Food Engineering articles from March 2003

Food Engineering archives from March 2003

Cooperation pays off dividends. (Editor's Note).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... THE FOOD INDUSTRY SEEMS TO BE becoming a much smaller and friendlier place. Is it because the ranks have dwindled due to consolidation or because people have become more communicative? I'm not sure. All I know is that I am getting more...

Plant construction survey underway.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Food Engineering is now in the process of compiling its annual New Food Plant Construction Survey. The 26th annual edition will appear in the June issue. The survey will list all major food and beverage plant projects planned, under...

Calendar.(Calendar)
March 1, 2003... MARCH 2003 15-18 Snaxpo 2003, San Francisco Marriott, San Francisco, CA, Snack Food Association, (800) 628-1334. 18-19 Food Safety/Sanitation Workshop, American Institute of Baking, Embassy Suites-Airport West, Phoenix, AZ, (785)...

J.M. Smucker Company. (Plant Openings & Expansions).(production facility in Scottsville, KY)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... The J.M. Smucker Company plans to build its third production facility in Scottsville, KY. This $51-million facility will produce Smucker's Uncrustables, a line of thaw-and-serve peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Smucker expects to break...

Grupo Modelo selected CH2M Hill to lead the first phase in the building of its new malting plant in Idaho Falls, Idaho. (Plant Openings & Expansions).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Grupo Modelo selected CH2M Hill to lead the first phase in the building of its new malting plant in Idaho Falls, Idaho. Designed to start malt production in early 2005, the plant is scheduled to receive and store barley in September 2004. After...

Erie Foods International Inc. (Plant Openings & Expansions).(Rochelle, IL)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Erie Foods International Inc., a producer of milk protein products, expects to complete a $181 million, 100,000 square-foot Intermodal railport project in Rochelle, IL, this summer. The facility will handle almost 1,000 ocean-going and...

Ocean Mist has selected Ausonio Construction to expand its 80,000 square-foot refrigerated cold space next to its headquarters in Castroville, CA. (Plant Openings & Expansions).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Ocean Mist has selected Ausonio Construction to expand its 80,000 square-foot refrigerated cold space next to its headquarters in Castroville, CA. Twenty-five thousand square-feet of additional space will accommodate two rooms. Construction on...

Dakota Layers Cooperative. (Plant Openings & Expansions).(construction on an egg laying and egg processing plant facility)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Farmer-owned Dakota Layers Cooperative in Flandreau, S.D. has begun construction on an egg laying and egg processing plant facility. Construction has begun after three years of planning.

New owner for state-of-the-art beef facility. (Manufacturing News).(Creekstone Farms Premium Beef LLC)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Creekstone Farms Premium Beef LLC has purchased the former Future Beef Operations plant in Arkansas City, Kan. The company will use the high profile facility to process its fresh and cooked Black Angus beef products. Future Beef Operations was...

Hitting the mother lode. (Manufacturing News).(new food and beverage technologies)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... If necessity is the mother of invention, get a load of these new food and beverage ideas registered with a Pittsburgh-based inventor service company. All of these technologies are currently available for licensing or sale: * hot dog that...

3-A Sanitary Standard, Inc. (Industry & People).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... 3-A Sanitary Standards, Inc. launched a new entity that combines all facets of the 55-year-old 3-A Sanitary Standards Program into one organization composed of five founding members, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), the U.S. Department of...

SK Daifuku. (Industry & People).(David C. Janke vice president of sales & marketing)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... SK Daifuku appointed David C. Janke vice president of sales & marketing.

CASTion Corporation. (Industry & People).(Mark Simon)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Mark Simon has been appointed to the newly created position of director of engineering at CASTion Corporation, a producer of zero-discharge wastewater and chemistry recovery systems for industrial applications.

Tampa, Florida-based Clextral Inc., manufacturer of twin screw extruders, acquired Afrem International and Lymac. (Industry & People).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Tampa, Florida-based Clextral Inc., manufacturer of twin screw extruders, acquired Afrem International and Lymac. Afrem International is a pasta and couscous processing equipment manufacturer, while Lymac makes vertical cartoners for packaging...

Schneider Electric North American Division. (Industry & People).(David D. Petratis)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Schneider Electric North American Division named David D. Petratis to the position of president and chief executive officer of the U.S. business.

