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As the food processing industry continues to flourish, many manufacturers are faced with the need to increase capacity. Whether it’s adding a new process line, building an additional plant or expanding an existing facility, conducting a supply chain analysis in partnership with your design team can lead to better decision-making and more efficient capital expenditures.
Continue Reading “Why Your Expansion Plan Needs Supply Chain Modeling”
As the second highest energy consuming component of your refrigeration system, condensers are also one of the most critical elements. Knowing how to optimize your condenser can increase operational performance while reducing energy usage and maintenance costs.
Continue Reading “Six Factors That Can Improve Condenser Performance”
Whether you’re designing a new food processing plant or upgrading an existing facility, determining necessary upfront water treatment is a critical step in protecting and maintaining your plant’s systems. Many plants forgo thorough analysis resulting in poorly or untreated water that can lead to scale and bacterial buildup on equipment. Stellar often partners with water treatment professionals such as Southern Waters Company, Inc. to effectively manage clients’ clean water requirements.
Continue Reading “Eight Critical Steps in Water Treatment To Protect Your Products and Equipment”
I recently sat down with Jack Perkins, Director of Channel Development for Powerit Solutions®, to discuss ways the food and beverage industry can benefit from energy management technology. Stellar often partners with energy experts such as Powerit Solutions to provide clients with a full range of tools to increase energy efficiency.
Continue Reading “A Conversation With Powerit Solutions® About Energy Management Technology”
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”
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”
As food safety regulatory requirements become more stringent, equipment manufacturers are stepping up to the plate and increasing the role they play in the industry. The American Meat Institute’s (AMI) 10 sanitary design principles offer baseline standards for equipment design, yet many suppliers are going above and beyond these standards by offering improved surfaces, cleaning chemicals, and construction processes.
Continue Reading “New Trends in Sanitary Equipment Design are Improving Food Safety Standards”
The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) is front and center for most food processors yet managing the regulatory and reporting requirements can be taxing and time consuming. Many food processors are investing in an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to more efficiently manage the process, allowing for better data collection, analysis, documentation, and reporting tools. Using an ERP program to manage your plant’s food safety program will improve your audit results, reduce food safety-related incidents and investigations, improve product quality and ultimately increase operational efficiencies.
