUENTHER guenther@packworld.com • 904/377-7865 REGIONAL MANAGER JIM POWERS jpowers@automationworld.com • 312/925-7793 REGIONAL MANAGER CHRISTINE J. SMALLWOOD csmallwood@pmmimediagroup.com • 770/664-4600 ACCOUNT MANAGER JAKE BROCK jbrock@pmmimediagroup.com • 312/205-7903 PUBLISHER, AUTOMATION WORLD KURT BELISLE kbelisle@pmmimediagroup.com • 815/549-1034 PUBLISHER, HEALTHCARE PACKAGING LIZ TIERNEY tierney@packworld.com • 815/861-2992 PUBLISHER, OEM MAGAZINE JIM CHRZAN

jchrzan@pmmimediagroup.com • 847/830-2915

COMPARE ProFood World • PMMI Media Group 401 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 1700, Chicago, IL 60611 Phone: 312/222-1010 • Fax: 312/222-1310 Email: info@pmmimediagroup.com • Web: www.profoodworld.com

Only at Munson can you test these and 14 other blending and size reduction machines side-by-side using your material—ensuring you of top efficiency at the lowest cost.

1-800-944-6644 info@munsonmachinery.com WWW.MUNSONMACHINERY.COM

PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies 12930 Worldgate Drive, Suite 200, Herndon, VA 20170 Phone: 571/612-3200 • Fax: 703/243-8556 • Web: www.pmmi.org Staff at PMMI Media Group can be contacted at info@pmmimediagroup.com.

JJ-0551

©2021 Munson Machinery Co., Inc. MUNSON® is a registered trademark of Munson Machinery Co., Inc.

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PROFOOD WORLD

| December 2021 | www.profoodworld.com

11/29/21 10:08 AM

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11/29/21 10:15 AM

FROM THE EDITOR AARON HAND | EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Carnivores, Herbivores, Omnivores…

Meet Me Where You Are Whether you’re coming from a traditional sector or something on the move in the alternative protein realm, it’s worth sharing insights to help get the most out of your operations.

I

don’t need to tell you: There’s an awful lot of hubbub about plant-based diets these days. A few press releases drop into my inbox on the daily announcing the introduction of another vegetarian or vegan creation—whether from a new start-up or an established food giant getting into the action. And as we get back to in-person events, it is interesting to see how many equipment suppliers are touting the use of their systems for plant-based applications.

We’re taking a great interest in how this growing sector is shaping up. It hasn’t become completely clear to me yet how much this part of the industry will rely on existing equipment and technologies to process alternative proteins or instead demand systems that meet their particular needs. There have been some interesting discussions so far.

Attending a forum in Poland recently featuring a panel of executives from the meat industry, I was struck by how incensed they were at the whole notion of this fast-moving vegan/vegetarian train and how they could possibly derail it (it was also interesting to hear how “flexitarian” translated readily between Polish and English).

But it doesn’t seem to me like the conventional meat or dairy industries will be disappearing any time soon. They will continue to innovate, and we will continue to detail the processes and technologies that keep their operations running efficiently.

Really, what could be more standard comfort food than Kraft Macaroni & Cheese? After 80 years on the market, it’s not going anywhere. In fact, Kraft Heinz is innovating in its own ways—several of which can be seen within a multi-line expansion project detailed in this issue’s cover story. The Wausau, Wis., plant modernization project for its blue box product won a 2021 Manufacturing Innovation Award from ProFood World.

The up-and-comers might learn a thing or two from such industry stalwarts—just as more traditional folks might get some ideas from the new market entrants. It’s worth poking your head over the partition to take a look.

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD

CHRISTINE BENSE CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER Ventura Coastal GREG FLICKINGER SENIOR VP, OPERATIONS Green Thumb Industries Inc. JOHN HILKER DIRECTOR OF MANUFACTURING Blommer Chocolate Company VINCE NASTI VP, OPERATIONS Nation Pizza & Foods JIM PRUNESTI VP, ENGINEERING Conagra Brands LISA RATHBURN VP, ENGINEERING T. Marzetti MARK SHAYE VP, ENGINEERING Ken’s Foods TONY VANDENOEVER DIRECTOR, SUPPLY CHAIN ENGINEERING PepsiCo DIANE WOLF FORMER VP OF ENGINEERING AND OPERATIONS Kraft Foods BROOKE WYNN SENIOR DIRECTOR OF SUSTAINABILITY Smithfield Foods JOE ZEMBAS DIRECTOR, ENGINEERING AND TECHNICAL SERVICES The J.M. Smucker Company

ahand@pmmimediagroup.com 6

PROFOOD WORLD

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| December 2021 | www.profoodworld.com

11/23/21 6:31 PM

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11/29/21 10:25 AM

IN THE

NEWS

How to Shape a New Way of Working

A

N EXPERT PANEL (participants listed with image on next page) at the Packaging & Processing Women’s Leadership Network breakfast discussed women and remote work, as well as solutions for adapting to pandemicera consumer buying trends.

STEPHANIE NEIL, MODERATOR: Amid the current skills crisis, a recent study by the Society for Human Resources Management showed that 69% of women who had lost their jobs or stopped working due to the pandemic and who identify as the primary caregivers to children under the age of 18 don’t plan to return to work. How can companies incentivize women to come back to the workplace?

JAN THARP: If you look at pre-COVID and manufacturing, it was all about customization and finding products that were individualistic. Take that thinking and move it over to human resources to become customized in how you go out attracting talent.

You look at it and say, “Okay, this person has children. They may need a different work environment. They may need different work times.”

You can be flexible with that. I hope that if anything comes out of COVID, it is that we realize there is no such thing as one size fits all.

If somebody decides to live and work remotely, are they giving up opportunities at the company?

THARP: During COVID, we have hired several people at executive levels

Hershey to Purchase Dot’s Homestyle Pretzels

and most of them are not required to move to San Diego, where we are based. It’s actually opened up a whole new world of talent for us.

We’ve been able to attract rockstar talent into our company by being a little more open with respect to where people work. Is that going to prevent them from getting opportunities? No. I think that leads into another discussion of “How are you effective in this new world of work?”

If you’re not in the boardroom anymore and you’re on a computer, it’s a different toolbox. This puts a bit more pressure on the team member to say, “If you want to live in Antarctica, and you’ve got an internet connection, and you can still be as effective, then I’m going to embrace that.”

How do you shift as an organization, as a manufacturer, to accommodate for the e-commerce presence?

THARP: You look at what happened in COVID, and all the channels of distribution increased. But e-commerce increased the most. It went up 58%, compared to mass club general retail.

So, it did force us to look into it. Our main product for tuna is a 48-count case. Most people don’t want 48 cans of tuna. Your offerings, your assortment online, ends up being a little bit different. And then you’ve got to think about the cost dynamics of it. A can of tuna retails for about a dollar, then you look at the cost of freight to get that can of tuna to your house, it’s an investment we’re making.

Hershey has entered into definitive agreements to acquire the fastest-growing U.S. pretzel brand, Dot’s Pretzels, and co-manufacturer Pretzels Inc. The total purchase price for the two proposed acquisitions is about $1.2 billion.

Coca-Cola Acquires Bodyarmor Coca-Cola has acquired full ownership of Bodyarmor, a line of sports performance and hydration beverages. In 2018, Coca-Cola initially acquired a 15% stake in the company, with a path to full ownership, based on a predetermined discount.

Coca-Cola is paying $5.6 billion in cash for the remaining 85% of the company.

McCormick to Open New HQ in Melbourne, Australia McCormick is planning to open a new, state-of-the-art, environmentally friendly, multi-purpose head office in Melbourne, Australia. The multimillion-dollar complex will house McCormick’s new Australian head office, and incorporate a state-ofthe-art technical innovation center, a logistics center, and new corporate offices.

Russell Stokes Named CEO of Kind North America Kind Healthy Snacks has announced the appointment of Russell Stokes as the new CEO of Kind North America. Stokes most recently served as Kind’s chief growth officer, joining the team earlier this year.

www.profoodworld.com

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| December 2021 | PROFOOD WORLD

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11/30/21 11:09 AM

IN THE NEWS s

(Left to right) Tracey Noonan, CEO, Wicked Good Cupcakes; Sharron Gilbert, president and CEO, Septimatech; Jan Tharp, president and CEO, Bumble Bee Foods; Yolanda Malone, VP global RD foods PKG, PepsiCo; Stephanie Neil, editor in chief, OEM magazine.

YOLANDA MALONE: Our primary business is chips. And potato chips break when you put them in the bag. So for us, we have to put a lot around packaging, how to ship, if they’re going in combination with cans of tuna, or dish detergent. And really structuring that, to Jan’s point, profitably.

And adhering to even some of the companies like Amazon that have specific departments to ship our products in, make sure that we do the testing and that our team is set up. And so they’re also understanding what testing needs to be done to be qualified.

Because we also saw significant growth during COVID, with people ordering online. And our team was challenged to be more efficient, to reduce cost so that we could get it out faster and supply consumers.

People are buying differently now through e-commerce. Tracey, was your experience over the past year with online buying part of the success of the organization?

TRACEY NOONAN: My husband developed a platform called Pronto, which was really to help companies who wanted to do something for their employees— whether it was virtual parties, or sending birthday gifts. And to make it easy, all people needed to order was an email address.

And it was brilliant because, I don’t know about you, but I don’t know anyone’s street address. I don’t know if they’re going on a

How do you lead the global team when you’re working remotely?

vacation and I don’t know if they have food allergies. So in order to send what we call the gift card on steroids, all you needed was their email address. You sent them the gift card. And everyone could go in, pick their delivery date, what flavors they wanted, and put their own home address in.

How do you manage collaboration and maintain productivity, especially in a work environment where you have to be hands-on, in spite of the pandemic?

SHARRON GILBERT: We had to really rely on different tools and technologies. The adoption of Microsoft Teams really moved us forward into that collaboration—not just internal among employees, but also with our customers.

When we’re having discussions about projects, design reviews, and then installation reviews, and that whole process there has to be a really good connection with our customers. So, we’ve been ramping up our online presence for our people working remotely as well.

We’re noticing delays with our customers in terms of their projects.

It’s meant that we have to be really dialed into our customers, to still help them do their product launches, and collaborate with them.

We’re doing pre-order releases in terms of getting materials in. We’re taking a look at our inventories and focusing on those materials we use a lot of, and getting rid of some of the other ones.

The conversation reflected here is a short excerpt of an in-depth, 40-minute discussion. Watch or listen to the whole thing at pfwgo.to/7350.

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MALONE: It’s a lot of Zooms. The one thing I do miss is seeing my team faceto-face around the world. But as a leader, understanding where they’re at and being available is one of the most important items that I set up for myself. If I’m talking to my team in China, I’m going to be on their time zone. So it might be 9 o’clock at night for me, but it’s their day.

To know that their leader cares about how they’re doing, and reaching out and having those one on ones—not even necessarily talking about the projects or the work, but just how the team’s doing and to see everyone, and see all the faces is also important.

Do your leadership skills have to change?

THARP: I do think there will be a new toolbox as we come out of this and the constituency that I think is going to be maybe a little more challenged are the new people coming into the workforce because they don’t get to learn by being with people like I did when I started in CPG 30 years ago.

You went to meetings and watched how people address difficult questions. It’s a different skill that people will have to learn. I’m confident in our younger generation that they will certainly figure that out.

It’s a different toolbox for leaders as well. We need to do a lot more what I call watching and listening. I am not about setting back-to-work policies. You don’t build sidewalks until you see where people are walking. It’s too early, in my opinion, to really know where things are going.

So if we could just take a step back and watch, listen to our team members, then we will figure out how we move on.

—MELISSA GRIFFEN

| December 2021 | www.profoodworld.com

11/23/21 6:33 PM

Snacking Soared in 2020; Growth to Continue at Slower Speed KIM OVERSTREET | SENIOR CONTENT STRATEGIST, ALIGNMENT

T

HE MULTIBILLION-DOLLAR SNACK market is projected to grow 3 to 4% in 2021, according to SNAC International—an impressive gain after the soaring growth of 2020, when the pandemic had families in lockdown and snacking at home increased sales by double digits in some categories.

David Walsh, vice president of membership and communications at SNAC International, shared insights about the state of snacking at the PACK EXPO Las Vegas Innovation Stage in September.

SNAC also released its annual State of the Industry report, which was shared at the show.

COVID-19 brought big changes

SNAC’s David Walsh speaks on the Innovation Stage at PACK EXPO Las Vegas.

During the pandemic, consumers turned to snacking for comfort, often purchasing family-size or multi-pack snacks online. Of particular focus during this time was holistic health and wellness goals.

During 2020, 10 to 16 oz and 4.5 to 8 oz sizes saw the most significant increase in sales. The SNAC report mentioned that 2020 resulted in slowed new product development because of the pandemic, but that should reverse in the second half of 2021 and into 2022.

There is less “on the go” consumption today, Walsh says, but consumers are still snacking more times per day. Millennials and Gen-Z consumers snack more frequently and are more likely to use snacks as a meal replacement (92% report replacing at least one meal per week with a snack).

Holistic and health immunity are top of mind, making functional snacks more important with ingredients such as high fiber, protein,

whole grains, calcium, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, probiotics, and collagen. Consumers are demanding sustainability as well, but taste is still the main driving factor, with price, packaging, loyalty, and reach also important.

Online snack sales and marketing are now crucial. However, since snacks are often an impulse purchase, “producers need to engage consumers differently to maximize online sales,” Walsh says. Social media and online initiatives such as offering up recipes that use snacks as ingredients are key to reaching and engaging with consumers.

According to the special report, 2022 will bring challenges to the industry—from continued supply chain and labor challenges to rising prices for commodities and oil.

This will require companies to be innovative throughout their entire chain of operations, to increase efficiency.

Product diversification is key, and growth drivers are flavor, packaging, and sustainability. To adapt to the evolving environment, Walsh adds, producers must balance price, quality, and wellness, and pay attention to pack size and variety, while also building for online sales. Leveraging targeted media to reach consumers at home, and taking advantage of more in-home celebrations, is key.

Key category insights • Popular flavors include superhot and spicy paired with sweet flavors; hot with added nuance; sweet flavors such as fruit, chocolate, maple, and nut butters; and international flavors such as Latin American, Asian, and Middle Eastern.

• Savory snacks are up 8.2% from May 2020 to May 2021.

• “Other” savory snacks are up 14.8%, with $4.8 billion in sales.

www.profoodworld.com

1221_News.indd 11

| December 2021 | PROFOOD WORLD

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11/23/21 6:34 PM

IN THE NEWS

“Holistic and health immunity are top of mind, making functional snacks more important with ingredients such as high fiber, protein, whole grains, calcium, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, probiotics, and collagen.”

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This category features many better-for-you snacks such as veggie straws, veggie crisps, and green pea snack crisps. Fruit chips overall are up 7.1%, and apple chips are up 18%.

This category also sees the growth of incubators and start-up companies that are supported by co-manufacturers across the U.S. Tortilla chips are up 6.3% to $4.9 billion, and come in new shapes, sizes, and flavors.

Popular choices include chips made with peas, carrots, and plantains, and feature spicy flavors, or protein-added ingredients.

Protein was popular in other areas too, with meat snacks/jerky up 24% so far in 2021, and 17% in 2020. Category innovations include meat and cheese combos, and “clean” products with no added ingredients or sugar.

