Food Engineering articles from September 2001

Food Engineering archives from September 2001

A special invitation.
September 1, 2001... LAST FEBRUARY, SOME 100 FOOD ENGINEERS from 45 food manufacturing companies and 29 partner engineering firms convened in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to attend Food Automation 2001, Food Engineering's second conference solely dedicated to automation...

Maple Leaf Bakery.
September 1, 2001... Maple Leaf Bakery has broken ground on an $11 million expansion to its 80,000-sq.-ft. bakery in Roanoke, Va. The investment includes a 50,000-sq.-ft. expansion and the addition of a new line. The expansion will create approximately 40 to 50 new...

Stellar Group.
September 1, 2001... The Stellar Group has started design and development of a new 185,000-sq.-ft. distribution center for Casa Ley, S.A. DE C.V. This facility will store and distribute perishable goods such as frozen and refrigerated seafood and deli meats. Casa...

FDA urged to deny petition for expanded labels.
September 1, 2001... THE NATIONAL FOOD PKOCESSOKS ASSOCIATION (NFPA) AND OTHER industry groups are urging the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to deny a consumer group's petition for additional food ingredient labeling requirements. Filed in late July...

Increased funding for Slaughter Act enforcement.
September 1, 2001... BOTH THE U.S. HOUSE AND SENATE HAVE approved a measure that would raise the budgeted amount for humane slaughter enforcement by $3 million. Funding was approved by the Senate in late July as part of the fiscal 2001 emergency supplemental...

American consumers confused over term "organic".
September 1, 2001... AMERICANS AREN'T SURE whit organic foods and beverages are, but are quite sure that they are better for them than non-organic foods, according to a recent study that Roper Starch Worldwide, Inc. conducted for organic food maker Walnut Acres....

Seaboard to share cold brine pasteurization process.
September 1, 2001... PROCESSOR SEABOARD Farms SAYS IT WILL SHARE WITH the pork industry its rights to a cold brine pasteurization system that reduces bacteria counts and improves the food safety attributes for moisture-enhanced pork. Since last year, Seaboard...

Greif Bros. Corporation.
September 1, 2001... Greif Bros. Corporation, the world leader in industrial packaging products and services, announces that its multiwall bag manufacturing plant in Rose-mount, Minn., has received The American Institute of Baking's (AIB) Certificate of Achievement...

QAD.
September 1, 2001... QAD, a leading provider of collaborative commerce applications for global manufacturing enterprises and their private exchanges, announced the appointment of Thomas Mackey as vice president, Americas. Mackey reports to QAD Chief Executive...

Conforma Clad.
September 1, 2001... Conforma Clad announced the appointment of Mike Harlan as its new President and Chief Operating Officer. Rick Horan, who has been Conforma Clad's President and Chief Executive Officer since 1996, will continue as CEO and assume the additional...

Tetra Pak Hoyer.
September 1, 2001... Viggo Nielsen was named an at-large member of the International Association of Food Industry Suppliers (IAFIS) Board of Directors. Nielsen is Managing Director of Lake Geneva, Wis.-based Tetra Pak Hoyer. Nielsen's term expires in 2003. As...

Viruses unleashed on produce pathogens.
September 1, 2001... CAN VIRUSES THAT INFECT AND KILL BACTERIA NATURALLY be used to rid fresh-cut produce of Salmonella and other food-borne pathogens? A pair of researchers at the Agriculture Research Service think so, and have already met with some success in...

BOC and RGF Environmental form ozone alliance.
September 1, 2001... SUPPLIERS BOC AND RGF ENVIRonmental Group of West Palm Beach, Florida, have formed a strategic alliance to market ozone-based applications for treating e-coli, listeria, salmonella and other microbes. Dennis Smithyman, BOC's vice president...

FDA still studying raw milk cheese.
September 1, 2001... THE U.S. FOOD AND DRUG ADMINistration has yet to act on its review of the 60-day aging process for raw milk cheese, but continues to solicit opinions about the safety of that process. The regulatory agency has expressed some concern over...

Refinements coming to packaging line detectors.
September 1, 2001... Affordability was the early focus in X-ray inspection systems designed to replace metal detectors in food processor's packaging lines. Now suppliers are providing software refinements to detect missing or broken items and incorrectly filled...

Food processors prepare for Pack Expo Las Vegas.
September 1, 2001... WHEN THE DOORS OF THE SANDS EXPO AND CONVENTION CENTER open Sept. 10 for this year's edition of Pack Expo LasVegas, a contingent from Hiram, Ohio-based Great Lakes Cheese Co. again will be among the 17,000 attendees expected for the biennial...

