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July marks an exciting milestone for Stellar: our 30th anniversary. While we’ve celebrated plenty of remarkable moments over the past three decades, we know we’re not the only ones. Food processing has experienced several turning points of its own, signifying key changes that have molded food manufacturing as we know it today. Continue Reading “[Timeline] 9 Defining Moments for the Food Processing Industry”
Food for Thought is celebrating its two-year anniversary this month, and one of our very first blog posts is one of the most popular to-date. In April of 2013, I wrote a piece titled “Food Companies Go Green With Eco-Friendly Packaging,” discussing its different types and benefits. Eco-friendly packaging is something that’s only gained more steam as time has passed.
Continue Reading “Eco-friendly Packaging in the Food and Beverage Industry: Types & Benefits”
As product lines become more diverse due to increased demand in specialty ingredients in multiple sized packages with private labeling, manual processes become both costly and time consuming. Many food processing plant managers are recognizing the benefits of automating previously manual processes to increase production and reduce labor costs.
Continue Reading “Automate These Three Processes to Increase Throughput”
Odor complaints from those who live and work near food processing plants have been making headlines lately, resulting in bad press and poor community relations for the manufacturers. The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Air Act was created to reduce emissions of hazardous and odorous air pollutants and outlines specific requirements for food processors. Subsequently, odor control should be a part of any food processing plant’s Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) program.
Continue Reading “Eliminating Noxious Plant Odors Through Incineration: A Case Study”
The food and beverage industry today is all about consumer demand and meeting preferences for tastes, specialty ingredients and preparations (such as non-GMO, Kosher and gluten-free), flexible packaging, and convenient serving sizes.
Take the coffee industry for example: One customer wants a special blend in a light roast with a medium grind. Another customer wants a different blend in a dark roast with a fine grind. You can do the math and see the exponential impact of the options. Every variation creates a unique SKU for the coffee producer.
Continue Reading “Tips for Managing Multiple SKUs to Meet Customer Demands”
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”
Equipment manufacturers play a key role in the food safety program of a food processing plant, ensuring that equipment is designed and built to meet stringent sanitary requirements. Plant owners often spend significant time and money to acquire the right equipment with the proper sanitary construction. Yet once that equipment is designed and delivered, the next critical step is ensuring that it’s installed properly, within those same sanitary standards. If you do not carefully screen installation subcontractors, you could put your plant at risk of a food safety issue.
Continue Reading “Sanitary Process Installation: What to Ask When Selecting a Subcontractor”
Many food processors are turning to wireless automation to improve the efficiency and interoperability of the plant’s control systems. This method of automation architecture offers significant cost savings in engineering and installation, while providing more flexible access to data for monitoring and analysis.
Continue Reading “Food Processing Plants Cut the Cord With Wireless Automation”
High pressure processing (HPP) is gaining popularity among food manufacturers as a method that induces a pasteurizing effect on packaged food without subjecting the products to thermal energy. The recent explosion of the health and organic markets is partially responsible for the increased acceptance of this natural and environmentally friendly process.
Continue Reading “Demand Rises for High Pressure Processing”
If you’re thinking of upgrading equipment or renovating your facility, it’s critical that food safety requirements are met in the process. Most manufacturers are taking a proactive role in ensuring equipment is engineered for optimal cleaning and sanitizing to meet all safety regulations, but it’s important that all plant stakeholders who play a role in food safety have input.
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