Companies are touting environmental friendliness with sustainable sourcing and freeroaming herds.

Pork rinds were up 11% in 2020 and are up 7% so far in 2021, with some producers seeing double-digit growth. A popular option for Keto diets, new flavors such as dill pickle, hatch chile, and apple cinnamon have come to market.

Cheese snacks are up 8.2% to $2.2 billion, with new spicy flavors and formats such as parmesan cheese crisps or pepper jack crisps in demand. Another category that is Ketofriendly, some producers also saw doubledigit growth from May 2020 to May 2021.

Ready-to-eat popcorn was among the topselling snacks in 2020, up 10.3% to $1.4 billion. By 2023, this category is expected to grow 8.3%, making it the fastest growing snack.

Pretzels are up 7.3% to $1.2 billion, and benefit from a better-for-you perception as formats such as protein-filled or grain-free.

Popular alternative ingredients include cassava, sorghum, and root vegetables.

PROFOOD WORLD

| December 2021 | www.profoodworld.com

11/30/21 11:09 AM

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ND-OF-LINE (EOL) MACHINERY accounts for nearly 47% of the U.S. packaging machinery market, with steady growth forecast through 2026, according to the 2021 End-of-Line Equipment Purchasing Trends and Design Insights white paper produced by PMMI Business Intelligence, a division of PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies. Trends such as sustainability, supply chain visibility, SKU expansion, and labor shortages all contribute to the increased demand for EoL equipment.

Driven by consumer demands for more ecofriendly products and manufacturers’ goals to cut costs by reducing material and energy usage, sustainability has become one of the most consequential trends—up and down the production line—in the packaging industry. This is true for EoL equipment, where specific sustainability trends such as lightweighting, the use of recycled materials, and the general reduction in machine energy usage are driving innovations.

Another key trend affecting the EoL packaging space highlighted in the PMMI white paper is the need for product visibility in the supply chain. While consumers drive this for primary packaging, in the EoL space it is spurred by a combination of regulations, retailer requests, and manufacturer logistics.

EoL technology and machinery solutions have evolved in the past two years, and the next opportunity to see the latest EoL solutions is at PACK EXPO East (March 21-23, 2022 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center). This show will bring together 400 exhibitors showcasing solutions over 100,000 net sq ft of exhibit space, with 7,000 attendees from 40+ vertical markets.

Produced by PMMI, PACK EXPO East provides a convenient opportunity for East Coast CPGs and life sciences companies to explore the latest packaging and processing technology in person, connect with suppliers, and find solutions to compete in a changing marketplace.

Registration is now open for the three-day event in Philadelphia, the largest of its kind on the East Coast. For more information and to register, visit packexpoeast.com. To learn about the PACK Ready Health and Safety plan, visit packexpoeast.com/packready.

www.profoodworld.com

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| December 2021 | PROFOOD WORLD

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IN THE NEWS

Health-Based a Top Trend in High Pressure Processing KIM OVERSTREET | SENIOR CONTENT STRATEGIST, ALIGNMENT

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Dips and wet salads, spreads, salad ROBABLY THE FASTEST growdressings, sauces, and soups are also ing category for high pressure developing their use of HPP, as are processing (HPP) is healthready-made meals and even products based beverages and immune-boostsupplied to restaurants. Raghubeer ing shots, noted Errol Raghubeer, mentioned Bolthouse yogurt-based senior vice president of HPP science dressings—the first HPP salad dressand technology at JBT Avure, in a ing in the marketplace—and Good Processing Zone presentation at this Foods salad dressing, both of which year’s PACK EXPO Las Vegas. are creating plant-based, lower-calHPP uses ultra-high pressure puriorie dressings. He said that HPP can fied water to inactivate bacteria such improve sensorial properties, or the as listeria, E. coli, and salmonella, and “mouthfeel” of a product, because is a natural process that eliminates the of the effect of HPP on proteins and need for chemical food preservatives. starches. Hummus is an example of a Driven in part by the COVID-19 product with an improved mouthfeel pandemic, but also in line with preafter HPP. vious consumer interest in betterUtilizing perishable agricultural for-you foods and beverages, HPP products or ingredients to prevent extends shelf life from less than one waste is another growing trend, week to greater than four months, and one example involves apples. depending on the quality of packagRaghubeer said that HPP is being ing and closures. used with apple products that are not There are other benefits to HPP Bolthouse Farms yogurtable to be sold as fresh product in the that align with consumer health based dressings are the marketplace and would have to be trends such as preservative-free, and first salad dressing in the disposed of or used as animal feed, to the ability to add immune boosting marketplace to use HPP, formulate value-added products such ingredients such as ginger, turmeric, according to Raghubeer. as sauces, purees, or snack products. and exotic berries. These healthy PHOTO COURTESY OF Avocado is similar because of its short ingredients are not damaged by BOLTHOUSE FARMS growing season, and Raghubeer said heat or other processing technoloperishable materials can be developed gies, and with the proper packaging into a product that has a higher value than the raw material, there is no degradation of taste or flavor, material.

Raghubeer added. “Products produced by HPP Another growing trend is the use of HPP in pet after a long shelf life are comparable to the taste foods. Used to eliminate pathogens in the raw of freshly produced products,” he said. Products material, HPP provides food safety for pet hanwithout preservatives typically also have a lower dlers as well as pets, Raghubeer said, and has all sodium level, and hence a “cleaner label.” the nutritional components of the raw meat or the raw diet. Raw material that is treated with HPP can then optionally be further processed into freezedried or heat-dried items, or frozen as treats.

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| December 2021 | www.profoodworld.com

11/23/21 6:34 PM

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11/29/21 10:24 AM

OPX INTEL: ASSET RELIABILITY STEPHEN C. SCHLEGEL | CO-FOUNDER, MANAGING PARTNER, FSO INSTITUTE

Untap the Hidden Potential From Your Asset Base The upside to asset reliability is controlling unit costs and even reducing them, improving operational effectiveness as a dependable supply chain partner, and finding that hidden plant within operations that can defer major capital expenditures.

F

OR YEARS, participants of the OpX Leadership Network have discussed how to drive awareness of asset reliability and its substantial, untapped potential for consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers to positively impact their output reliability.

Earlier this year, the OpX Leadership Network published the “Asset Reliability Roadmap for the Consumer Products Industry.” This document provides leadership guidance and insights to improve asset reliability within a CPG company and enable dialogue with key OEMs to engage in the effort.

During the same time, the FSO Institute, a facilitator in the development of the Asset Reliability Roadmap, launched a Manufacturing Health Assessment survey on the topic to establish an industry baseline to provide the data to make better decision-making.

The preliminary findings from the FSO Institute’s Manufacturing Health Assessment survey on asset reliability (described as the absence of unplanned downtime achieved through both maintenance and operational effectiveness) is being shared publicly for the first time.

The key findings include: • Significant upside opportunity for the CPG industry: Over 43% of respondents consider their companies as beginners in the journey to asset reliability. Another 37% have entered the intermediate stage.

• Diminishing confidence in flexibility or nimbleness to meet future needs: While 68% have confidence in current capabilities, the uncertainty of the future takes that positive outlook to less than 50% over the next three years and meeting e-commerce requirements down to 25% positivity.

• Reactive maintenance tactics still rule the day: Nearly 70% of companies are still reactive, while far fewer indicate they bring predictive analytics to asset reliability.

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• Uptime improvement is new capacity without the expense: 93% state their performance can be improved substantially. Over half of these companies see uptime improving between 8% and 15% per line.

• Changeovers continue to impact uptime reliability: More than 62% note that they are not running reliably coming off a changeover, with 68% acknowledging their lines are ill-prepared to take on more frequent changeovers.

• No time to waste: Only 12% of companies can reach “first hour full power” more than 80% of the time.

• Enabling technologies to better inform the floor: Greater than 56% of companies state their companies’ lines are not capable of notifying those who can provide needed attention to fix a problem.

Production challenges are compounded with the current supply chain issues, inflationary pressures, and labor shortages. So, how do we begin to address these obvious challenges or opportunities to improve? According to the OpX Asset Reliability Roadmap, “asset reliability is focused on the planned and unplanned downtime reduction which inhibits the machine from performing its intended function in the schedule as expected. Or put another way, is the machine doing what it is supposed to do, when it is supposed to do it?”

The Asset Reliability Roadmap provides direction on next steps, such as building a business, discovering the opportunity, and validating the concept.

Understanding and communicating the financial impact of asset reliability is foundational to building a case that is compelling to company leadership.

That analysis is comprised of several key data sets that are calculated based upon your company’s actual performance. These data sets include:

| December 2021 | www.profoodworld.com

11/23/21 6:36 PM

FEATURED TOPIC 3 WAYS TO MANAGE A DESIGN/BUILD AMID MATERIAL SHORTAGES AND PRICE INCREASES

R

ising costs. Transportation backlogs. Labor shortages. Time delays. Supply chain troubles. All of which are plaguing the design/build industry, and ultimately trickle down to food facility owners looking to build or expand facilities.

“Product availability, lead times on raw materials and a large interruption in supply chain logistics has created the perfect storm for project delays,” says Jason Weber, project manager, ESI Group USA. “Owners have tasked us with being creative in this unprecedented situation we are all in.”

Weber points to three critical ways in which owners and design/builders can work together to meet that challenge.

nine-month lead time for steel joists. Weber says this could reduce that delivery window by two to three months.

Another strategy he is deploying to reduce time delays is to lock in subcontractors early. “The objective here is to get submittal review going ASAP to ensure we aren’t waiting on long lead items,” he explains.

1. Circumvent Delivery Windows

2. Candid Cost Conversations

Material availability is impacting project timelines. For example, expect to wait up to nine months for steel joists and metal decking; roofing materials and wall panels about six months.

“The entire industry has been affected by these delays, which has pushed the start dates of these projects out those six to nine months just based on material availability,” says Weber.

Weber and his team have found ways to reduce those delivery windows. One is to buy out an entire project early and store materials while waiting to begin construction. Additionally, they have come up with alternate steel designs, when possible, with structural shapes (beams, channels, purlins), to circumvent the

These material delays undoubtedly shake up project pricing.

In fact, Weber says one hundred percent of ESI’s projects are coming in over what customers budgeted for back in late 2020 or early 2021.

“The biggest increases have been on anything containing steel, insulation, and piping, whether plastic or metal,” he says. “Some steel shapes are up over 100% year over year and most commodities have risen 25%-35% year to date, with vendors advising us of more increases coming early next year. This certainly has a large impact on the overall budget of a project and whether customers can get enough

71% of contractors face at least one material shortage Steel prices are up 200% since March 2020 83% of contractors are experiencing project delays

funding to offset these escalating costs.”

Weber says: “Our projects are typically designed without a lot of bells and whistles to keep costs down already, so there are not a lot of items owners are interested in cutting for the overall quality of construction to offset rising prices.”

Design/builders and owners need to have open conversations about pricing expectations. “This situation is really out of the builder’s control,” says Weber. But it helps when we can show owners documentation from vendors showing price increases and shipping delays.”

But he points out that there is a breakeven point when considering schedule impact versus increased cost. “We have had a few customers willing to pay the additional structural steel costs to get construction started two to three months earlier and save on the overall project duration. But there is a point of diminishing returns with this, depending particularly on the size and scope of the project.”

3. Start Early

If you are even considering a project in the near future, Weber recommends completing these tasks as early as possible: • Begin construction documents while estimated costs are being obtained.

• Get geotechnical exploration work completed early, even if the project won’t start until the following year.

• Plan contingencies into capital expenditure requests for escalating costs.

• Award subcontracts early to get submittal, and shop drawing review completed right away to prevent vendor procurement holdups on long lead items.

“Most importantly, be patient with the contractor and understand that this is a global issue and there are very few things that can be done to offset the effects of this unprecedented situation,” he says.

FEATURED PROJECT ESI NAVIGATES RISING COSTS FOR PFG EXPANSION

P

erformance Food Group (PFG) selected ESI to design and construct a 152,623-foot expansion to its Reinhart facility in Mount Pleasant, PA. This includes freezer space, cooler space, refrigerated dock, dry warehouse, a truck maintenance facility, and related site improvements. The expansion will also include a 50-foot high Multi-Shuttle Automated Storage & Retrieval System (AS/RS), and a two-story office expansion will boast flexible configurations.

PFG, the parent company to Performance Foodservice, Vistar, and PFG Customized, delivers more than 150,000 food and related products to customers across the United States.

This project is expected to take 14 months to complete, and while ESI is optimistic this schedule is attainable, Jason Weber, project manager, ESI Group USA, says material availability could have an impact.

CONTACT ESI Group:

Also impacting the project is the cost of those materials. In some cases, vendors, and suppliers to ESI’s subcontractors are not willing to uphold the pricing provided in their proposals. “This is because these folks have been hit with price increases as well,” he says. “This situation is really unheard of, but we are trying to navigate this situation with subcontractors and the owner.”

Some suggestions Weber and his team have made to offset cost and availability issues are using different wall panels, different types and thickness of roof insulation, concrete floor thickness options, and the level of office finishes.

“ESI has a long-standing partnership with PFG and will work on their behalf

ESI GROUP USA

to ensure a quality facility is constructed for the best value that will perform for their needs today and in the future,” says Weber.

Find us at an event: esigroupusa.com/about-esi/events/

s

• Availability: By reducing both planned and unplanned downtime, there is a commensurate increase in the uptime opportunity.

• Output Improvement: The equipment efficiencies to achieve the uptime opportunity can also positively impact reliable output performance, e.g., more units/cycle produced at required quality.

• Cost management: Effectively IMAGE COURTESY OF PMMI’S managing the cost of mainOPX LEADERSHIP NETWORK tenance labor through better utilization of existing staff, combined with better inventory control of the maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) costs and supply.

The Asset Reliability Opportunity Calculator is an excellent tool to assess the “size of the prize” quickly and effectively by achieving improvements to uptime performance. This tool uses your company’s actual performance data on unplanned downtime, units produced, cost of goods sold, and your desired improvement goal for the next year. The result is the value of added uptime for that line.

It is important to gain leadership support and

Download your free copy of the “Asset Reliability Roadmap for the Consumer Products Industry” at www.opxleadershipnetwork.org/maintenance/ download/asset-reliability-roadmap.

buy-in by proving what can be achieved. Be sure to identify and engage with the critical stakeholders from project inception and throughout. To validate the concept, it is important to be thorough in defining the scope of the project, objectives, and expected outcomes. At the conclusion, document the results and include lessons learned. Financial validation is confirmed by tying back to the Asset Reliability Opportunity Calculator preliminary findings.

Untapping the hidden potential from your asset base could have a profound impact on your company, associates, and customers. The upside is impressive in the near term by controlling unit costs (and even reducing them), improving your operational effectiveness as a dependable supply chain partner, and finding that hidden plant within your operations that can defer major capital expenditures.

CAS E I N P O I NT

Uncovering the Opportunity The FSO survey provides an industry overview, directional in nature. Consider your organization within the context of these functions: general maturity level (the leadership, cultural, and procedural commitment within the organization) and reactive maintenance staff (nearly 70% of companies are still reactive). Some areas to consider for maintenance improvement are having operators engaged with more basic maintenance functions to free up the staff to tackle more difficult problems, and more targeted utilization of the computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) for better-informed prioritizations.

