Kevin Wilson, PE
Senior Process Engineer
Kevin has extensive experience with mechanical systems including refrigeration, steam, gas, water, fire protection, plumbing and material handling. He has an expertise in bakery systems and expansive knowledge of food & beverage plant applications and design for commercial and other non-food related industrial facilities. He also possesses in-plant experience as corporate project engineer and plant engineer designing, installing, operating and troubleshooting to provide improvements in safety, energy, waste reduction and production up-time. Kevin has more than 33 years of industry experience including over nine years with Stellar.
Controlling dust is a major concern in food manufacturing, whether you’re roasting coffee beans, mixing spices or using flour as a release agent for your baked goods. Whenever there is potential dust in your processing environment, you want to capture it at the source.
Managing dust is critical for a variety of reasons:
Consumer demand for “clean labels” with simple and natural ingredients has been a driving force in the food industry in recent years. In fact, clean-label foods is forecasted to be a $180 billion global market by 2020, and many food manufacturers are reformulating recipes to adapt with the growing trend.
The idea behind clean eating is avoiding foods with preservatives, artificial additives and “ingredients you can’t pronounce.” Although most of these additives are USDA-approved and technically safe to consume, they have undoubtedly developed a stigma among consumers.
Continue Reading “Want Clean Labels for Your Bakery and Snack Products? Try Freezing Them”
Filling and weighing systems are a fundamental part of the food and beverage industry. On the line, they establish fill weights, volumes and levels for products whether it’s flavorings, beverages, slurry products or bulk containers of dry and/or liquid ingredients.
When it comes to recipes, the slightest change in ingredients can spoil an entire batch of product — that’s why precise weighing is paramount.
Continue Reading “Are You Getting the Most Accurate Weight Measurements from Your Load Cells?”
Ingredient changes and process design solutions are much easier to engineer in a new plant than in an existing one. Plants that work with allergen products can design dedicated process lines, separate storage areas and well-planned cleaning processes to avoid any cross-contamination issues. Yet with gluten-free products being relatively new on the scene, retrofitting an existing plant to incorporate this allergen into the current product mix can be challenging.
Continue Reading “Process Solutions For Adding Gluten-free to Your Product Mix”
Cross-contamination of allergen products can have dire consequences for a food plant. Some of the food industry’s most common ingredients – milk, eggs, peanuts/tree nuts, fish/shellfish, soy and wheat – represent 90 percent of food allergens.
Larger food processors have the financial resources to dedicate separate production lines to products with allergenic ingredients. Small processors, and those with multiple products on a production line, face a more difficult task of controlling potential cross-contamination.
Continue Reading “Controlling Allergens Within the Plant: Strategies and Considerations”