PMMI. (Industry & People).(Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... PMMI appointed four new members to its board of directors. The following individuals have been elected to a four-year term: John Raterman, vice president, North American sales, Nordson Corporation; Glenn Siegele of Omega Design Corporation,...

Hixson. (Industry & People).(Warren Green)(James Rivard)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Hixson announced two appointments. Warren Green has been hired as a senior process engineer. He will be defining, analyzing, specifying, designing and troubleshooting food process engineering systems. James Rivard was named director of client...

FDA proposes trans fat labeling language. (Regulatory Watch).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Food manufacturers are taking strong exception to FDA's proposal to add a footnote on trans fat to the nutrition label on food packages. The government agency proposes a footnote that would say "trans fat intake should be as low as possible."...

Central American trade barriers improving. (Regulatory Watch).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... On the heels of successful trade talks between the United States and Chile, U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick and ministers from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua have launched negotiations on an agreement to...

Food facilities may be required to register with FDA. (Regulatory Watch).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... FDA is proposing regulation that would require domestic and foreign food facilities that manufacture, process, pack, or hold food for human or animal consumption in the U.S. to register with the agency by December 12, 2003. All domestic...

Milk beverages are all the rage: flavored dairy products are riding a sales wave, with aseptic plastic and retort cans providing the packaging. (Food Packaging).
March 1, 2003... ASEPTICALLY PACKAGED, FLAVORED milks in plastic containers are rolling off filling lines, with the marketing muscle of a major soft-drink bottler and the nation's largest dairy processor leading the charge. Dallas-based Dr Pepper/Seven Up...

Packaging as convenient as the product. (Food Packaging).
March 1, 2003... Convenience foods in inconvenient packages are a bad mix. And the boil-in bag that Smithfield Food's Premium Entree line came in when it debuted was, in a word, inconvenient. Last fall, the Smithfield, Va., company completed an overhaul of...

Is liquid nitrogen dosing a nutty idea? (Food Packaging).
March 1, 2003... Liquid nitrogen dosing is old hat in the non-carbonated beverage market; Woburn, Mass.-based Vacuum Barrier Corp., one of the leading suppliers of the packaging equipment, has placed more than 600 systems in food plants around the world in the...

HACCP can insure the health of your business: insurers are beginning to work with processors to protect their interests as well as consumer health. (Food Safety).
March 1, 2003... IN 1994, DR. MICHAEL BLUMENTHAL and I wrote a short paper that explained the potential benefits to processors who took the time to develop and implement HACCP. We described both positive and negative benefits. Negative benefits were described...

Filter cartridges. (Focus on Filtration).
March 1, 2003... Pall Corporation now offers Magnum Series High Capacity filter cartridges. Designed to deliver high efficiency cartridge filter performance, these cartridges are 6 inches in diameter. They allow current bag filter users to upgrade without...

In-line filtration monitor. (Focus on Filtration).
March 1, 2003... Millipore Corporation's new MicropreSure In-line Filtration Monitor is designed to improve in-process microbiological testing for bottled water, wine, beer and soft drinks. The unit tracks the cleanliness of beverage production lines and CIP...

Automatic pressure filters. (Focus on Filtration).
March 1, 2003... Pneumapress Filter Corporation has a new line of sanitary-grade automatic pressure filters designed specifically to ensure compliance with GMP and regulatory requirements for the food industry. All components and materials of construction are...

Air filtration. (Focus on Filtration).
March 1, 2003... Camfill Farr published a new information bulletin on air filtration selection for the purpose of controlling mold through building HVAC systems. Established in response to industry concerns regarding mold proliferation in buildings, this...

Liquid bag filtration media. (Focus on Filtration).
March 1, 2003... Kimberly-Clark Corporation unveiled the FATHOM Liquid Bag Filtration Media, a new generation of media engineered specifically for liquid filtration applications. FATHOM Media has earned FDA 21 CFR approval for food contact and is available in...

Self-cleaning filter. (Focus on Filtration).
March 1, 2003... Russell Finex launched a new horizontal filter which offers the same performance characteristics as the Eco-self-cleaning Filter. The filter can be dismantled and reassembled for screen change, product changeover and cleaning without any tools...

Ask the expert.(How can I minimize costly, unscheduled equipment downtime? )(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Q How can I minimize costly, unscheduled equipment downtime? A Preventive maintenance programs can reduce the likelihood of downtime and enable you to respond more quickly to problems. Consider these simple steps when establishing and...