Production readiness and capability is the consistency of performance in the organization to meet customer requirements. Uptime improvement is new capacity without the expense. Performance can be improved substantially, according to 93% of survey

PHILIP WEYER

RICHARD LARSEN

respondents. What would 10% uptime improvement look like for your plant? The Asset Reliability Opportunity Calculator might uncover the opportunities in changeovers, first hour full power, or even in your legacy maintenance practices.

Equipment readiness and capability includes the flexibility and reliability of the existing asset base to meet the current and future demands of your organization. It enables technologies to better inform the floor. For example, greater than 56% of companies state their companies’ lines are not capable of notifying those who can provide needed attention to fix a www.profoodworld.com

1221_OpXIntel.indd 17

JEFF SMELTZER

| December 2021 | PROFOOD WORLD

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OPX INTEL: ASSET RELIABILITY

problem. Consider evaluating your equipment technology and capability to meet future business needs, including modifications that will reduce changeover time more effectively and enable use of predictive analytics.

FSO Institute interviewed three industry executives to get their feedback on asset reliability: Philip Weyer, director of manufacturing operations at Shipley Do-Nuts; Richard Larsen, former vice president at Honeyville and FSO Institute coach; and Jeff Smeltzer, reliability engineer at Land O’Lakes.

FSO INSTITUTE: What challenges are you facing in launching or expanding asset reliability into a highly valued operational methodology in your company?

WEYER: The primary challenge we face currently is bridging from a culture of reactive maintenance to a predictive model that will allow for increased uptime. Proper training, equipment monitoring, and improved technology are all tools we are employing to improve our operator knowledge level and understanding of the equipment. This will allow us to properly identify issues ahead of time, prevent forced deterioration, and ensure equipment runs at optimal performance. By doing this, we expect to improve uptime and increase throughput to help support demand growth.

FSO INSTITUTE: Where do you see the significant opportunities to enhance a company’s production readiness and capabilities?

LARSEN: As a co-author of the OpX Asset Reliability Roadmap, I have come to recognize that asset reliability is an ongoing process that requires an effective production readiness program to achieve the desired result in throughput and expected profitability.

In order to have an effective production readiness program, there are a number of important key factors that need to be addressed: • Historical data: To move forward, you need to know where you have been and where you are today.

• Production objectives: Understanding where you want to (or can) be. This begins with a realistic assessment of the production line capabilities (design and in-plant reality) to identify throughput goals.

• Asset Reliability Calculator: With past, current, and expected data, you are ready to apply the OpX Asset Reliability Calculator to be able to see “the size of the prize,” which is what additional production yield and production cost savings can be achieved by minimizing unplanned downtime.

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• Production readiness: Sustaining your achievements requires an ongoing commitment to training of the maintenance and operations teams and the discipline of a preventive maintenance program.

FSO INSTITUTE: Where do you see the significant opportunities to enhance your company’s equipment asset base to meet your future business requirements?

SMELTZER: Throughout our many and diverse manufacturing plants, there are three key focus areas that we can consistently employ to enhance our existing asset base to meet future business requirements: 1. Strategy: Right care strategies for all our critical equipment assets are in place and being implemented. Embedded in these strategies is the focus on uptime inspection preventive maintenance.

2. People: Standard work methods engage the operators to participate and take ownership in certain daily functions that can help them recognize their importance to the team’s success and improve uptime performance.

3. Technology: Real-time feedback from the equipment enables the team to constantly monitor equipment health. Consider the value of monitoring components over time using predictive tools and software to better inform the floor of equipment not running at optimal rate and a potential component failure.

ABOUT THE OPX INTEL SERIES OF ARTICLES PMMI’s OpX Leadership Network has produced more

™

than 20 manufacturing process-improvement documents for CPGs and OEMs. The FSO Institute has facilitated the adoption and implementation of these documents, especially for food and beverage manufacturers. This series of articles shows how CPGs are using OpX and FSO documents to improve their overall manufacturing health and collaboration with OEMs and other suppliers. Learn more at www.opxleadershipnetwork.org and www.fsoinstitute.com.

| December 2021 | www.profoodworld.com

11/23/21 6:37 PM

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Café Egg Bites Hit Retail Shelves The new retail pack for Vital Farms egg bites allows for in-pack baking in CPET trays at the production facility. Consumers simply microwave the MAP trays at home.

P

RIOR TO THE PANDEMIC, a new breakfast trend had been sweeping the U.S. Popularized by major café chains in quick service or foodservice settings, sous vide-cooked egg bites containing classic but elevated ingredient pairings were quickly becoming a breakfast staple for busy café patrons on their way into the office in the morning. The pandemic temporarily disrupted the foodservice category, but the secret was out about sous vide egg bites.

Keenly watching this trend unfold was Vital Farms, which offers a range of pasture-raised foods nationwide. The company was founded in 2007 by husband and wife Matt and Catherine O’Hayer with 20 Rhode Island Red hens, a 27-acre plot of pasture in Austin, Texas, and an unwavering commitment to animal welfare. By volume, the company is now the No. 1 pasture-raised egg brand in the U.S. and the No. 2 egg brand overall. Vital Farms initially made its name as a shell egg company. A few years after its founding, Vital Farms broadened its brand to new categories.

“We now have several products that are extensions of our shell egg business, including hardboiled eggs, liquid eggs, and our newer convenient breakfast products Egg Bites and Breakfast Bars,”

PHOTO COURTESY OF VITAL FARMS

Vital Farms’ Egg Bites use a unique packaging and processing approach, baking the product in pack prior to MAP sealing.

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December 2021

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says Jermaine Harvey, director of contract manufacturing for Vital Farms.

Vital Farms was early to throw its hat into the egg-bite ring, based on the belief that it had a secret weapon—a higher-quality egg bite made with the ethically sourced ingredients for which Vital Farms is known. And while foodservice hatched the egg bite trend, an opportunity to crack the retail space was there for the taking. Vital Farms already had deep connections with like-minded retailers, including Whole Foods Market. From that confluence of trends and events, Vital Farms’ Pasture-Raised Egg Bites were born.

Every pack comes with two egg bites, has 16 to 18 g of protein per serving, and is ready to eat after just 45 seconds in the microwave. Available in four flavor combinations, the single-serve refrigerated egg bites are certified gluten-free and packaged in microwavable, recyclable, BPA-free packaging.

Out-of-the-shell thinking The café-popularized blueprint for egg bites uses a cooking technique called sous vide. Using this method, the raw ingredients are vacuum sealed together in a thin film, then suspended in a liquid solution that’s kept at a precisely controlled temperature as the product cooks. This means vacuum packing and sous vide processing of the egg bites would occur first. Then, the cooked product would be cooled, the film removed, and the bites flash frozen in ensuing steps. Only after freezing would the finished bites be packaged and refrigerated for grab-and-go using gas-flush modified atmosphere packaging (MAP).

But in a bid to create some market differentiation, Vital Farms decided to create a baked product that looked more homestyle, while consolidating the processing and packaging steps by baking in-pack rather than processing, then packaging.

And since they’d be baking in the pack at the production facility, couldn’t the pack also withstand a microwave in the consumer’s home? And finally, could in-pack baking, instead of sous vide, provide

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yet another point of differentiation by imparting a hint of crisped, browned crust to the egg tops via dry heat cooking using a tunnel oven?

Revisiting packaging materials The company enlisted Greg Levy, president of Point Five Packaging, to help develop a food-grade CPET MAP packaging solution. As a material, CPET is known for a crystalline structure that allows it to hold up well in high-temperature environments. But CPET can be temperamental to the uninitiated and requires precision in how much heat it can withstand, and for how long. Plus, its use in conjunction with this new egg bite application was uncharted territory.

“We work a lot with modified atmosphere systems, and CPET is a really nice functional alternative to polypropylene for the microwave because it’s got a nice barrier property to it so you can gas flush products inside of it,” Levy says. “And then you’ve also got the microwavable capability and then also the ovenable capability.”

After rigorous testing of the MAP process itself, testing the shelf life of an in-pack-baked product sealed into MAP, and a lot of container gauge and shape trial and error, the partnership of Point Five and Vital Farms hit upon a repeatable solution. “I think that’s why other people haven’t used this kind of process in the past,” Levy concludes. “Since we were actually putting these trays through an oven, the design and the gauge of the container itself were critical. It required a lot of work to get it right.”

While CPET can withstand heat better than most plastics, all plastic is prone to some deformation at high temperatures. Levy sought additional protection from deformation via a robust container, but in a way that avoided overpackaging with too much material.

Ensuring snug seals The other big wild card that needed to be accounted for was the seal between the CPET tray and the lidding that would be added during the MAP process.

Keep in mind, the seal flange would be a surface that had just gone through the baking process with a splash-prone liquid egg product in close proximity.

The baking process itself—whether high heat or product in the seal path—could negatively impact the seal.

“In this case, R&D was probing these trays to the point where we arrived at a design where we can deposit and bake without deforming the tray and without disrupting the seal surface so it could still perform with good shelf life,” Levy says.

“This package design that resulted is also micro-

The packaging format uses a carefully calibrated CPET tray that resists deformation under heat and can be microwaved in consumers’ homes.

wave-safe at home,” Harvey adds. “It allows people to cook Vital Farms Pasture-Raised Egg Bites in the package they come in vs. having to pop them PHOTO COURTESY OF VITAL FARMS out of their package and heat them in a separate dish in the microwave.”

The lidding material is a polyethylene-based multilayer structure with an EVOH barrier. The lidding is flexographically printed in four colors and uses a transparent window to display the egg bite within. Harvey says that the quality of the ingredients used in all four flavor varieties of Vital Farms’ Egg Bites as well as the hint of crust from being baked instead of sous vide are product differentiators.

A visible shelf life Since it was important to make the product itself visible, even on the shelf or in the cooler case, the company opted for retail-ready packaging (RRP) that would present the product through the transparent window. Secondary packaging for the CPET MAP packs entails six-count RRP-format printed chipboard display cartons that Levy calls caddies. Two chipboard caddies are then loaded into corrugated cases for a 12-ct master case to be sent to retailers.

“The caddies lift out of the case and sit on shelf in a vertically facing posture with the printed lid facing outward toward retail consumers,” Levy says.

For a fresh protein product, shelf life could be a concern. But with the MAP and nitrogen/carbon dioxide flush, these Vital Farms Egg Bites packs boast nearly three months of shelf life, leading the category. The MAP process consistently achieves less than 1% of residual oxygen, with figures closer to 0.5 to 0.7% residual oxygen most common when tested.

“We believe we are producing egg bites differently,” Harvey concludes. “The typical process is to deposit the egg bite in a totally separate depositing unit, where it is processed, then frozen, then is bulk packed as a frozen bite. And then it’s repackaged and shipped refrigerated to go into the market. But with our method, ours stays fresh even though it’s never frozen.”

Point Five Packaging www.p5pkg.com

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Kraft Mac and Cheese

MODERNIZATION Completed on time during the height of the pandemic, a multi-line expansion project for Kraft Heinz’s macaroni and cheese product increased production output without disrupting the Wausau plant’s existing production schedule.

The CIP system has the capacity to clean half the plant, covering 21 different circuit points, and fits in a very confined space in a dedicated CIP room.

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PHOTO COURTESY OF KRAFT HEINZ

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RAFT’S MACARONI & CHEESE has been on the market for more than 80 years. Even in today’s era of consumers searching for fresh food choices, the iconic, shelf-stable comfort food still packs a punch.

In fact, the much-loved product even comes in an ice cream flavor made by Van Leeuwen Ice Cream, produced in limited editions. So much for consumers saying they want to cut back on fatty foods. Everything and anything in moderation sounds much more like a reality-based eating trend.

But as we hopefully enter a less restricted and less virus-ridden era, Kraft Heinz is betting that its mac and cheese product will continue to deliver the food consumers love.

Kraft Heinz’s facility in Wausau, Wis., implemented a recent 20,000-sq-ft building expansion and plant modernization project for the Kraft Macaroni

& Cheese blue box product during the pandemic without affecting product quality or taste. This project received a 2021 Manufacturing Innovation Award from ProFood World.

The new production system also required building upgrades and expansions with changes to the previous process, including all new powder and liquid handling equipment and a complex clean-inplace (CIP) system. “New equipment was designed to be safe and ergonomic for plant operators,” says Brian Bernard, president of Spec Engineering, a Gray company, “increasing production rates from 7,000 lb/hr to 10,500 lb/hr.”

But as the U.S. entered 2020 and project work began, no one knew how disruptive the emerging coronavirus would be to food processors, their customers, and consumers, as well as food industry equipment providers.

| December 2021 | www.profoodworld.com

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BEST-IN-CLASS PLANT PROFILE JOYCE FASSL | SENIOR EXECUTIVE EDITOR

PHOTO COURTESY OF KRAFT HEINZ

The pandemic definitely was a factor throughout the project, says Amanda Mandefro, Wausau plant manager. “Due to our health and safety protocols, we were required to handle aspects of the project remotely, rather than our normal handson approach,” she says. “Our facility team on the ground was excellent in communicating with project partners to help drive clarity.”

Despite pandemic and supply chain obstacles, the Wausau project was delivered on time. “The biggest challenge we had in running the old and new lines simultaneously was ensuring we maintained our unwavering commitment to product and personnel safety during the transition of the CIP systems,” says John Schmelzer, production supervisor for Kraft Heinz.

“Overcoming this challenge required clear communication between the project team, from contractors to engineers and plant leaders, to ensure

everyone was clear on the process,” adds Phil Tuttle, Wausau facility sanitation manager.

Construction technologies include 3D scanning and drones Dean Snyder Construction (DSC) provided preliminary design, cost-estimating, engineering, general construction, and commissioning services for the Wausau facility to meet the new processing requirements, according to Dale Snyder, DSC owner, CEO, and project manager.

“DSC utilized 3D scanning technology and drones in the design process due to existing site constraints,” Snyder explains. “A new 4,240-sq-ft process addition with a 1,500-sq-ft mezzanine was built for the installation of new batch cooking process and powders handling, as well as a 450-sq-ft addition for project utilities.” www.profoodworld.com

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The cook room features specially sized tanks, actuated valves, and transfer pumps that select precise batches and transfer six different liquids to the respective cookers.

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Tote bags of powder ingredients are hoisted into the bulk bag discharger stations.

The site constraints only allowed for one 12-ft-wide access point for a majority of the work until DSC was tied into the existing structures within the processing area addition, according to Thomas Patterson, DSC field engineer. “We had to work through it by planning ahead and working inside out,” he says. “It was necessary to plan with the subcontractors daily to execute the project in a timely fashion.”

The relocation of the sprinkler loop from underground to aboveground while maintaining the existing system until tie-in dates was also a challenge because the existing sprinkler system running underneath the new addition created potential conflicts with construction activities, which DSC addressed during the structural design process.

This was the first project where DSC used 3D scanning technology, Snyder says. “It was necessary in order to minimize piping conflict throughout highly congested areas of the plant and increase the amount of prefabrication offsite, minimizing inefficiencies from the site constraints and plant downtime,” he explains.

Project mobilization for on-site contractors started in April 2020, during the height of COVID19 shutdowns. For work to proceed, DSC followed the Centers for Disease Control and Kraft Heinz recommendations of limiting in-person meetings, not congregating in small, enclosed areas, and constantly monitoring any changes in health for all employees of on-site contractors.

