The scale, a Mettler Toledo ID7, is capable of weighing items to a thousandth of a kilogram. And at Fortitech, where Webster works as a production manager, exact weights aren't just desirable, they're critical. "Mixing and weighing are what we do," he says. "They're our entire business."
As a manufacturer of blended nutrient formulations for the food industry, the Schenectady, N.Y.-based Fortitech blends and weighs approximately 5,000 different customized formulations for a wide-ranging customer list, which includes sport-drink bottlers, infant formula makers, energy bar processors, diet product manufacturers and bakeries. Some of the formulations include up to 30 separate ingredients, each one measured to an exact weight before blending. In all, about 800,000 pounds of pre-mixes and blended formulations are shipped from Fortitech's Schenectady plant each month.