Food Engineering articles from March 2001

Food Engineering archives from March 2001

The Conspiracy Theory.
March 1, 2001... "We probably never will have mad cow disease, and therefore it is a non-problem in the United States" -- Dr. Paul Brown, National Institutes of Health "That's totally erroneous. It is not only possible, but it is actually probably...

Plant Openings & Expansions.
March 1, 2001... Rockwell Automation has recently completed a major expansion at one of its DODGE gearing manufacturing facilities in Greenville, SC. The decision to add on to the existing facility was made in preparation for production of the new DODGE...

United States & Europe deal with Mad Cow disease.
March 1, 2001... Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), better known as Mad Cow disease, has gripped the world with fear as the U.S. and Europe work to solve this puzzling epidemic. More than 178,000 cows associated with the disease have been reported...

Hormel launches first UHP meat products in U.S.
March 1, 2001... Hormel Foods is the first U.S. food manufacturer to market meat products processed with ultrahigh pressure (UHP) technology. During the week of February 4, Hormel started producing at its Austin, Minn. plant a variety of prepared ham...

Survey to determine fate of proposed food e-business.
March 1, 2001... Penn State University, University Park, Penn., is considering developing an e-business program with unique applications to the food processing industry. The Market Research department in the Outreach and Continuing Education program at PSU has...

Industry & People.
March 1, 2001... PMMI announces the addition of Jennifer Ellek to its staff as communications manager. In this newly created position, Ellek will oversee the implementation of the Institute's tradeshow marketing efforts. In addition, Ellek will assist in the...

Another dot com bites the dust.
March 1, 2001... Another dot com company bit the dust when FoodUSA.com -- an on-line exchange handling the meat and poultry trades -- announced it would shut down after a deal it made to sell the business fell through. FoodUSA.com founder and chairman Rod...

New food safety rule on retained water in meat and poultry.
March 1, 2001... Former Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman, before his departure from office, announced a new USDA requirement intended to improve the safety of raw meat and poultry products. The new rule requires processors to justify any retained water in raw...

Congress clears saccharin.
March 1, 2001... Former President Bill Clinton has been widely criticized for his last-minute presidential pardons but at least one was justified: his pardon of saccharin, falsely accused as a human carcinogen. On Dec. 21, Clinton signed legislation allowing...

FSIS release documents of Listeria risk.
March 1, 2001... The FDA and the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) of the USDA have announced the availability of two documents: a draft risk assessment on the relationship between foodborne Listeria and human health that considers 20 ready-to-eat food...

Crunch time comes for California processors.
March 1, 2001... Rolling blackouts and escalating energy costs already are impacting food processors throughout California, but the worst may be yet to come. Hundreds of thousands of pounds of raw milk were dumped in January when dairy processors were...

Processors laud FDA's safety rule for juices.
March 1, 2001... However, some are suggesting that the new rule doesn't go far enough FOOD MANUFACTURERS WELCOMED THE FOOD and Drug Administration's (FDA) new rules designed to improve the safety of fruit and vegetable juice products. The Federal Agency...

One country's standard ...
March 1, 2001... ... may be another's barrier. But do animal and food safety concerns also serve as a means for keeping out competitive products? IN BRAZIL, A SO-CALLED CRAZY COW IS PARADED IN front of the Canadian embassy to protest trade actions against...

Norwegian fish processing facility gets automated.
March 1, 2001... System monitors everything from tank farm to advanced controls MARITEX, A SUBSIDIARY OF THE Danish company Aarhus Olie AS, implemented PlantWeb[R] field-based architecture from Fisher-Rosemount to automate a fish processing facility in...

Corrosion-proof bearings reduce maintenance at pork facility.
March 1, 2001... Advanced polymer coating and stainless steel bearing inserts resist contaminants HORMEL FOODS CORPORATION'S Fremont, Neb., plant was experiencing bearing failure on the production line caused by a high volume of water and cleaning...

a Pain in the Neck?
March 1, 2001... Barring a court order that would overturn OSHA's new ergonomics standard, processors must have an ergonomics program in place by October. Just how tall of an order is compliance? YOU COULD CALL IT THE CALM after the storm -- that, or the...

Food Engineering: Conference Report 2001.
March 1, 2001... Food Automation Food Engineering's second annual automation conference covers project justification and management, case-histories of successful projects, and integration of the plant floor with MES, ERP and the supply chain. ...

SUPPLIER LITERATURE.
March 1, 2001... The Computrac(r) MAX(r) 2000XL is an advanced moisture/solids analyzer that combines the precision of a laboratory instrument with the durability and speed required of a production floor unit. Using the latest digital balance technology, this...

SCADA EVOLVES towards MES.
March 1, 2001... Today's SCADA systems are evolving beyond supervisory control and data acquisition with greater functionalities and integration capabilities. IN FOOD ENGINEERING'S 2001 BEST Manufacturing Practices Survey (Feb., '01), only five percent of...

New Products.
March 1, 2001... Focus on Conveyors Control mechanism DriveControl ZPA+4 is a new control mechanism that communicates with as many as four conveyor zones simultaneously to provide truly accurate zero pressure accumulation. The ZPA+4 control device is...

`Reverse engineering' boosts cooked-meat quality.
March 1, 2001... Continuous process triples throughput as compared to conventional methods. GEMINI FOOD INDUSTRIES, WHICH SPECIALIZES in developing and manufacturing innovative products for the food-service industry, recently formed subsidiary company...