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.
More and more food manufacturers are developing energy management and resource conservation programs, focusing on water and heat as the two resources that offer the greatest opportunity for significant savings in the long run.
Stellar often partners with The Probst Group on wastewater treatment projects. Hank Probst, a partner with The Probst Group, contributed to this blog post.
a wastewater treatment tank
Reducing the costs of wastewater treatment spent at an outside facility is leading many food processing plants to consider treating their wastewater on-site. In addition to treatment costs based on volume, municipalities typically impose a surcharge if the characteristics of the wastewater stream exceed the municipality’s typical domestic strength. It becomes an ROI issue and fairly easy for plants to justify.
Americans have been quitting their jobs in record numbers since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The so-called Great Resignation is significantly impacting the food and beverage industry. In response, many industry leaders are focusing on ergonomics strategies to improve employee comfort and safety, and in turn, retention.
“If the workplace is designed to meet peoples’ needs, it demonstrates the employer’s commitment and enables employees to be fully engaged in the workplace,” says Jeff Sanford, an ergonomics expert at VelocityEHS, a provider of environmental health and safety (EHS) solutions.
Sanford recently spoke at a webinar hosted by Food Processing magazine, in which he shared best practices for improving ergonomics and employee safety within the food and beverage industry.
The goal of ergonomics is to prevent soft-tissue injuries and musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs)caused by sudden or sustained exposure to force, vibration, repetitive motion and bad posture. This is especially important in the U.S. food and beverage industry, which has the highest lost-workday incidence (LWDI) across all industries with a rate of 6.5 injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time workers, compared to the standard of 3.3.
These numbers especially matter in today’s competitive labor market. A recent study on ergonomics cited in the webinar found employee turnover dropped anywhere from 23% to 49% within companies that employed an ergonomics strategy. Meanwhile, the same study found absenteeism dropped between 42% and 116%. These statistics could help some processing facilities justify the cost of implementing ergonomic changes.
What can facility owners and plant managers do to improve employee ergonomics? Below are some common issues and solutions shared during the webinar.
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.
Renovating an older food manufacturing facility, or building a new one altogether, is a complex process with a lot of moving parts. You need to vet firms and contractors, navigate design decisions, select materials, choose equipment, consider the possibility of future expansion…the list goes on and on.
Like with any investment, there are always ways to cut costs based on what options you select for your facility — but what if you could reap savings off the top, regardless of what materials and equipment you choose? With a cost segregation study, you can.
There are countless niche conferences that cover every segment of the food and beverage industry, from packaging to refrigeration and from dairy to meat. These events bring professionals together from across the country and world — but why are they so important?
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently released a new strategy document that outlines the agency’s guiding principles for implementing the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). This latest move by the FDA is designed to encourage dialogue and collaboration between the agency and the food industry as FSMA moves into its next phase – the effective and efficient implementation of the new standards.
Business intelligence (BI) and data analytics empower and enable organizations to quickly make fact-based decisions that improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their operations.
Successful BI and analytics strategies are only possible when the database where information is stored is properly maintained. If any member of your team inputs incorrect or incomplete data, you’ll ultimately get inaccurate results, which could end up costing your facility money and time.
This past year has been a big one in the food and beverage industry, with new technology rolling out and (some) supply chain constraints waning. While new trends and practices are already appearing for 2023, it’s critical for manufacturers to reflect on 2022’s challenges and successes when planning for the one ahead.
That’s why we’re revisiting the topics our readers found most useful this year. From coffee trends to labor availability to cyberattacks, here are the five most popular Food for Thought posts of 2022.
