Installing new equipment helped one salt supplier meet its food safety and efficiency goals.
SaltWorks, a large gourmet salt company based near Seattle, WA, supplies premium-grade specialty salts to individuals, manufacturers, restaurants, retail stores and spice companies around the world. The company offers over 110 different varieties of salt, including authentic salts from around the globe, as well as SaltWorks’ own handcrafted lines of all-natural flavor-infused and cold-smoked salts. This wide selection of salts, used in a variety of applications by a diverse customer base, requires a vast range of very specific grain sizes.
SaltWorks needed a uniform method of sizing and de-dusting salt that would allow for fast and easy changeover of product, minimize contamination and meet stringent food safety requirements. The company was using multiple brands of vibratory round separators, none of which ran the same way. Employees had to be trained on how to operate each type of machine. Many tools were required to make adjustments and change screens, which was not only inefficient, but could also lead to possible contamination of one type of salt into another. The process was very manual and labor intensive. SaltWorks wanted to streamline the process, develop automation, enhance safety and improve efficiency, all while having the capability to customize salt for specific customer requirements.