As the pandemic persisted, masks and temperature monitoring were required. “This took a substantial increase in manpower and management to ensure we were compliant and sympathetic to the safety of our field workers, plant employees, and subcontractors,” says Patterson.

Despite the challenges, DSC built and commissioned the project without affecting existing operations at the Wausau plant, had no lost-time injuries recorded, and delivered a fully functioning process line in only eight months after the April 2020 groundbreaking.

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PHOTO COURTESY OF KRAFT HEINZ

Product demand grows as pandemic continues “As COVID-19 began to take shape in the United States and across the globe, demand for food and, more importantly, popular food with extended shelf life, left grocery store shelves bare and manufacturing lines strained. Spec Engineering remained fully operational as essential workers in this industry and forged ahead with the buildout as planned,” Bernard states.

During lockdown, the demand for Kraft Macaroni & Cheese grew. “Given the increase in demand we have experienced, we had to rely on planned downtime in the facility to implement major updates throughout the process,” Mandefro explains.

In terms of project process changes, a majority were implemented upstream, Mandefro says. “From the onset of the project, we had to add infrastructure and utilities as a foundation. And from there, we proceeded to address the needed updates to our blending operations.”

Spec Engineering executed the multi-line expansion project that included new equipment and processes for four rooms, including dry ingredient bulk bag unloaders, a liquid cheese cook room, a drying

| December 2021 | www.profoodworld.com

11/23/21 6:42 PM

“I’m really a production guy at heart.”

Rick O’Boyle has been with Ross for 29 years, but he spent his first 11 years in manufacturing before moving into technical sales.

This experience gave him a deep understanding of the real-world production challenges our customers face every day.

Ross Regional Sales Managers are all full-time, salaried experts who will consider your whole production environment – then suggest the right mixing technology and equipment design to meet your process goals.

Contact Ross today to put our experience to work in your plant.

Call 1-800-243-ROSS or visit mixers.com Try our Knowledge Base & Product Selector web app: mixers.com/web-app

Rick O’Boyle Regional Sales Manager 29-Year Ross Veteran Employee Owner

Scan to learn more.

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BEST-IN-CLASS PLANT PROFILE

Rockwell Automation PLC and HMI platforms were used per Kraft Heinz’s corporate standard.

PHOTO COURTESY OF KRAFT HEINZ

and blending room, and a CIP sanitation system.

“Following the completion of the project, the first salable product began production on January 3, 2021,” states Mandefro.

New equipment setup Spec Engineering installed new equipment and processes in the four new rooms without disrupting the existing production line. This multi-line expansion project began with a nine-ingredient smart batching system. A set of nine bulk bag unloaders were designed with food safety and traceable ingredients in mind. Accurately metered to formulate the total dry powders content for the cook process, tote bags of the powder ingredient are hoisted into the bulk bag discharger stations. An operator platform common to all the dischargers allows operators to untie the bag bottom and allow product into the receiving transition.

An integrated dust collector was added to each discharger to control dust migration and product loss by discharging collected dust back to the receiving transition, according to Spec Engineering.

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Additionally, a level probe detects that product is present, enabling the station to feed to the total batch. If the level is not met, an alarm notifies operators to load a new bag onto the platform.

A slide gate valve and lump breaker on each station ensure lumps are eliminated and product to the feeder flows appropriately. A volumetric feeder with surge capacity meters powder to the small weigh hopper through gain-in-weight functionality.

By weighing the small hopper and product, the system ensures high accuracy as opposed to a loss-inweight system, where the weight from the feeder is also weighed.

Once the appropriate dose of product is in the weigh hopper, the system transfers the ingredient for a requested batch. Airlocks under each weigh hopper feed the pneumatic vacuum conveying line concurrently between the ingredients.

A desiccant air dryer has been incorporated to provide clean, dry air to the vacuum receiving line, along with a mix box transition to maintain proportional airflow to the two pneumatic conveying lines as needed. This ensures the product remains free of humidity, allowing for a smooth flow of dry material.

Once all nine ingredients are in the small weigh hopper, seven of them are transferred to the cook room filter receiver of the cooker that requested the batch. Since there is only one conveying line for these ingredients, pneumatic conveying wye diverters are used to switch between the vacuum receiver of cooker 1 or cooker 2.

Each receiver uses a scale to verify that the weight of product transferred is within tolerance of the total batch weight. When all product is transferred and an appropriate purge time has elapsed, the vacuum shuts off or switches to the other receiver, and the full receiver can dump its contents to a batch weigh hopper.

The scale hopper is necessary to stage product in preparation for a batch request and allow the vacuum receiver to resume product conveying of the final two ingredients, which are added to the respective batch cooker later in the cook process.

The cooker requests the batch of seven products, which are then dumped from the weigh hopper.

This process repeats in a twin cooker and is offset by half the process time to the other cooker. Utilizing a common pneumatic conveying line and precisely timed batches provide optimal throughput while also reducing the need for additional piping, blowers, and expensive stainless-steel filter receivers.

Dry ingredients are mixed with several liquid cheese ingredients in a custom-designed cook room.

To reduce the manual labor in the previous cook room, Spec Engineering designed automated and

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The Kraft Heinz Company Wausau, WI

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Winner of ProFood World Magazine's 2021 Manufacturing Innovation Awards

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Industry Leader in Custom Process Solutions With customers like Kraft Heinz, a winner in

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ProFood World magazine’s 2021

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Manufacturing Innovation Awards, we know

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exactly what it takes to help you innovate,

Equipment

Fabrication & Installation

adapt, and grow.

Automation

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BEST-IN-CLASS PLANT PROFILE

Calling all food and beverage plant innovators DURING PACK EXPO LAS VEGAS in September, Kraft Heinz’s Shaun Flaharty accepted a 2021 Manufacturing Innovation Award from ProFood World on behalf of the company’s Wausau, Wis., facility. Flaharty was joined by Brian Bernard, president of Spec Engineering, who presented an overview of the project and accepted a plaque honoring Spec’s work on the project.

In October 2022 at PACK EXPO International in Chicago, ProFood World will again recognize outstanding food and beverage processing and packaging innovation projects via the sixth annual Manufacturing Innovation Awards competition.

The call for entries is now open! Entries from innovative food and beverage processing facilities are due Jan. 17, 2022.

View articles and videos from past winners, such as MWC, CTI Foods, J.M. Smucker, and more, and learn about entry requirements at pfwgo.to/mia.

Learn more about PACK EXPO International at www.packexpointernational.com.

ergonomic systems. Specially sized tanks, actuated valves, and transfer pumps now select precise batches and transfer six different liquids to the respective cookers for mechanical mixing with the dry ingredients, followed by controlled steam cooking. This occurs every 2.5 minutes on the alternating twin cookers, as each cooker processes a 5-minute batch. Each batch is pumped out of the respective cooker to a surge tank, then cooled and transferred to the product silo.

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rotary dried to achieve the proper moisture content. The dry cheese powder is then ratio mixed in a Mixsys plow mixer.

Complex CIP system is automated One of the project’s biggest challenges was the implementation of a new, massive, high-tech CIP system. The skid is approximately 22 ft long x 8 ft wide x 17 ft tall and replaces a 20-year-old smaller system with a new design that incorporates three 1,000-gal tanks for caustic wash, acid wash, and freshwater rinsing. This new sanitary CIP system has the capacity to clean half the plant, covering 21 different circuit points, and is flexible enough to fit in a very confined space in the dedicated CIP room.

The new skid is equipped with two independent loops, each with a 300-gpm CIP supply pump, heat exchanger, instrumentation, and 3-in 316L sanitary tubing, enabling it to simultaneously treat two different plant circuits from the same CIP skid supply tank or from different CIP skid supply tanks.

This was coupled with splitting the 21 circuit feed points from the single CIP pump loop on the old CIP skid into a new arrangement with some of the circuits assigned to the new CIP skid’s pump 1 loop and the other circuits assigned to the new CIP skid’s pump 2 loop.

This proved to be a challenge both in the engineering design and the physical site retrofit, according to Spec Engineering. The 21 circuit feed points were previously grouped from common areas of the plant into only four branches connected to the old CIP skid. Separating the circuits between the new twin CIP pump loops often meant ungrouping existing common pipe runs to and from the CIP room, as the circuits were reorganized into four branches back to CIP skid pump 1 and a different, new set of four branches back to CIP skid pump 2.

In addition, five circuit feed points were relocated from the old cook room to the new cook room, hundreds of feet away. In fact, the work involved creating routing plans and installation of more than 2,000 ft of sanitary 3-in 316L stainless-steel tubing.

“The automation effort was also intense,” says Bernard, “as the custom CIP skid PLC/HMI controls had to be Ethernet-connected to the new PLC/ HMI controls in the new cook room. Plus, the other feed circuits throughout the plant often had unique start triggers and feedback confirmations. Many new safety features were also incorporated into the mechanical design and the PLC/HMI programming.”

Rockwell Automation programmable logic controller (PLC) and human-machine interface (HMI) platforms were used per Kraft Heinz’s corporate standard. The system includes 20 distributed I/O

| December 2021 | www.profoodworld.com

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VIBRA SCREW INC. The most trusted name in dry solids processing www.vibrascrew.com

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BEST-IN-CLASS PLANT PROFILE

and valve panels for the reduction of field wiring and sanitary installation. All device networks, such as variable-frequency drives (VFDs), scale controllers, flowmeters, and remote I/O, run over EtherNet/IP. In addition, the recipe control system validates the amount of metered product to ensure accuracy and repeatability.

The new CIP skid and related circuit feeds had to be installed, tested, commissioned, and passivated, all while the old CIP skid was still in operation for the former production line, says Bernard. This overlap of approximately four weeks necessitated special temporary tubing tie-points and PLC testing plans that had to be accomplished during ongoing plant production.

Complex ingress limitations overcome Another major challenge the Spec Engineering team had to address was ingress limitations for the new CIP skid from the receiving dock to the final installation point in the renovated CIP room. This path through the plant included several doorway restrictions and multiple corners to navigate. To best preplan this effort, Spec Engineering recorded a plant walk-through video, took site measurements, and developed a 3D model. This allowed the team to

A building expansion and plant modernization project for the Kraft Macaroni & Cheese blue box product was recently completed in Wausau, Wis.

maneuver the large equipment around the permanent obstacles safely, without disrupting production. Even this step presented engineering PHOTO COURTESY OF trials because the CIP skid had KRAFT HEINZ to be specially designed for separation into smaller sections for over-the-road delivery and the eventual routing through the plant. The CIP skid was paired with a custom set of stairs with a personnel access platform on top and around the three tanks while at the Spec facility, before being disassembled and shipped for installation at Kraft in Wausau.

Fully embracing the Gray Safety 7 standards as part of Gray’s safety program, Spec designed the physical system, planned the rigging efforts, prepared for the plant ingress, and ultimately reassembled the skid system in the renovated CIP room,

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delivering all required operational testing and sanitary results for compliance, as well as the numerous project-specific requirements.

Plant capacity has increased by 50%, and the new line has enhanced repeatability of recipe quality control, Bernard says. In addition, the project has decreased downtime for cleaning shutdowns, increased cleanability and hygienic design, and reduced the amount of operator interaction required.

Unsurprisingly, COVID-19 impacted the supply chain and sourcing of components, which affected the project timeline, says Bernard. “Fortunately, due to the strong collaboration with Kraft Heinz and meticulous planning, the team worked a detailed schedule of many small production shutdown times to execute the new equipment and system implementation.”

The shutdown window for the old line to be decommissioned and the new line to be started was only a few weeks. “Once the shutdown started, the team was quick to integrate all the equipment. The planning between Spec, Kraft Heinz, and the subcontractors was critical in meeting the shutdown window,” he adds.

“We’re proud of the fact that in executing this

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project, we were able to add in-line blending without decreasing our throughputs,” states Mandefro.

She is also pleased with how the project team was able to execute this project while maintaining Kraft Heinz’s high-quality product and production standards. “We adhered to our stringent health and safety standards and were able to manage our material management very efficiently,” she explains.

“All of us at Kraft Heinz are incredibly proud of the Manufacturing Innovation Award recognition we received for this important project, especially given the challenges and complexities posed by the pandemic,” says Mitch Arends, Kraft Heinz senior vice president of U.S. operations and manufacturing. “We remain committed to producing the highest-quality products and maintaining a safe environment for our team members, and this award is a great validation for our teams who have worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic to continue feeding America during these challenging times.”

Dean Snyder Construction www.deansnyder.com

Rockwell Automation www.rockwellautomation.com/en-us.html

Mixsys www.mix-sys.com

Spec Engineering www.spec.engineering

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TECH TODAY: MECHANICAL CONVEYING SYSTEMS HANK HOGAN | CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Particularly with the uncertainty that the pandemic brought with it, industry suppliers are working to provide more flexible, reliable, hygienic conveyors, with an increased level of automation.

Innovations in Flexibility, R Keep Products Moving A

S WITH MANY SYSTEMS in food and beverage manufacturing, the COVID-19 pandemic has put several demands on mechanical conveying systems throughout plant operations. Increased need for flexibility, monitoring and reporting capabilities, reliability, and enhanced sanitation are just a few examples. The technologies that help with these requirements can also help control costs.

When COVID-19 vaccines started rolling out, getting dry ice in the right amount to the right place became critical—it kept the vaccine cold and ensured its integrity during high-volume transportation. The discharging solution developed for this project illustrates some of the ways that conveying systems are tackling challenges in the food and beverage industry as well.

One way is through increased automation, which also comes with greater monitoring and reporting capabilities. Every sensor in the dry ice discharging system used in the vaccine project reports back to a server, providing a wealth of information about the operation of the system and its health, according to Scott Nyhof, president of Material Transfer, the system integrator on the project.

This is data that a food plant operator can use. “They know when something is not running right,” Nyhof says. “Is this bearing failing? They

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can probably figure it out by how long it takes to rotate the unit.”

Such applications—along with frozen foods, pet foods, plant-based proteins, and other rapidly growing market segments—need an assist to flow freely and consistently. In the case of dry ice, that aid is mechanical and subjected to a temperature of -109 °F, Nyhof notes.

Although Material Transfer makes simple conveyors, the integrator called on Eriez to help achieve the required material movement for this dry ice application. A customized 65B Electromagnetic Vibratory Feeder handles the sub-zero temperatures and enables precise feed control, says Eric Confer, market manager for light industry at Eriez.

The feeder also readily incorporates into a highly automated system, Confer adds. “Eriez offers standard controls that can integrate into a variety of computer-driven processes, making automation as easy as flipping a switch,” he says. “We also provide custom controls for intrinsic automation, such as closed-loop and standalone systems.”

Addressing changing demands Automation advances in conveying technology are also making it easier for food and beverage producers to weather shifts in production demands

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Key Technology’s Zephyr horizontal-motion conveyor minimizes bounce to reduce product damage, noise, and loss of seasoning.

y, Reliability PHOTO COURTESY OF KEY TECHNOLOGY

PHOTO COURTESY OF WIRE BELT

brought about by the pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, a customer of Key Technology produced bulk packages of frozen french fries destined for quick serve restaurants. That line of business came to an abrupt halt, followed by weeks of idle time. When the production line started up again, a wide range of potato products in retail packs replaced what had been a large volume of identical packets of frozen fries. A steady and predictable flow became much more varied, subject to change with little notice.