Packaging innovations keep Sargento one step ahead.
September 1, 2001... BETWEEN FOCUS GROUPS, CONTRACT negotiations and machine engineering, it took Sargento Foods Inc. and Pactiv Corp. a year and a half to bring slider-style zipper closures to grocers' dairy cases. But all that development work is paying off with...

Packaging extends apples' shelf life.
September 1, 2001... SLICED APPLES ARETHE HOLY GRAIL OF fresh-cut produce, and a small start-up processor from Minnesota may have found it. For at least 20 years, food scientists have sought to arrest browning and extend the shelf life of sliced apples. The...

StarLink discovered in white corn product.
September 1, 2001... GOVERNMENT INSPECTORS SAY THE FOOD INDUSTRY faces a challenging task in keeping products from conventional and modified crops apart in the marketplace. Bringing that point home was the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) recent discovery...

FSIS's Billy re-elected to Codex Commission.
September 1, 2001... The administrator of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), Thomas J. Billy, has been re-elected to a second two-year term as chairman of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the international food...

Biotech crops gaining favor with farmers.
September 1, 2001... If genetically engineered crops are not popular with consumers, they certainly are with U.S. farmers. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports that American farmers are harvesting bio-engineered crops at a pace that exceeds levels...

Sweet success.
September 1, 2001... A volumatic feeding system brings consistency and flexibility to a cookie line Davis Cookie Company, the exclusive distributor of Archway Cookies in Pennsylvania, decided that the quantity of sugar sprinkled on its confections with a sugar...

Engineering a "fish-dry".
September 1, 2001... New world technology brings old-world practice into the 21st Century FOR CENTURIES, THE ART OF DRYING FISH hadn't changed much on the famed Gaspe Coast in Quebec, Canada, where a handful of fisheries dried their world-renowned North...

A "Honee" of an upgrade.
September 1, 2001... One cutter replaces nine for the largest private label supplier of asparagus in the world FOR DECADES, LAWTON, MICH.-BASED Honee Bear Canning relied on Model 30 Cutters to slice it asparagus product. In fact, the company purchased its...

THE SCRAMBLE TO CONSOLIDATE.
September 1, 2001... As multi-billion-dollar mergers and acquisitions restructure the industry, Food Engineering's annual Manufacturing Survey explores the impact Back in May of 1980 -- 21 years ago -- Food Engineering published a story headlined: "Could 50...

The Mother Of Reinvention.
September 1, 2001... Necessity prompts Michigan Turkey Producers to fill an abandoned plant with process innovations and state-of-the-art environmental controls IF NECESSITY IS THE MOTHER OF INVENTION, THE MICHIGAN TURKEY PRODUCERS Coop INC. MIGHT CONSIDER...

Predictive Control Boosts Process Efficiency At AmeriQual Foods.
September 1, 2001... Commercial sterility -- the destruction of Clostridium botulinum spores -- is an absolute requirement for producing low-acid, in-container shelf-stable food products. The thermal process for achieving commercial sterility is based on the...

BACTERIA BUSTERS.
September 1, 2001... IN AN ERA OF INCREASING CONCERN ABOUT FOOD SAFETY, A NEW GENERATION OF ANTI-MICROBIAL TREATMENTS COMES OF AGE With foodborne illness under the national microscope, it's no surprise that new anti-microbial treatments are also coming into...

Specific screening test.
September 1, 2001... Since the launch of its first Salmonella test kit in 1987, TECRA's innovative products have been progressively adopted for routine testing by food and industrial testing laboratories around the world. Rapid test kits for some of the major...

Food Safety Solutions.
September 1, 2001... Neogen Corporation develops and markets food safety solutions. Neogen's solutions include rapid, easy-to-use and accurate test kits for pathogens, including E. coli 0157:H7, Salmonella, Salmonella enteritidis, Listeria and Campylobacter; and...

Rapid Detection System.
September 1, 2001... GENE-TRAK Systems, a leading manufacturer of food diagnostics, introduces a new rapid system for detecting Salmonella spp. in food. Sequepoint Salmonella utilizes DNA hybridization technology in a microtiter format that can be used manually or...

Safety monitoring.
September 1, 2001... Eichrom's products result from innovations in chemical separations, immunoassay and particle manufacturing. The eclipse E.coli 0157:H7 rapid test is designed for safety monitoring of ground beef, pork, and vegetables and offers superior...

