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The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) recently announced the finalization of new measurements to reduce Salmonella and Campylobacter in poultry and ground turkey products. Let’s review what you need to know as a poultry or turkey processor. Continue Reading “What You Need to Know About USDA’s New Poultry Safety Measures”
Family-owned premium poultry processor Bell & Evans has remained at the front of its industry’s flock by prioritizing high quality from all angles—from its antibiotic-free chicken to the materials and processes within its facilities. The most recent example of this commitment? A 160,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art chicken packaging, further processing, par-fry and storage plant in its hometown of Fredericksburg, Pennsylvania. Stellar was the design-builder for the poultry plant project and found it to be unlike any other project we’ve been a part of. This new facility is infused with cutting edge innovation and durability inside and out, from its materials and finishes to its packaging process.
Continue Reading “5 Things Poultry Processors Can Learn from Bell & Evans’ New Chicken Plant”
Many food plants rely on freezers and refrigerators to store and ship their products. In last week’s post, I outlined four variables food processors must understand during process freezing. This week, I want to take a look at freezing methods and equipment, and the applications they’re best suited for. Depending on the type and quantity of food, certain freezers are more useful than others.
Continue Reading “Cryogenic vs. Mechanical Freezers: The Best Uses for Each Method”
As today’s home-brewing coffee drinkers continue to seek convenient alternatives to coffee shops, the demand for delicious instant coffee has risen. However, it’s not always easy for processors to produce high-quality instant coffee, as there are many moving parts that must come together to put a tasty cup of joe on the kitchen table.
Continue Reading “What Coffee Producers Can Learn From Starbucks’ Award-winning Coffee Plant”
Total automation may be an ideal for most food processors, but it can be difficult to determine how to connect every system in a food plant—or if they should even be connected at all. To optimize ROI, it’s important to learn which areas of your food processing facility are best suited for automation. Below are five tips for improving your plant’s automation capabilities.
Continue Reading “5 Tips for Automating Your Food Processing Plant”
The FDA recently released new final Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) rules. These rules are the result of amendments made to the original proposals, based on comments and criticisms in public forums. Below are important details of two rules. You can find a full explanation of each new rule here.
Continue Reading “What Food Processors Should Know About 2 New FSMA Final Rules”
A manufacturing plan is a key piece of your food business’ overall strategic plan. Your manufacturing plan is a clear set of actions driven by gaps and discoveries from your manufacturing analysis, or the analysis of your business’ manufacturing processes.
Continue Reading “[Infographic] 4 Steps in Developing a Manufacturing Plan”
A manufacturing analysis is the portion of a strategic plan that focuses on all the processes and materials related to manufacturing. A situation analysis is a major focus of the manufacturing analysis, serving as an in-depth look at the physical layout of the facility. The goal of situation analysis is to ensure that the technology and strategy you plan to implement are feasible in the physical space of your facility.
Continue Reading “6 Elements of a Thorough Situation Analysis”
Today, our team is settling back into the office after exhibiting at PACK EXPO in Las Vegas. While packaging is fresh on our minds, let’s examine some fascinating packaging research released by The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies (PMMI) earlier this week. Continue Reading “Packaging Trends: Key Findings from The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies Research”
Upgrading PLC-5 automation systems has been on the food and beverage industry’s radar for quite some time now. In fact, when I began working at Stellar 12 years ago, people were buzzing about Rockwell Automation moving the processor into retirement (“Silver Series” status). However, the PLC-5 1771 was such a widely popular system, Rockwell held back on pulling the trigger until recently. In August 2012, Rockwell revealed it would no longer support the PLC-5 processor anymore, including engineering replacement parts—big news, considering more than 80 percent of the marketplace owned these systems. Continue Reading “Do You Really Need to Upgrade Your PLC-5 Automation System?”
![[Infographic] 4 Steps in Developing a Manufacturing Plan](https://stellarfoodforthought.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/4-steps-in-developing-a-manufacturing-plan.jpg)