Multi-purpose filters. (Focus on Filtration).
March 1, 2003... Tekleen[R] filters from Automatic Filters Inc. can be used with bags, screens, spray nozzles, chillers, heat exchangers, tubes, and valves. The company recently launched Tekrinse[R] screen cleaning technology that saves rinse water. Rinsing...

Filtration pilot plant. (Focus on Filtration).
March 1, 2003... GEA Filtration introduced an extension to its standard Model R membrane filtration pilot plant line. The new Model R-xp is engineered and built to NEC Class 1, Division I, Group C and D hazardous area construction standards. This is especially...

Antimicrobial compound. (Focus on Filtration).
March 1, 2003... Shuttleworth, Inc. has a new antimicrobial compound that can be used in Shuttleworth food processing conveying systems including the new Easy Clean conveyor system that inhibits the spread and growth of bacteria, mold, mildew, yeast and other...

Batch controller and indicator/totalizer. (Focus on Filtration).
March 1, 2003... Niagara introduced the Model 3030,a microprocessor-based batch controller and indicator/totalizer, as an accessory with its Positive Displacement and Turbine flowmeters. Batch count and flow rate can be displayed simultaneously and several set...

Mechatron feeder. (Focus on Filtration).
March 1, 2003... AccuRate launched a 3-A/USDA dairy accepted mechatron feeder designed specifically for use in the food and dairy industries. Features of the product include AC and DC drive packages, an FDA/USDA accepted flexible conical feedhopper and helix...

Bulk depalletizer. (Focus on Filtration).
March 1, 2003... A-B-C Packaging Machine Corporation introduced a high level version of the model 108 bulk depalletizer that discharges empty containers up to 160 inches. It uses a counter-weighted elevator table for layer transfer, operated by a 2-horsepower...

Compact dicer. (Focus on Filtration).
March 1, 2003... Urschel Laboratories, Inc. introduced the DiversaCut 2110 Dicer with a new compact cutting zone design that offers high-production capacity to produce slices, dices and strip cuts for a range of products. Accepting product up to 254 mm (10...

Moisture analyzer. (Focus on Filtration).
March 1, 2003... Omnimark's new standard model moisture analyzer offers simple one button operation to run a test. Five individual programs can be created and stored in memory. Data can be printed-out with time and date stamp when coupled to an optional...

Flaking mill roll. (Focus on Filtration).
March 1, 2003... PERMA-FLEX, Inc. offers a new flaking roll designed to minimize the problems cereal producers have with conventional rolls. Flaking rolls produce corn and bran wheat flakes and often face the problem of shell and/or weld cracking, end leaking...

Metal stators. (Focus on Filtration).
March 1, 2003... seepex Inc. introduced new metal stators for seepex progressive cavity pumps. Manufactured using EDM technology, these metal stators feature tighter tolerances that eliminate the need for replacing matched sets of rotors and stators. ...

Steam and clean. (Focus on Filtration).
March 1, 2003... Daimer Industries, Inc. unveiled its KleenJet Steamer Ultra 800 for the food industry. This industrial system cleans, sanitizes and degreases using tap water. The continuous-steam technology allows maintenance professionals to sanitize without...

Integrated software. (Focus on Filtration).
March 1, 2003... Wonderware's FactorySuite A2 integrated software is designed to provide automation and information solutions based on Invensys' ArchestrA software architecture. According to the company, the FactorySuite industrial Application Server offers...

Turbine flowmeter. (Focus on Filtration).
March 1, 2003... Hoffer Flow Controls, Inc. offers Hose Series turbine flowmeters suitable for liquid applications where the flowmeter will be installed and fitted to hose or plastic tubing. The Hose Series is available in sizes 1/4 to 3 inches. End...

Electromagnetic flow meter. (Focus on Filtration).
March 1, 2003... Anderson Instrument Company introduced the TMF-series Electromagnetic Flow Meter designed for sanitary fluid processors. Features of the product include a ceramic liner with elastomeric seals for durability and reliability in high temperature,...

Drive system. (Focus on Filtration).
March 1, 2003... SEW Eurodrive has designed a drive system with specialized components to meet the demanding environments in the food industry such as chemical wash downs and damp conditions. Called the Food Industry Option Package, it comes with a 2-year...