"Drain Doser" pumps.
September 1, 2001... Anko Products' new generation of MityFlex peristaltic pumps are designed for increased efficiencies in flow-maintenance dosing, feed, metering and sampling operations. MityFlex pumps are the longtime industry-proven choice as "Drain Dosers" for...

Measuring accuracy.
September 1, 2001... The entire technology utilized in our devices is made by HEUFT. All modules of important functions are th result of our own intensive research and development for many years. This is a permanent guarantee for the optimum interaction between the...

The Preferred solution for filling.
September 1, 2001... The PMC line of WeightControl Fillers produces fills within [+ or -] 1/2 percent of target weight at speeds ranging between 10 and 1,500 containers per minute. Rigid and semi-rigid containers ranging in size from 2 grams all the way up to 12...

Twelve-station machine.
September 1, 2001... The Model 12M twelve-station machine operates at speeds up to 1800 cans per minute and is the first can seamer in the packaging industry to employ PC-based control software. This open architecture control eliminates a compatibility issue with...

Can seamer.
September 1, 2001... The Model UD-AL Dixie Double seamer has an updated safety system incorporating double hand switches that must be simultaneously depressed to active the seamer. The Air-lift system increases production to up to 20 cans per minute. Whether just...

High-speed closing machines.
September 1, 2001... Pneumatic Scale's Closetech HCM Series high-speed closing machines are engineered to accommodate a full range of lightweight cans and ends. The HCM Series promotes higher speeds, simplifled setup and maintenance while delivering traditional...

High-speed slicer.
September 1, 2001... Grote's High Speed Slicer is ideal for high speed, bulk slicing applications, such as bacon production lines. Product capacity is adjustable up to 400 strokes per minute, per lane. Sliced product may be applied to oven belts or freezer belts....

New bushing system.
September 1, 2001... Rockwell Automation introduces the DODGE QUANTIS reducer with twin-tapered bushings. This new bushing system option is available on both motorized shaft-mount and right-angle helical bevel products. When this exclusive feature was first...

Custom vessels.
September 1, 2001... Ross Engineering offers extensive custom vessel fabrication capabilities. The company manufactures standard and custom designs to over 70,000 gallons in carbon steel, stainless steel, hastelloy, titanium and other special alloys. Ross...

Ambient and Chilled Air Cooling Units.
September 1, 2001... FOODesign Machinery & Systems is now a licensed manufacturer of the Enersyst Development Corp. ambient and chilled air cooling units. The Cryo-Jet units offer substantial benefits for ambient and chilled air cooling requirements including...

Storage conveyor.
September 1, 2001... For short-term storage and responsive on-demand delivery of snacks and baked products, Heat and Control's new MinuteMan accumulation conveyor reduces product breakage and reduces cleaning costs. MinuteMan provides large storage capacity from a...

Easy-open packaging film.
September 1, 2001... Curwood, Inc. announced the reissuance of their U.S. Patent for innovations used in their 3-layer EZ Peel flexible packaging films. Curwood's EZ Peel flexible packaging film is widely used in many easy-open food packaging applications. The most...

Powdered/Granular Packaging.
September 1, 2001... Powdered items like baking mixes and detergents, to granular products like coffee and rice, are packaged by this new continuous motion Advantage CM bag machine with auger filler. Operating at speeds to 150 ppm, the compact line makes all...

Circulating heating system.
September 1, 2001... Ventilex Fluid Bed Dryers and Coolers are up to 40 percent more efficient than anything being manufactured in the USA at the present time. They re-circulate the already heated air, and this allows for the most efficient operation of the dryer....

Continuous vertical conveyors.
September 1, 2001... Clean, safe TKF stainless steel conveyors offer numerous cost-efficient benefits, including simple, low-maintenance design, a wide selection of standardized units from modular components, and fully automatic operation. The space-saving TKF...

Productivity Improvement System.
September 1, 2001... Short Interval Measurement System (SIMS) employs software to analyze production floor data to determine downtime causes and throughput rates. Line operators use simple charts and codes to gather data, which is then quickly entered in the...

Thermally-assisted high-pressure lifts quality of shelf-stable foods.
September 1, 2001... Ultra-high pressure (UHP) technology has recently been commercialized to pasteurize and extend the refrigerated shelf life of juice, meat and poultry products. By adding heat, the technology can also be applied to sterilizing shelf-stable...