Automation helped the producer adapt to this new—and still evolving—environment, says Rudy Sanchez, process systems product development manager for Key Technology. The conveyors can fit into a plant’s control systems, bringing additional benefits. “On a fully integrated line, data collected by the sensors on one machine can automatically trigger all the necessary adjustments to other machines on the line without human intervention,” Sanchez says. “For example, if downstream equipment sends data about changes to product flow, it can trigger upstream gates or diverters on distribution shakers to control feed rates.”

This monitoring and control can be done from a location within the plant or remotely. With the right setup, this oversight can even happen on a smartphone, a tablet, or other mobile device.

Automation improves labor productivity The increasing use and availability of automation can help with another prominent issue: varying workforce availability. Stay-at-home orders, absence due to COVID-19 quarantine protocols, and the impact of illness on individuals and families have all contributed to unpredictable swings in the number of staff present at any given time. Automation can improve staff productivity by taking over some tasks, making overall operation more efficient and safer in the process.

Hapman conveyors, for example, come in a variety of sizes and configurations. But one thing all of them have in common is a control system that eliminates challenges caused by manual links among other systems on the line. “Our conveyors all come with auto start/stop functions for downstream equipment,” says Mike Zeluff, product manager for Helix flexible screw conveyors at Hapman. “Nine times out of 10, we’re going to a hopper, to a packaging machine, or to a feeder that has a high-level sensor in it already. Our controls can work off of that sensor so that the operator is not starting and stopping the conveyor.”

Automation protects against the challenges of a fluctuating workforce in several ways, according to Greg Slack, vice president of global sales for www.profoodworld.com

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A conveyor with open construction moves meat products across a belt suitable for use in hygienesensitive applications.

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PHOTO COURTESY OF ERIEZ/MATERIAL TRANSFER

The integrated dry ice process includes a crusher, scale system, and customized feeder and controls required to report diagnostics.

Flexicon. First, eliminating manual methods of conveying, bulk filling, dumping, and unloading equipment reduces the chance for job-related injuries.

Second, automation can eliminate guesswork and a reliance on printed documentation or memory when setting up a transfer or conveying process.

“Specific batch menus can be entered into the system and called up when needed, which saves time and assures that the proper sequencing occurs,” Slack notes.

Virtually all of Flexicon’s equipment is available with state-of-the-art control technologies for easy-to-operate interfaces, Slack adds. These can range from pushbuttons to customized human-machine-interfaces (HMIs)—technologies that also lead to a more productive staff.

Reliability, hygienic design go hand in hand Aside from increased automation on the conveyors, two other key trends are improved reliability and enhanced sanitation. Like automation, these have taken on greater importance during the pandemic.

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“With fewer people available to work on factory floors, the value of automation, equipment reliability, easy sanitation, and great customer service have skyrocketed,” Key Technology’s Sanchez says.

Reliability and sanitation go hand in hand, he notes. For example, many Key Technology customers choose vibratory conveyors over belt conveyors because they have fewer moving parts and an easyto-clean bed surface, improving both reliability and sanitation. What’s more, Key Technology’s vibratory conveyors feature a monobeam construction, with a single structural member tucked under the conveyor bed. That improves sanitation because there are fewer parts to clean. Smart feedback improves system control, thereby enhancing product flow, reducing spillage from the conveyor, and further boosting sanitation.

This focus on sanitation begins with the design of the conveyors. Engineers use finite element analysis and flow modeling to simulate product movement on the conveyor and the operation of the conveyor itself. This analysis is followed by other design and construction practices.

“We slope surfaces to prevent standing water, minimize laminated surfaces and make 100% continuous welds instead of skip welds,” Sanchez says.

“We consider the sanitary design features within product contact zones as well as the splash zones and the structural supports supporting the equipment. All of our conveyors can be washed down with high-temperature, high-pressure water.”

Wire Belt Company of America makes its products from stainless steel, which has always been safe for food contact. But the company has taken further steps toward hygienic design. “Wire Belt has recently introduced a line of enhanced hygienic conveyors that have many food safety-related features,” says Rick Spiak, vice president of sales and marketing for the belt supplier.

Features of the new Wire Belt line include simplified wash-through and open section leg frame construction, part of a clean-in-place (CIP) design that makes the conveyors easy to sanitize, clean, and maintain. The equipment also contains high-density blue plastic components. These materials, along with the design, leave no place for bacteria and allergens to hide.

“All our sanitary equipment is constructed of 304 or 316 stainless steel and finished to food and dairy standards, including 3-A certified and USDA accepted,” says Flexicon’s Slack. In addition, the equipment offers design features that minimize washdown time while eliminating contamination.

Sanitation and the ability to easily clean equipment seemed at one time a “nice-to-have” feature,

| December 2021 | www.profoodworld.com

11/23/21 6:45 PM

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TECH TODAY: MECHANICAL CONVEYING SYSTEMS

rial, like 304 stainless steel, to the welds that join different structural pieces together. Some welds must be continuous, polished, and blended into the base metal. At the extreme, customer requirements might mandate a full blending, which entails grinding and fine polishing that can make the welds disappear. These various construction procedures are all done to eliminate any cracks or crevices that can trap contaminants or lead to standing water.

But there is a limit as to what is possible, Zeluff says. “Sometimes the design doesn’t allow for it because you have to build structurally to support your equipment.”

The level of support required also includes the weight of the product, which can be in the thousands of pounds. In cases where the need for sanitation and structural support collide, lasers might enable fabrication that meets requirements for cleanliness and strength, according to Zeluff.

Flexible, modular, and portable equipment is now required

PHOTO COURTESY OF FLEXICON

A bucket conveyor moves material from two bulk bag dischargers and one rigid tote discharger through the wall of a packaging room, to a weigh hopper that feeds a pouch filler.

comments John Strong, sales manager for Dynamic Conveyor. The need to maximize worker productivity during the pandemic changed the calculation with regard to throughput and sanitation. “Now speed and ease of cleaning is paramount,” he says.

The company’s DynaClean products help in this effort. Designed and fabricated to minimize places where contaminants can hide, they are easy to clean without requiring the use of any special tools, which saves time, he notes.

Food safety, conveyor quality, ease of washdown, and sanitation all work together, Hapman’s Zeluff says. These interacting needs impact everything from the finish on an industry standard mate36

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A final key trend involves adapting to change, which shows up in a number of areas. Cost and demand swings, for instance, have buffeted both the makers of conveyors and those in the food and beverage industry who use such equipment.

One way to overcome such situations is through equipment flexibility. Many of Flexicon’s systems are available with frame-mounted casters that allow for in-plant mobility, a capability that pays off in several ways, according to Slack. “The system can be rolled almost anywhere in a facility, potentially eliminating the need for multiple examples of the same equipment,” he says. “An extra benefit is that they can be moved to a designated cleaning or storage area between uses.”

Dynamic Conveyor has conveyors that are modular, Strong notes, meaning that they can be changed in the field and modified in response to demand changes. He recalls one customer that opted for a sectional sanitary conveyor so that its length could be altered to accommodate demand that ebbed and flowed due to shutdowns and other external factors.

Strong also points to the company’s portable conveyors. Food and beverage processors can move these from one bulk hopper to the next, dispensing different ingredients into the conveyor so that they form layers. The end result, in the case of one processor, was that the portable conveyor functioned as more than just a way to get material from one point to another.

“The conveyor became a multipurpose tool to collect product, and then transfer it, and then,

| December 2021 | www.profoodworld.com

11/29/21 1:35 PM

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as it unloaded, the layers of the product self-mixed, making it function as a mixing machine,” Strong explains. “Three machines in one.”

The need for more adaptability to handle changing conditions shows up in the making of conveying systems themselves, Sanchez says. Stainless steel is the biggest element in the Key Technology’s systems, and this key component has seen large swings in pricing and lead times. With the World Steel Association forecasting continued growth in steel demand for 2022, and China, a leading supplier, cutting back on steel production for environmental reasons, the squeeze on the material is not likely to ease.

Conveying system makers are therefore implementing strategies to ensure that they can meet their customers’ product needs.

“We plan ahead and purchase stainless steel and other materials and components in more quantities than we used to, so we have the necessary supplies to minimize delays and interruptions,” Sanchez says.

Other vendors report similar approaches, targeting different key components as a way to continue to provide the needed level of customer support. Wire Belt, for instance, has built up a raw material inventory, doing so at the beginning of the pandemic, according to Spiak. The company also works closely with and communicates frequently to key customers, he adds. This helps overcome supply chain challenges and demand swings.

Enhancing uptime and increasing flexibility Looking forward, conveying equipment suppliers expect these trends of automa-

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| December 2021 | www.profoodworld.com

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tion, reliability, sanitation, and flexibility to continue and to interact with each other.

Automation, for instance, is being pushed into new areas in an effort to enhance uptime and increase flexibility. Customers want assurance that equipment will be available when needed, and so suppliers are putting technology to work to provide that reassurance.

“Remote diagnostics, which lets a processor know a machine is healthy and alerts them if it’s not, is more popular now than ever,” Sanchez says.

Processors are also increasingly asking for better precision in material movement.

The need is to not only get the ingredient to the right point but also in the right amount, with the margin for error expected to continue to shrink over time.

“They [processors] need better accuracy. Accuracy is getting more and more important,” Nyhof says. Automation will continue to play a key role in measuring material and controlling its movement.

Finally, these trends and what they require may also conflict. Zeluff notes, for instance, that demand is growing for both portable units, which provide flexibility, and a higher discharge height, which is needed for bigger hoppers, blenders, and the like.

There is a limit on how big a portable unit can be, though, with one constraint being worker safety and another being ceiling height. Once unit heights get to about 14 or 15 ft, Zeluff advises going with a modular, and not portable, design. This approach does require swapping equipment in and out, but with a toolless design, the time it takes to do the switch can be reduced by two-thirds, depending on the configuration.

As heights rise, processors, system integrators, and equipment suppliers need to think through how all critical tasks will be done, preferably doing so during the design phase of a project.

A conveying system will not always simply move goods along. There will be times when the product changes, and so a towering structure installed without taking changes into account could cause a problem.

Dynamic Conveyor www.dynamicconveyor.com

Key Technology www.key.net

Eriez www.eriez.com

Material Transfer www.materialtransfer.com

Flexicon www.flexicon.com

Wire Belt Company of America www.wirebelt.com

Hapman www.hapman.com

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Dry Processing SOLUTIONS

CASE STUDY CEREALTO SIRO FOODS AARON HAND | EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Automated Ingredient Handling Brings Bevy of Benefits An automated system from Radar Process provided biscuit-making operations with more accurate weighing, elimination of foreign matter, improved inventory control, and significantly reduced safety risks for its workers.

C

EREALTO SIRO FOODS, based in Madrid, makes cookies, breakfast cereals, snacks, pasta, and other cereal-based food products at plants in Spain, the UK, Italy, Portugal, and Mexico.

At its plant in Tepeji, Mexico, the company undertook a project to automate ingredient handling on its four biscuit production lines. The goal was to guarantee accurate weighing of key ingredients such as flour and sugar; eliminate foreign matter; and reduce safety risks among workers, particularly lower back pain caused by handling large bags of ingredients.

With help from Radar Process, Cerealto Siro has been able to achieve all of these goals. “Thanks to the implementation of the automated handling of ingredients, we can guarantee greater operator safety—as well as an improvement in the workforce’s general wellbeing—by reducing arduous or uncomfortable work.

It also allows us to have an accurate inventory control, reliable weighing, and dosing with a margin of error of less than 1%,” says Sergio Barreto, engineering manager for Cerealto Siro’s Tepeji plant. “Thanks to the careful monitoring of the process, we have eliminated the risks of foreign matter appearing in the dough.”

Previously, this was an entirely manual process.

Workers poured up to 220 kg of flour and sugar—in 40 kg bags or sacks—into each of the four kneaders at a rate of two batches per hour for each kneader. “This process led to a large amount of physical work, injuries, significant quantity errors, safety risks from foreign matter entering the dough, and a significant need for low-skilled labor involved in the process,” Barreto says.

Improved food safety The change in process has not only taken a huge physical burden off the workers, but it has contributed considerably to improved food safety. With the new system, the main ingredients are dispensed within a closed system—coming from 75-ton silos that are automatically fed from tanker trucks.

“These ingredients are not exposed to the environment or any type of handling at any time, and go

PHOTO COURTESY OF CEREALTO SIRO FOODS

through different processes, including sieving, filtering, and the retention of ferrous elements using magnetic detectors,” Barreto explains. “Spills are largely avoided, as the ingredients are handled in closed pipes as part of a pneumatic conveying process.”

Any recipe modifications from one batch to the next are carried out automatically based on predefined recipes that the operator can change with a single click. The automatic dosing system also offers significant benefits in inventory control. “It is very quick and easy to obtain consumption data and view it either all together, by recipe, by customer, by ingredient, or via any other method of analysis that you wish to carry out,” Barreto notes.

Implementation and operation challenges Despite the project’s benefits, it did not come without challenges. It involved a significant change to the line layout, and it was not easy to keep production running during transition, Barreto notes. “Modifying the feeding of the mixers while continuing to knead as part of production was not an easy task, and the process had to be organized very well,” he says. “The project stakeholders were fully involved in the implementation of the new system, which facilitated decision-making and the correct implementation of the project. Technical support from Radar Process was always available from receipt of equipment to start-up.”

Radar Process www.radarprocess.com

www.profoodworld.com

1221_DP-CaseStudy.indd 41

Automated ingredient handling brought several benefits to Cerealto Siro’s biscuit production.

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Dry Processing SOLUTIONS s

NEW PRODUCTS

LAB COMPACTION SYSTEM USES SAME MECHANISM AS PRODUCTION-SCALE SYSTEMS A low-volume benchtop model for R&D and trial batch production, the Fitzpatrick lab compaction system has capacities from 10 g to 6 kg/hr.

Offering scalable dry granulation, the LCS unit utilizes a twin feed screw system and 20-kN/cm roll pressure to process powders; a variety of roller styles is available. The system features touchpad control of all independent feed and compaction variables, and is optionally available for containment systems.

Fitzpatrick, a Business Unit of IDEX MPT | fitzpatrick-mpt.com

LEVEL DETECTORS OPERATE EFFICIENTLY IN HARD-TO-REACH LOCATIONS Dynatrol level detectors have a vibrating probe that prevents buildup and ensures level measurement. Applications vary from powdered sugar and potato flakes to nuts, seeds, dried fruit, or frozen vegetables, as well as flavorings, spices, and additives. Approved for Class I, Groups C and D; Class II, Groups E, F, and G; and Class III services, the sealed, suspended DJ level detectors have no moving parts and do not require any field calibration before installation. Specialized units can be used in temperatures exceeding 300 °F, as well as below freezing temperatures and refrigerated applications.

BULK BAG FILLER PROVIDES ECONOMICAL WAY TO PACKAGE POWDERS Built for the sanitary packaging of a variety of powders, the Powder Process-Solutions bulk bag filler has a suspension system for weighing bulk bags and a dust-tight fill head. The fully automatic filler also includes an inflatable seal ring that secures itself around the bag during filling to prevent product leakage. With the system, bulk bags are filled in a criticalhygiene zone, then an overhead trolley transfers them to be palletized in a medium-hygiene zone.