Crimp fittings. (Focus on Filtration).
March 1, 2003... AdvantaPure launched a new line of 316L Stainless Steel Crimp Fittings designed to mate with its line of hoses. The line feature a s15 Ra or better finish for smooth non-contaminating flows; eight-sided designs for easier tightening in...

Pumps. (Focus on Filtration).
March 1, 2003... Magnatex Pumps, Inc. has a new 8-page technical bulletin describing its MMP Series Pumps. These magnetically driven seal-less centrifugal pumps, designed specifically for low-flow, low-head applications, offer efficient, leak-free pumping of...

Gear reducers. (Focus on Filtration).
March 1, 2003... Leeson Electric unveiled a lightweight alternative to cast iron worm and coaxial (inline) helical gear reducers. The aluminum gear reducers are lightweight and compact with mounting flexibility. Their paint-free exterior makes them suitable for...

Acrylic luminaires. (Focus on Lighting).
March 1, 2003... Halophane has Altaire acrylic luminaires designed for the food industry. These fixtures are available in either a covered or an uplight version. The covered version provides more downward focused illumination for areas where workers perform...

Small halogen machine light. (Focus on Lighting).
March 1, 2003... Waldmann Lighting Company introduced the HPW-20 waterproof small halogen machine light suitable for an environment where coolants and fluids would need a concentrated spot of light for precision machine tool applications. This light is designed...

Stainless steel luminaires. (Focus on Lighting).
March 1, 2003... Paramount Industries, Inc. launched a wide selection of luminaires for the food processing industry. All of the luminaires are NSF-listed for Splash Zones or Food Zones, meet or exceed the requirements for sanitary lighting, and are UL-listed,...

Lowmount lights. (Focus on Lighting).
March 1, 2003... Guth Lighting's NSF Enviroguard Lowmount Family is available in 4 sizes with damp, wet or hose-down listings. The products come in 70 to 450 HID, compact fluorescent or a 12-year life induction lamp. The lights feature a dirt-shedding shape,...

Help wanted skilled plant workers: the technology of automation is putting a premium on plant employees, but precise training can create masters of the machines.
March 1, 2003... From a plant staffing perspective, the 21st Century's first economic slump is the good news. The bad news is that manufacturing activity is beginning to revive, and the staffing shortages of the go-go '90s are about to come back with a...

Efficiency rules! Packaging line innovations jibe with today's mandate to do more with less.
March 1, 2003... TODAY'S HEAVY EMPHASIS on cost-cutting in packaging operations puts a premium on cost-efficient innovation. And savvy operations people are becoming more adept at delivering that efficiency. Consider these packaging innovations where...

Primed for safe handling: food industry priorities are mirrored in today's component improvements in pumps and valves. (Tech Update).
March 1, 2003... UGLY IS ONLY SKIN DEEP WITH PUMPS AND VALVES IN FOOD AND BEVERAGE production. Gunmetal gray and stainless steel skins are the predominant color offerings. But the inner workings and components can be a thing of beauty. Industry is...

When the beans are green, sorters are keen: multi-stage optical inspection process reduces labor costs and delivers high quality end result. (Field Reports).
March 1, 2003... NO MATTER HOW YOU SLICE IT, green beans mean business for Faribault Foods' Mondovi, Wisconsin, plant. The facility processes nothing but green beans in season during an intense three-month period to supply all of its distribution centers around...

Cooker-cooler brings home-cooked flavor to soup production: unique agitation system provides versatility and thermal penetration without overcooking. (Field Reports).
March 1, 2003... THE OBJECTIVE AT TRUESOUPS WAS to remain true to the company's name. "We needed a kettle to duplicate in our process the way we would make our soups at home--but in a commercial setting and at commercial scale," explains Bruce Rowe, chief...

Is the food industry ready for Product Life Cycle Management? Software enables communications among departments like sales, R&D and production. (Managing Software).
March 1, 2003... IF THERE'S ONE SURE THING IN THE SOFTWARE industry, it is that the phrases used to identify product segments are just as confusing as the names of the products. The phrase Product Life Cycle Management (PLM) doesn't provide much of an insight...

High pressure for shelf stable foods: researchers are refining system designs and processes and discovering misconceptions about how the process actually works. (Engineering R&D).
March 1, 2003... HIGH PRESSURE PROCESSING (HPP) has moved from novelty to almost-mainstream food processing technology in recent years. A growing assortment of refrigerated foods--from oysters and guacamole dips to fresh juices and ready-to-eat meals and...