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MODULE IS DESIGNED FOR APPLICATIONS WHERE CROSS-CONTAMINATION MUST BE AVOIDED Integrating feeding with continuous mixing in a compact footprint, the Gericke module features a gravimetric loss-in-weight inline feeder that automatically meters dry material into the companion continuous mixer. The self-contained, compact Turbo module mixes up to 20,000 L/hr, and can be installed directly upstream from extruders and filling equipment. It is suitable for food and nutrition recipes with multiple major, minor, and micro ingredients, such as flavors, colorants, and other additives. FDA-compliant models for hygienic processing and ATEX-certified units for hazardous environments are available.

Gericke USA | gerickegroup.com

| December 2021 | www.profoodworld.com

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Dry Processing SOLUTIONS

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LUMP BREAKERS HAVE A COMPACT FOOTPRINT TO FIT INTO MOST STACK-UP RESTRICTIONS Palamatic Process lump breakers promote the free flow of dry materials that tend to form agglomerates in storage or when exposed to humid conditions. Supplied in mild, 304, or 316 steel, the lump breakers utilize two pin shafts with knives or blades that spin at a fixed or variable rate. A stationary mesh screen below the grinding medium helps increase the efficacy of the de-lumping mechanism. The lump breakers are available with bulk bag discharge stations and fine powder milling equipment; modifications can be made to meet different hazardous area classifications.

Palamatic Process | palamaticprocess.com

DUST COLLECTION SYSTEM PROVEN SAFE FOR DUST CLEANUP IN HAZARDOUS ZONES

FEEDER HAS MORE STABLE WEIGHT SIGNAL THAN OTHER SYSTEMS The Vibra Screw composite feeder provides accuracies to ±0.25% in gravimetric mode. Offering controlled vibration during the refill cycle, the AccuFeed plastic-bodied loss-inweight feeder features contact materials made of USDA- and FDA-approved polyethylene and stainless steel for sanitary compliance. Available in 0.5- to 6-in. screw diameters, it has capacities from 0.24 to over 600 cu ft/hr. The feeder adapts to a range of storage and discharge systems, and a variety of applications with the addition of a secondary trough-conditioning screw for non-free-flowing materials. The microprocessor-based controls include a membrane keyboard and a display that distinguishes actual weight from electronic noise.

The Volkmann dust collection system is ATEX certified as explosion-proof for providing protection in areas where an explosive atmosphere in the form of a combustible dust cloud is continuously present during normal operation. Designed for the cleanup of dust and spillage at hoppers, bag stations, tablet presses, and other equipment, the VSHC dust collector automatically captures fine particulates and whisks them away for reuse or disposal. Suitable for removing any type of ignitable fine powder with a minimum ignition energy greater than 1 mJ, the system comes with a vacuum pump, filter, automatic filter cleaning system, vacuum hose, pickup tool, and accessories, all set on a rolling platform.

It is available in 18-, 14-, and 10-in. diameters.

Volkmann USA | volkmannusa.com

DUST-FREE HANDLING OF BULK SOLID MATERIALS Mounted on locking casters, the Flexicon bulk bag discharger accommodates bulk bags 36- to 84-in. tall. The Bulk-out BFF Series discharger with a mobile flexible screw conveyor has a removable bag-lifting frame with strap holders.

A clamp ring atop a pneumatically actuated telescoping tube secures the clean side of the bag spout to the clean side of the equipment, and exerts continuous downward tension on the bag as it empties and elongates, while a vent port with a filter sock contains dust. Bag activators raise and lower opposite bottom sides of the bag at timed intervals into a steep V shape. The discharge housing of the conveyor is supported by a mast affixed to the mobile discharger frame, allowing the transfer of bulk materials to multiple destinations.

Flexicon | flexicon.com

Vibra Screw | vibrascrew.com 44

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| December 2021 | www.profoodworld.com

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Gorman-Rupp Super T Series® pumps deliver reliable performance in harsh solids-handling water applications. Add a Gorman-Rupp Eradicator® Solids Management System to clean up mop strings, flushable wipes, gloves and more. Unlike cheap imitators, Super T Series pumps deliver years of trouble-free operation backed by a five-year warranty and the industry’s fastest parts service.

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CHECKWEIGHER COUNTERACTS COSTLY PRODUCT GIVEAWAY

Operating as a standalone product feed and packing weighing unit, the Fortress Technology checkweigher has a modular electronics suite that allows full integration with a Fortress metal detector to create a combination system. The standard hygienic Raptor checkweigher can weigh items from 200 lightweight packs and chilled convenience meals in motion, up to a maximum of 8 kg.

The digital data capture feature helps pinpoint upstream operational deficiencies, such as overfilling of packs and packaging waste, while a large touchscreen enables operators to customize statistical information.

Fortress Technology | fortresstechnology.com

PUMPS INCLUDE CLEANING SYSTEM TO ELIMINATE THE NEED FOR EXTERNAL CIP BYPASS Available with an easy-clean system, Mouvex H-Flo and SLS Series pumps feature a design that incorporates the bypass directly inside the pump, allowing CIP flow in hygienic applications and eliminating the need for an additional power source.

The cleaning system balances the pressures inside and outside the pump bellows, creating resistance to water hammer; limits pressure drops inside the pump; reduces the need for the extra clearance necessary for CIP temperatures; and allows the cleaning process to take place without waiting for the pump to cool down.

Mouvex | mouvex.com

DOSING AND DELIVERY SYSTEM ENABLES ON-DEMAND PRODUCTION OF SINGLEDOSE SACHETS The V-Shapes dosing and delivery system prints, forms, fills, and seals single-dose sachets. The compact AlphaFlex system offers synchronized, full-color printing on both sides of sachets. The printing module prints a single side of the sachets in-line, synchronized with each other and precisely married for die cutting, filling, and sealing. The system is a vertically integrated end-to-end solution.

V-Shapes | v-shapes.com

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PRESSURE FEED VESSEL ENSURES EVEN MIXING AND CONSISTENT BATCHES

Custom built for multi-phase mixing, Ross ribbon blenders are available with an optional pressure feed vessel that discharges minor liquid ingredients through a spray bar and into the blending zone to be mixed into powder or other solids. Able to be used while the blender is closed, the spray bar typically includes four or more spray nozzles to distribute liquids uniformly along the entire length of the blender.

After the blending cycle, the pressure feed vessel can assist with CIP or washdowns. The vessel comes in a range of sizes to accommodate the required volume of the additive liquid phase.

Charles Ross & Son | mixers.com

www.profoodworld.com

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DIGITAL SORTERS SATISFY MORE STRINGENT STANDARDS WHILE IMPROVING PROFITABILITY

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PLANT FLOOR NEW PRODUCTS

Featuring next-generation LED illumination and enhanced laser scanner technology, Key Technology digital sorters house all utility components within the frame, eliminating the need for an external enclosure. Veryx 2.0 sorters include an artificial intelligence-driven monitoring tool that sends alerts if a critical foreign material (FM) event occurs, records a time-stamped image of each critical FM object detected by the sorter, allows an operator to verify the FM has been sorted out, and enables the understanding of FM trends and research sources of possible contamination onto the line. Sort-to-grade software can categorize every product defect and the dimensions of every object, and automatically make optimal accept/reject decisions, based on the defined target quality spec.

Key Technology | key.net

SANITARY PUMP MINIMIZES FOREIGN MATERIAL RISK Built for food processing applications requiring daily strip-down sanitization, the Unibloc sanitary pump is engineered from stainless steel and has a free-floating rotor design that contains no rotor bolts. The QuickStrip FoodFirst PD600 series pump is fully operable without the use of a front cover O-ring in most cases and features a safety wing arm that supports the front cover and keeps it off the floor, providing an added measure of safety for both employees and the pump.

COATING PROVIDES ABRASION, CHEMICAL, SOLVENT, AND WATER RESISTANCE Designed for heavy traffic areas, Wooster non-slip coating allows sure footing on normally wet surfaces, such as freezer floors, brewery floors, cannery floors, ramps, walkways, and decks. A two-part anti-slip system, Epoxy WP-70 coating is applied using a trowel and squeegee, and renews damaged ramps and floors in one coat. It can be applied to metal, aluminum, wood, concrete, and other surfaces. One gallon covers about 25 to 35 sq ft of surface area and dries in about eight hours. The coating comes in black or gray.

Unibloc Pump | uniblocpump.com

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Wooster Products | woosterproducts.com

CONTINUOUS PROCESSORS ALLOW EASY CLEANING WITHOUT WORKER ENTRY Readco Kurimoto continuous processors come with an optional double clamshell barrel design that allows full access to the interior screw and paddle assembly. Engineered for compliance with OSHA 29 CFR 1910.146 regulating permit-required confined space entry, the processors are engineered with a self-wiping action that automatically prevents material buildup inside the barrel and discharges nearly 100% of material in process as homogeneous product. The custom-engineered units integrate mixing, blending, reacting, compounding, crystallizing, encapsulating, and/or other processes with multiple liquid, dry, and viscous materials.

Readco Kurimoto | readco.com

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CONVEYOR REDUCES LABOR COSTS AND PRODUCT WASTE The Apex Motion Control conveyor automatically handles round or sheet cake layers. Compatible with 18 x 13-in. half-sheet cakes and 13-in. diameter round cakes, the smart conveyor stacks up to 60 layers/min. A modular design allows the system to stack up to six iced cake layers. Available in multiple configurations and footprints, the hygienically designed conveyor can be fitted with an Apex tray feeding system or Baker-Bot for tray handling.

Apex Motion Control | apexmotion.com

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DETECTION TECHNOLOGY CAPTURES MORE DETAILED DATA THAN PREVIOUSLY POSSIBLE Eagle detection technology can identify bone fragments down to 1 mm in size in fresh, frozen, and refrigerated poultry products, as well as in bulk flow and retail poultry portions. When paired with an Eagle RMI 400 X-ray machine, Performance X-ray technology detects bones as small as 0.6 mm. Highresolution product images are processed instantly through the use of image analysis software. The technology also is available in multiple Eagle X-ray machines for general food applications.

When it comes to your steam generation needs, keeping all your eggs in one basket by relying on a single firetube boiler can be a huge risk, because if your boiler goes down, chances are you will lose production. Miura’s Modular, On-Demand steam solution is like having every egg in its own basket. Plus, Miura provides N+1 redundancy with less total installed horsepower, providing cost savings and unparalleled reliability and efficiency.

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Eagle Product Inspection | eaglepi.com

Miura’s LX-300 in M.I. configuration offers a range of advantages.

www.profoodworld.com

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us.info@miuraz.com 888-309-5574 miuraboiler.com

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PLANT FLOOR NEW PRODUCTS

WEB-BASED PORTAL PROVIDES BOILER ROOM OPERATORS WITH REAL-TIME INFORMATION The Miura web-based portal provides boiler room operators with system health tracking, scheduled report generation, and optimal system reliability scheduling. The Connect real-time, remote-view portal comes standard with real-time equipment monitoring, integrated technical documentation, and custom-tailored alarm notifications via text or email. Collected from advanced IoT sensors, the boiler room historical trends and data are stored on the cloud platform with secure encryption. Multiple boiler rooms can be monitored from one centralized location to proactively monitor all connected equipment, conduct trend analysis, ensure procedural compliance, and schedule maintenance or inspections.

Miura America | miuraboiler.com

PUMPS IMPROVE SOLIDS MANAGEMENT Gorman-Rupp pumps handle flushable wipes, rags, and other stringy materials. The Eradicator option for GormanRupp Ultra V Series solids-handling, self-priming centrifugal trash pumps has an aggressive self-cleaning wear plate designed to handle clog-prone material. An inspection cover allows easy access to the inside of the pump. Upgrade kits are available for existing installations.

Gorman-Rupp | grpumps.com

SYSTEM OFFERS SIMPLE, CLEAN, EFFICIENT SPRAYING The GOE spraying system applies sheens, glazes, preservatives, egg wash, oils, and sugar solutions to buns, breads, pastries, flat breads, and rolls. Featuring a proprietary dispensing design, the Apex system has a totally enclosed, self-contained hood and body that ensure mist containment. All liquid not applied to product is recovered and used.

Programmable logic control (PLC) with a human-machine interface (HMI) is standard. Available with a range of options, such as remote or local control, reservoir alarms, additional mist collection, jacketing, and reservoir mixing, the system comes in standalone and portable versions, and can be retrofitted to existing line configurations.

General Oil Equipment | goe-spray.com

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SANITIZER REACHES AREAS WHERE PATHOGENS CAN HIDE

EPA registered for use in food and beverage facilities, ETCS dry sanitizer improves environmental biosecurity and sanitation on surfaces where conditions favor microorganism growth. Based on controlledrelease technology, PeraGuard concentrated, odorless peracetic floor and equipment sanitizer is activated by water or moisture. It uses peroxygen chemistry only and does not damage wastewater systems.

The sanitizer does not contain quaternary ammonium, and has no hazardous by-products. It is highly effective against E. coli, listeria, salmonella, staphylococcus, and other deadly pathogens.

Enviro Tech Chemical Services | envirotech.com 50

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SPRAY LUBRICANT HELPS KEEP MACHINERY MOVING SAFELY AND EFFICIENTLY Fortified with anti-wear additives and oxidant inhibiters, Chain Guard lubricant has a high flash point and is suitable for use in temperatures from -13 to 599 °F. CFIA and NSF H1 food-grade registered, Formula 600 ester-based synthetic aerosol spray lubricant meets all regulations set out by the FDA (21 CFR 178.3750), and is acceptable for incidental contact with food in and around food processing areas. Providing a protective anti-rust and corrosion coating, it delivers a powerful spray pattern that allows lubrication for hard-to-reach pinch point and moving part locations. It is suitable for conveyors, chains, bakery ovens, racks, slicers, grinders, casters, and other food processing equipment.

Chain Guard chainguard.com

SPRAYER BUILT FOR BAKERIES SEEKING A STREAMLINED SOLUTION Designed to function primarily as a standalone unit, the Unifiller Systems sprayer handles a variety of applications, such as spraying oil onto pans for easy pan release, simple syrup or milk onto cake layers, egg wash onto bread and pastries, and flocking condiments, including ketchup, mustard, or mayo, onto bread, wraps, and more. The Uni-Sprayer compact bakery machine features food-grade light and flexible braided hose, interchangeable tips for a range of products and patterns, a mobile frame with enclosed pneumatics, air filtration system, and 5-gal pressurized tank.

With an optional flocker nozzle, it can handle particulates up to 1 mm in size.

The full range of

HYGIENIC PUMPS from one manufacturer CENTRIFUGAL | ROTARY LOBE | TWIN-SCREW | DOUBLE DIAPHRAGM | PERISTALTIC PUMPS

Unifiller Systems | unifiller.com

Peristaltic hose pumps Only hygienic peristaltic pump on the market not requiring a lubricant bath Aseptic-like processing as no seals required Tri clamp or hose barb connections Low spallation reinforced hoses that meet FDA CFR 21

Visit www.verder.us or call 877-783 7337 for more information. www.profoodworld.com

| December 2021 | PROFOOD WORLD

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PLANT FLOOR NEW PRODUCTS

CONVEYOR CONSERVES CRITICAL FLOOR SPACE The Multi-Conveyor gravity conveyor transports tall-shaped plastic products. The products are robotically placed on the 5-ft-high, mildsteel, dual-lane conveyor, where they index through a product-forming process, then incline to an ultimate height of nearly 8 ft. The products proceed at this elevation through two 90-deg turns, with over 16 ft of straight conveyance between the curves, to an end stop.

Multi-Conveyor multi-conveyor.com

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CONVEYORS OFFER HIGH LEVEL OF HYGIENIC STANDARDS

ROBOT ACCOMMODATES REPETITIVE TASKS AND WAREHOUSING/LOGISTICS APPLICATIONS Designed for machine tending and a variety of picking applications, the Fanuc America robot handles a 10-kg payload with a full-work envelope or a 13-kg payload with a restricted envelope.

The LR-10iA/10 robot mounts to the floor, upside down, or on an angle, or to an AGV or other mobile platform. It features a 1,101-mm reach; a fully enclosed, IP67-rated structure with built-in air lines, solenoid valves, and I/O signals; and a smooth surface with internal valves.

Fanuc America | fanucamerica.com

SideDrive Conveyor sidedriveconveyor.com

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SENSORS PROVIDE REVERSE POLARITY, TRANSIENT, SHORT CIRCUIT, AND OVERLOAD PROTECTION

Built for a variety of applications, such as naked, raw, and packaged food products, SideDrive hygienic conveyors use side-drive, edge-driven technology. The plastic, modular spiral conveyors can be configured in a range of ways, including curved; spiral; with turns, multiple inclines, and declines; straight; and without transfers. Features include an open, accessible design with a drumless, or cageless, spiral design; a sanitary, stainless-steel frame with smooth welds; sloped surfaces; minimal bolted connections; and modular belting, drives, rods, and sprockets made with USDA-compliant plastic.

Designed for challenging applications on mobile equipment, Carlo Gavazzi sensors assure the reliable detection of actuating parts, such as hydraulic pistons and gear speed, on mobile cranes, forklifts, and more. The ICS Series E1-approved inductive proximity sensors include an AISI 304 stainless-steel housing, -40 to 185 °F operating temperature range, and IP68 and IP69K ingress protection rating.

They are shock-resistant up to 100 g continuous 40-g shock and vibration-resistant to 20 g, and have an extended power supply range

from 8 to 60 VDC. Carlo Gavazzi | gavazzionline.com

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| December 2021 | www.profoodworld.com

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FOOD SAFETY FO

CONCERNS? Rely on 98 years of sanitary protein bagging experience • 3A-certified forming tubes • Electropolished frame with continuous weldments • Patent-pending dye-filled film rollers

KEEPING FOOD SAFE

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CASE STUDY GEORGE CHIALA FARMS MELISSA GRIFFEN | CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Vegetable Ingredient Supplier Goes Digital GC Farms gets data insights from its sorting systems to improve line rates, product quality, yields, and profitability.

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GRICULTURE AND FOOD BUSINESS George Chiala Farms (GC Farms) produces prepared vegetable ingredients for wellknown consumer brands whose products—such as soups, salsas, and frozen entrees—are sold throughout the U.S. The business operates two processing plants year-round—in Morgan Hill and Hollister, both in central California—employing about 500 people and processing more than 120 million lb of vegetable ingredients annually. This throughput requires about 150 million lb of raw vegetables, some grown by GC Farms and some by third-party suppliers.

To meet the kinds of quality demands it faces from the market today, GC Farms has turned not only to more automated sorting of the vegetables, but also to data insights that provide further optimization.

“As the industry moves toward ready-to-eat products, our customers’ quality expectations have gotten a lot higher,” says Charles Cutler, GC Farms’ director of operations. “Quality used to mean assuring food safety. Now it’s about achieving product perfection. That’s why we have made a big shift in the last couple of years from manual sorting to automated sorting. This has taken our product quality to a higher standard, allowed us to reduce and stabilize our labor force, and reduced our labor costs for sorting on our Hollister location line by 75%.”

Shifting to automated sorting alone was not enough. “The quality of our raw materials can vary a lot, but the quality of what goes out to our customers has to be consistently high,” Cutler explains. “To give our customers everything they ask for in quality, it is George Chiala Jr.’s vision to embrace digitalization, to be at the forefront of our industry.”

To make this vision a reality, GC Farms turned to the recently launched Tomra Insight data platform from Tomra Food, which supplies sensor-based sorting machines and integrated post-harvest sys-

PHOTO COURTESY OF GC FARMS

GC Farms turned to the recently launched Tomra Insight platform from Tomra Food, using data Data collection reduces production costs from sorting Tomra Insight is a subscription-based service, demachines veloped from customer feedback, that gathers data to optimize from sorting machines. The data can then be used operations.

tems. The two companies have worked together in the past, with an assortment of Tomra belt sorters and free-fall sorters installed at both of GC Farms’ locations to help the company cope with increasing production volumes.

to optimize machine settings in real time, as well as retrospectively to make informed strategic business decisions. The food sorter becomes a connected device rather than an isolated machine, which helps to improve the efficiency of quality management, process engineering and optimization, machine maintenance, and crop purchasing from growers.

Through data gathered, downtime is reduced by monitoring machine health in near real time, supporting the management of predictive and condition-based maintenance, and preventing unscheduled machine shutdowns. Operating costs are reduced by identifying gaps in production and analyzing potential root causes. And sorting to target quality is enhanced by having accurate www.profoodworld.com

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CASE STUDY GEORGE CHIALA FARMS

Tomra Insight can be used to optimize machine settings in real time, as well as retrospectively to make informed strategic business decisions.

PHOTO COURTESY OF TOMRA

material-composition data that enables decisions to be based on more detailed information. Because this data platform continuously measures the quality of the processing line’s material stream, operators can make prompt adjustments to machine settings in response to changes in material composition on the line.

The gathered data is stored securely in the cloud so that it can be accessed from anywhere via web-based desktop and mobile devices. Tomra Insight is built on Microsoft Azure’s cloud system and provides scalability, safety, and speed. This allows Tomra customers to connect the Tomra Insight platform to their internal IT systems, such as business intelligence (BI), enterprise resource planning (ERP), manufacturing execution system (MES), manufacturing data collection (MDC), and other industrial automation systems.

Improving line rates and quality The three Tomra machines at Morgan Hill and the Tomra 5A at Hollister are connected to Tomra Insight. This has put live access to machine data from both plants at Cutler’s fingertips. And in the first few months of using Tomra Insight, the Morgan Hill plant saw two big benefits: enhanced control over line rates, which optimizes line efficiency and throughput; and the ability to accurately assess the quality of incoming raw materials, which saves the company money when quality isn’t what it should be.

“Whenever we’ve had a really bad batch of vegetables, we’ve been able to discuss this with our growers by sharing the Tomra Insight report,” Cutler says. “This ensures we pay a fair price for what we’re receiving, and it can help growers identify if there are any issues that they need to address to improve their processes and profitability.”

In addition to reporting defect composition percentages in charts, Tomra Insight allows users to create reports specific to batches rather than a particular timeframe. In the works are an automated reporting feature that can specify the number of requirements to be reported on, the frequency of reports, and the email addresses to which they should be sent automatically.

The efficiency of the easy-to-read dashboard has allowed the company’s operators to make near-instantaneous decisions on the line instead of waiting until the run is over to see the yield, Cutler notes. A dashboard shows if line adjustments are needed, and the data confirms if those changes are working.

The monthly Tomra Insight updates also allow GC Farms to improve its processes with organizational tools.

“Seeing and acting on data is improving our line rates, our product quality, our yields, and our profitability,” Cutler says.

Tomra Food www.tomra.com

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| December 2021 | www.profoodworld.com

11/29/21 9:35 AM

EYE ON THE ENVIRONMENT

CALL FOR ENTRIES

Sustainability Excellence in Manufacturing Awards

Each year, ProFood World recognizes outstanding food and beverage processing and packaging innovation projects via the Sustainability Excellence in Manufacturing Awards competition.

Produced by

Multiple awards will be named in the program and project categories including: O O O O

Awards to be presented at

Reduction in water and energy Waste conservation Pollution prevention Packaging reductions

ENTER THE RECENTLY ADDED PROCESSOR/ SUPPLIER PARTNERSHIP CATEGORY!

Join past winners such as Campbell Soup, Land O’Lakes, McCormick, Smithfield, Conagra Brands, Hormel, Hiland Dairy, Big Heart Pet Brands, Liffey Meats, and Graphic Packaging International.

Learn more at pfwgo.to/sema

Entries are due March 1, 2022.

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CASE STUDY LAKESHORE TECHNOLOGIES AARON HAND |

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Metal Contamination Removal Is Key to Success Becoming known for its ability to find and remove metal contaminants from customer products, a toll processor relies heavily on metal detectors and magnetic separators from Eriez.

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AKESHORE TECHNOLOGIES has been offering its toll processing services to the food and pharmaceutical industries since 1997. Though still a relatively small company—with just 15 employees at its facility in Norton Shores, Mich.—Lakeshore processes some 6 million kilograms of product a year.

Over the years, the processor has come to be known for its ability to solve metal contamination problems where others have failed.

This expertise came about after a very hard lesson early in Lakeshore’s history. When the company first started, it was running one line, with a mezzanine that went over the equipment. After it was installed, they realized there was one piece that wasn’t installed correctly, and they needed to drill a couple holes to fix it. Long story short, after running their first product, the customer found metal in it, and Lakeshore nearly went out of business with that loss of reputation.

“We had to find a way to stay in business, and magnets and metal detectors became our new best

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Lakeshore tried out its first Eriez Xtreme Metal Detector about seven years ago, and has since set about replacing all of its metal detectors with the easy-to-use model.

Mastering the metal detector

PHOTO COURTESY OF ERIEZ

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friend,” says Ricardo Lopez, Lakeshore’s president.

“We wanted the strongest magnet we could find.”

It was through this search that Lakeshore found Eriez and its rare earth magnetics. “We really looked into finding the greatest magnet out there,” Lopez says. “We went through a couple of magnetic separator suppliers until we came across Eriez and learned about their magnet’s ability to take 99 percent of the metal out of the product before going to the metal detector.”

A blind test commissioned by Eriez and conducted by Penn State compared 13 tube magnets from various suppliers to determine which would most effectively remove dangerous ferrous metal and weakly magnetic contaminants from process flows.

It showed that the rare earth tube magnets from Eriez are able to remove metal contamination with a pull test strength that is 13 to 40% stronger than other commercially available magnets.

“We use the study as part of some of our audits to show how we compare to competitive offerings and provide evidence as to how and why our system is better,” Lopez says.

And Lakeshore uses the magnets to attract more customers—not only staying in business but actually becoming well known for its expertise in metal removal. “When FSMA [Food Safety and Modernization Act] was enacted, that helped us out tremendously. Most toll manufacturers at the time weren’t compliant with FSMA,” Lopez notes. “Even before it was enacted, we were already compliant.”

It was about seven years ago that Lakeshore moved beyond just Eriez magnets and into their metal detectors as well. They’ve never looked back.

For an existing line, Lakeshore had a metal detector from a different supplier that was failing. The Eriez sales representative from Hi-Pro Equipment, Russ Campbell, asked them if they wouldn’t mind giving the Eriez Xtreme Metal Detector a shot. “We

| December 2021 | www.profoodworld.com

11/23/21 6:51 PM

did a demo, and we instantly fell in love with it,” Lopez says. “Since then, we’ve set about replacing every single metal detector with Eriez.”

One of the reasons Lopez was so enamored with the Eriez Xtreme was its ease of use—which in turn leads to better sensitivity and throughput. According to Lopez, he learned more about how metal detectors work within the first six months of having the Eriez Xtreme than he did in the previous 18 years of using a competing metal detector. Eriez makes its systems more intuitive, he says, and the settings on the screen are not only easy to use but also help in understanding what is going on with the products.

Metal detectors rely significantly on sensitivity and phase to operate. “I never used phase that much because I didn’t quite understand what it was manipulating,” Lopez says. “Eriez had a very visual measurement system on phase and width, and I was finally able to understand what that setting was able to manipulate. I was able to get a lot more sensitivity out of our metal detectors and push out background noise.”

This understanding made a big difference in how Lakeshore was able find smaller bits of metal in product. “If we wanted to look for very fine metal contamination, previously, the only way we would know it could get done is to go with a smaller aperture, like 2 in.,” Lopez explains. “The problem with that is it slows down the throughput. Now, because we understand it more, we only have 4- and 6-in. apertures. We can increase the throughput but still have the sensitivity we need.”

Meeting customer demands Typically, a customer that comes to Lakeshore for help already has its own magnets and metal detector but is nonetheless having trouble solving a metal contamination problem. “What we’re doing is running product through our Eriez magnets and metal detectors,” Lopez says. “We take out the contamination and return their product as pure as possible.”

For Lakeshore, one of the biggest benefits of having the Eriez metal detection is the knowledge that they’ll be able to deliver results to a customer whenever it’s needed, Lopez says.

In one recent situation, a Lakeshore customer needed to double production—they make protein powders used in shakes, and couldn’t make it fast enough to meet demand, Lopez says. They wanted Lakeshore to open a second line, but the other line didn’t have a metal detector with the specifications that the customer needed. Eriez had a metal detector in its Quick Ship Program.

“They had us up and running within a few weeks,”

PHOTO COURTESY OF ERIEZ

Lopez says. “They helped us land that second line.”

Early in its operations, Lakeshore steered clear of metal detectors as much as possible, relying instead on magnets. “We would prefer to run product through magnets, but customers did not accept this approach,” Lopez says. “We lost a lot of business because we weren’t willing to invest in a metal detector.”

Now, the Eriez metal detector is a key selling point, playing an important part in Lakeshore’s ongoing success, according to Lopez.

In one recent case, Lakeshore was able to help a large Michigan company that had introduced copper into its product. “It got into their system, and they hadn’t noticed it for a month,” Lopez recalls.

“They had a whole warehouse full of material that had potential metal contamination.”

About to start the process of disposing of all of that product, the manufacturer remembered a small job that Lakeshore had done for its sister company, so approached them in a last ditch effort.

Not only was Lakeshore able to find the small traces of copper, but it was also able to turn it back into a viable product.

In fact, Lakeshore has been able to help customers lower their sourcing costs by making products viable that are processed in less-than-ideal operations. One of the largest confectionery companies in the U.S. wanted to start sourcing polyols from China but found high levels of metal contamination in the product. The price was too good to pass up, however. “So they buy the raw material from China and they run it through us,” Lopez says. “Even adding our process, it’s still cheaper.”

Eriez www.eriez.com

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Lakeshore Technologies is known for its ability to solve metal contamination problems where others have failed.

| December 2021

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Each of the following market leading companies participates in ProFood World ’s Leaders in Processing program. Leaders in Processing companies receive prominent, year-round exposure on ProFoodWorld.com. ProFood World sincerely thanks its participants!

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AD INDEX COMPANY Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation (Requester Publications Only) 1. Publication Title

2. Publication N umber

4. Issue Frequency

5. N umber of Issues Published A nnually

ProFood World

2 2 3

6x a year with one special issue

3 . Filing Date

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10/1/21

6. A nnual Subscription Price (if any)

7 (seven)

0

7. Complete Mailing A ddress of K nown Office of Publication (Not printer) (Street, city, county, state, and Z IP+ 4 ®)

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401 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 1700 Chicago IL 60611

George Shurtleff

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401 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 1700 Chicago IL 60611 (PUBLUSHER) 9 . Full N ames and Complete Mailing A ddresses of Publisher, Editor, and Managing Editor (D o not leave blank) Publisher (Name and complete mailing address)

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ABB Drives www.campaign.abb.com/EE Aerzen USA, Inc www.aerzen.com/en-us Bunting Magnetics www.BuntingMagnetics.com

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Complete Mailing Address Full Name

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PS Form 3526-R, July 2014 [Page 1 of 4 (See instructions page 4)] PSN : 753 0- 09 - 000- 8855

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14. Issue Date for Circulation Data Below

ProFood World Magazine 7 x Annually

October 2021

15. Ex tent and Nature of Circulation

Average No. Copies No. Copies of Single Each Issue During Issue Published Preceding 12 Months Nearest to Filing Date

38,576

a. Total N umber of Copies (Net press run) Outside County Paid/Requested Mail Subscriptions stated on PS Form 3 541.

(Include direct written request from recipient, telemarketing, and Internet (1) requests from recipient, paid subscriptions including nominal rate subscriptions, employer requests, advertiser’s proof copies, and exchange copies.) b. Legitimate Paid and/or In- County Paid/Requested Mail Subscriptions stated on PS Form 3 541.

Requested (Include direct written request from recipient, telemarketing, and Internet Distribution (2) requests from recipient, paid subscriptions including nominal rate subscriptions, (By mail employer requests, advertiser’s proof copies, and exchange copies.) and outside Sales Through Dealers and Carriers, Street V endors, Counter the mail) (3 ) Sales, and Other Paid or Requested Distribution Outside U SPS® (4)

37,763

0

0

0

d. N onrequested (2) Distribution (By mail and outside the mail) (3 )

(4)

0

0

Requested Copies Distributed by Other Mail Classes Through the U SPS (e.g., First- Class Mail®)

0

37,593

c. Total Paid and/or Requested Circulation (Sum of 15b (1), (2), (3), and (4))

(1)

39,791

37,593

37,763

Outside County N onrequested Copies Stated on PS Form 3 541 (include sample copies, requests over 3 years old, requests induced by a premium, bulk sales and requests including association requests, names obtained from business directories, lists, and other sources)

0

0

In- County N onrequested Copies Stated on PS Form 3 541 (include sample copies, requests over 3 years old, requests induced by a premium, bulk sales and requests including association requests, names obtained from business directories, lists, and other sources)

0

0

150

150

600

168

N onrequested Copies Distributed Through the U SPS by Other Classes of Mail (e.g., First-Class Mail, nonrequestor copies mailed in excess of 10% limit mailed at Standard Mail ® or Package Services rates) N onrequested Copies Distributed Outside the Mail (Include pickup stands, trade shows, showrooms, and other sources)

e.

Total N onrequested Distribution [Sum of 15d (1), (2), (3) and (4)]

f.

Total Distribution (Sum of 15c and e)

g.

Copies not Distributed (See Instructions to Publishers #4, (page #3))

h.

Total (Sum of 15f and g)

i.

Percent Paid and/or Requested Circulation (15c divided by 15f times 100)

750 38,343 233 38,576 98%

* If you are claiming electronic copies, go to line 16 on page 3 . If you are not claiming electronic copies, sk ip to line 17 on page 3 .

318 38,081 1,600 39,681 99.2%

Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation (Requester Publications Only) 16. Electronic Copy Circulation

Average No. Copies Each Issue During Previous 12 Months

PS Form 3526-R, July 2014 (Page 2 of 4) a. Requested and Paid Electronic Copies b. Total Requested and Paid Print Copies (Line 15c) + Requested/Paid Electronic Copies (Line 16a) c. Total Requested Copy Distribution (Line 15f) + Requested/Paid Electronic Copies (Line 16a) d. Percent Paid and/or Requested Circulation (Both Print & Electronic Copies) (16b divided by 16c Í 100)

No. Copies of Single Issue Published Nearest to Filing Date

990 38,583 39,333 98%

934 38,697 39,015 99.2%

I certify that 50% of all my distributed copies (electronic and print) are legitimate requests or paid copies.

17. Publication of Statement of Ownership for a Requester Publication is required and will be printed in the issue of this publication.

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December 2021 Date

10/1/2021

I certify that all information furnished on this form is true and complete. I understand that anyone who furnishes false or misleading information on this form or who omits material or information requested on the form may be subject to criminal sanctions (including fines and imprisonment) and/or civil sanctions (including civil penalties).

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PACK EXPO East www.packexpoeast.com

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CSI (Central States Industrial) www.CSIDesigns.com

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Dean Snyder Construction www.deansnyder.com

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ProFood World’s Leaders In Processing 2021

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ProFood World’s Manufacturing Innovation Awards 2022

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ProFood World’s Sustainability Excellence in Manufacturing (SEMA)

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www.profoodworld.com

Managing Editor (Name and complete mailing address)

Natalie Craig

COMPANY

www.pfwgo.to/mia

www.pfwgo.to/sema

DRB Sales www.drbsales.com

31

Radar Process, S. L. www.radarprocess.com

56

EnSight Solutions www.ensightsolutions.us

43

ROSS Mixers www.mixers.com/web-app

25

ESI Group USA 16-a www.esigroupusa.com/about-esi/events

SEW Eurodrive, Inc. www.seweurodrive.com

Festo Corporation www.festo.us

Shick Esteve www.shickesteve.com

Flexicon Corporation www.flexicon.com

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Spec Engineering www.spec.engineering.com

27

Gorman-Rupp www.GRpumps.com

46

Sterling Systems & Controls, Inc. www.sterlingcontrols.com

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Hapman www.hapman.com/profood

37

Triangle Package Machinery Company www.trianglepackage.com

53

Industrial Magnetics, Inc. www.magnetics.com

45

Urschel Laboratories, Inc. www.urschel.com

19

IPPE EXPO 2022 www.ippexpo.org

54

VAC-U-MAX www.vac-u-max.com

12

Klockner Pentaplast www.kpfilms.com

5

VDG www.vandergraaf.com/PF

Linde www.lindefood.com/protein

8

Verder, Inc. www.verder.us

51

Lubriplate Lubricants www.lubriplate.com

2

Vibra Screw Inc www.vibrascrew.com

29

Wire Belt Company of America www.wirebelt.com

35

Miura www.miuraboiler.com Munson Machinery Co. Inc. www.munsonmachinery.com

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ProFood World ® (ISSN 2476-06760, USPS 22310) is a registered trademark of PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies. ProFood World ® is published 6x a year (February, April, June, August, October, December) by PMMI Media Group, 401 North Michigan Avenue Suite 300, Chicago, IL 60611; 312.222.1010; Fax: 312.222.1310. Periodical postage paid at Chicago, IL, and additional mailing offices. Copyright 2021 by PMMI. All rights reserved. Materials in this publication must not be reproduced in any form without written permission of the publisher. Applications for a free subscription may be made online at www.profoodworld.com. Paid subscription rates per year are $55 in the U.S., $80 Canada and Mexico by surface mail; $130 Europe and South America. $200 in all other areas. To subscribe or manage your subscription to ProFood World, visit ProFoodWorld.com/subscribe. Free digital edition available to qualified individuals. POSTMASTER: Send address corrections to: ProFood World, 401 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 1700, Chicago, IL 60611. PRINTED IN USA by Quad Graphics. The opinions expressed in articles are those of the authors and not necessarily those of PMMI. Comments, questions and letters to the editor are welcome and can be sent to: jfassl@pmmimediagroup.com. We make a portion of our mailing list available to reputable firms. If you would prefer that we don’t include your name, please write us at the Chicago, IL address. Volume 5, Number 7.

| December 2021 | www.profoodworld.com

11/30/21 1:19 PM

CALL FOR ENTRIES:

Each year, ProFood World recognizes outstanding food and beverage processing and packaging innovation projects via the Manufacturing Innovation Awards competition.

Types of food and beverage projects eligible for the awards:

Judging criteria: O

Level of technology advancement in processing and packaging equipment

Greenfield or brownfield facility

O

Level of automation, software and controls

Major line expansion incorporating ground-breaking technology

O

New-to-the-industry use of technology

O

Major efficiency and cost savings

O

Line changeover, flexible manufacturing, sustainability or maintenance achievements

O

Major plant expansion or renovation

O O

O

Major plant automation upgrades

O

Major plant food safety upgrades

Submission deadline is January 17, 2022 Join the ranks of past winners, including the J.M. Smucker Company, Hermes Boissons, Dairy Farmers of America, Clemens Food Group, MWC, CTI Foods, Royal Cup Coffee and Tea, Just Born, HP Hood, and Kraft Heinz.

Learn more, view videos of past winning entries, and download submission entry forms at pfwgo.to/mia.

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Awards to be presented at:

9/24/21 10/4/21 11:21 10:02AM PM

TECH PERSPECTIVE AARON HAND | EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Polymer Surface Treatment Improves Sanitation Efficiency Start-up company Bio-Fence has created an innovative polymer that, when added to a topcoat/paint, binds disinfectant to the surface, increasing sanitation efficiency and eliminating pathogenic bacteria.

A

N ESTIMATED 600 MILLION people in the world—almost one in 10—fall ill after eating contaminated food, and 420,000 people die every year, according to the World Health Organization. Environmental pathogens within food production processes remain a considerable risk to food safety, with the presence of various bacteria in the production environment directly linked to the contamination of food.

Traditional sanitizers used on food production surfaces work for only a short time, so need to be reapplied regularly to the contaminated surfaces.

Israeli start-up Bio-Fence has developed a breakthrough technology that acts as a topcoat layer on surfaces, prolonging the efficiency of traditional sanitizers. When the surface is sanitized with a traditional sanitation agent such as chlorine, BioFence polymers within the topcoat extend the chlorine’s sanitization activity and improve its efficiency.

In an 11-week proof of concept (POC) in a hot dog peeling room, all traces of listeria spp in this highly sensitive food production environment were successfully eliminated. Despite repeated, strict cleaning and disinfection routines, the facility had previously encountered listeria spp, particularly on the production floor. Following the application of the Bio-Fence coating, listeria was eliminated from the floor surface.

Ofer Shoham, CEO of Bio-Fence and an expert in food hygiene for almost four decades, explains how the technology works.

PFW: Tell me how Bio-Fence got started as a company and what the premise is behind your technology.

Shoham: In 2018, I was approached by the Kitchen Hub, which is the largest food tech incubator in Israel.

They know me for my many years of experience as a food hygiene specialist working with the Strauss Group. They presented me with a technology that was very interesting for me, because I was looking for

that kind of direction as a solution.

So, we established a company at the end of 2018, and we recruited a scientific team and we started to develop the technology.

There was not really any product, using an organic polymer, that when you add it to a painted coating, it is able to bind and stabilize biocides on the surface. This is the heart of the technology. So it’s actually creating antimicrobial surfaces, but not using antimicrobial coating.

PFW: Explain that a bit more. What is the difference between using the Bio-Fence product as opposed to an antimicrobial coating on a plant floor?

Shoham: Most of the technology that exists today for antimicrobial coatings is based on the silver ions and other technologies which are toxic and not efficient.

Our technology is quite unique. We are not creating antimicrobial coatings but creating coatings that— when you apply them on a surface and use biocides such as chloride peroxide—those biocides instead of working for five to 10 minutes, they’ll stabilize on the surface for hours, days, weeks, and even months. And by that we are creating an antimicrobial surface.

PFW: That sounds like an important distinction that food manufacturers wouldn’t necessarily understand.

Shoham: Exactly. The problem with antimicrobial coatings that has existed for centuries is that the food producers really don’t believe that it can support them with their problems because they’ve tried that, and they probably got some disappointing results. Our approach is totally different. We are using the powerful ability of ordinary disinfectant that is being used day to day in the food facilities. www.profoodworld.com

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Ofer Shoham, Bio-Fence

| December 2021 |

PROFOOD WORLD

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11/23/21 6:53 PM

TECH PERSPECTIVE

Hot dogs present complex challenges to maintaining hygiene levels.

The production environment includes low temperatures, humidity, condensation and heavy movement of workers and equipment—all conditions under which listeria can thrive.

But instead of vanishing from the surface after a few minutes, they are staying active for a very long period of time. And by that they eliminate any presence of pathogens on those surfaces for days.

PFW: Back up a bit and explain what the issues are that food producers are facing. What situation are you working to solve?

Shoham: I’ve been working with the food industry for so many years trying to support them to solve food safety issues around environmental pathogens like salmonella, E. coli, listeria, pseudomonas, Campylobacter—those pathogens are causing illnesses with humans who consume the food. If you look at the food industry, they’re putting so much effort into eliminating the presence of those pathogens in the food product. But the problem is that they are losing control when it comes to the environment. Those pathogens are there in the environment, and they have very limited ability to control and to eliminate that by just using cleaning and sanitation protocols.

PFW: Let’s talk about how the Bio-Fence technology works. When the polymer is applied to plant surfaces, it prolongs the effectiveness of the sanitizer.

How do users know when they need to retreat their surfaces?

Shoham: When the surface has been coated—the floor or the walls or the infrastructure—and then you do your regular sanitation regime, you clean and then you disinfect with the biocide, and this biocide is stabilized on the surface. When you’re doing this normal sanitation process, you actually disinfect, but also charge the coating with the biocide and make it able to be active until the next sanitation.

Daily sanitation is done when you have a lot of organic material in production. There are some production environments which are cleaned weekly or monthly. It depends on the environment—the walls might not be cleaned every day. Our technology is adapting to the sanitation regime. We also give tools for the customer to test if the biocide is still active on the surface.

PFW: Tell me about the proof of concept that BioFence did with the hot dog peeling room.

Shoham: When we wanted to evaluate our technology in a real-life situation—not just lab tests and small POCs—I said to myself, I need to choose a place where the condition is so bad and so challenging that if we succeed there, we can succeed everywhere.

Working with the food industry in Israel for almost four decades, I know all of them. And I know what kind of problems they are dealing with. A hot dog peeling room is a place which contains all the parameters that listeria will be very happy to be in—it’s kind of a flight to the Caribbean for listeria.

There are so many incidents of listeria contamination in hot dogs. When the hot dog is being produced, you take the meat, and you wrap it in a nylon package to shape the size of the hot dog. And then you cook it, with the long chains of hot dogs together being cooked in an oven, and then you take it out.

And then you need to peel this plastic cover because it’s not edible; it’s only for shaping the form.

In that area, the peeling machine uses steam and that creates a lot of mist. And it’s a very cold area. And there is a lot of traffic coming in and out of crates, with hot dogs and people coming in and out. And it’s the end of the production, so if there is listeria in the environment, it all came into there.

I know that site, which is a very high-quality site facing that problem for a long time. Although they are practicing five times per day their cleaning procedure, after the cleaning, they are testing the environment and they can find listeria. And so, the objective was of course to prove that our technology can prevent listeria in that area—but also if we can provide a higher standard of hygiene and also ease of use.

PFW: What sort of results did you get from the POC? Shoham: We saw tremendous improvement. Before that, day by day, they got listeria contamination on the floor; and after the coating, nothing except for one incident that was done on a weekend in which they didn’t follow procedure regarding the using of the biocide. It’s been more than four months now, they keep checking, and there’s no listeria anymore in that facility. This place was suffering for many years of listeria contamination in the environment, and now they are very happy with the result.

The conclusion was that our technology works in a real-time challenging condition under heavy organic load in a wet environment using chloride, which is a commonly use biocide in routine sanitation. It successfully eliminated the presence of listeria and also achieved a high level of hygiene.

Bio-Fence www.bio-fence.com

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11/23/21 6:54 PM

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