Food and Beverage Manufacturing Top Stories
RSS

Cimcorp MultiPick robotic material handling

Field Report

Bakery improves fulfillment time by automating headquarters warehouse

The bakery also reduced space utilization by 50 percent and decreased labor by 30 percent

Wayne Labs, Senior Contributing Technical Editor

January 30, 2020

Martin’s Famous Pastry Shoppe Inc. finds the summer season really good for business—except mostly manual practices in the warehouse put a real crimp on the way the company would really like to handle the distribution side of its supply chain.

Legal Issues

Butter and cheese class action lawsuit settled

$220 million settlement stems from lawsuit alleging a conspiracy to reduce milk output and raise prices on dairy products

Wayne Labs

January 29, 2020

A $220 million settlement has been reached in a class action lawsuit brought against National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), Agri-Mark, Inc., Dairy Farmers of America, Inc., and Land O’Lakes, Inc. The lawsuit claimed that an effort known as Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) operated a Herd Retirement Program to reduce milk output in violation of the law.

Packaging

Keeping up with the e-commerce expansion

Tom Egan , PMMI

January 24, 2020

As consumers demand greater convenience, e-commerce sales continue to rise. According to the 2019 Internet Retailer Top 1000 Report, consumers spent $517.36 billion online with U.S. merchants in 2018, up from $449.88 billion spent the year prior. Even when the final sales takes place in a store rather than online, the first step to most purchase decisions starts at the search bar.

Food Safety

The evolution of food safety management systems—from early 1900s to audits today

Richard F. Stier

January 24, 2020

In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt signed legislation that created the agency with legal authority to seize goods in interstate commerce that were adulterated, contained additives injurious to health, or contained filthy, decomposed or putrid substances.

Field Reports

Upgraded metal detection recovers 5-10% more product from false rejects

January 24, 2020

Cebro Frozen Foods, Newman, Calif., a bulk producer and supplier of organic, kosher and conventional individually quick frozen (IQF) vegetables to the industrial and food service industry, was founded in 1993 and is operated by third-generation grower and owner Patrick Cerutti.

Packaging

What’s in your sustainability toolkit?

Key considerations for brands and OEMs implementing eco-friendly packaging solutions

Jorge Izquierdo

January 23, 2020

The move toward sustainable practices, products and materials is no longer on the horizon but ever-present.

Engineering R&D

Novel compressed air drying system leaves out the desiccant

Wayne Labs

January 22, 2020

Typically, in food applications where compressed air may come in direct contact with food, regenerative desiccant dryers are able to dry the air to ISO 8573 Class 1-2 requirements.

Tech Update

Employing wireless sensors without a clear goal could prove inefficient

Wayne Labs

January 22, 2020

How do you implement a sensor-based IIoT system that can fulfill your needs now and into the future?

Field Reports

Brewer expands growth, operates greener with a Miura steam boiler

Sharon Spielman

January 20, 2020

When the owners of Badger State Brewing Company decided to continue their expansion and growth, they added a Miura LX-100SG steam boiler to build out processing capabilities while reducing fuel consumption and lowering emissions—helping to achieve their goal of being an even greener brewery.

IIOT Communications

IIOT sensor communications issues still need work

NIST’s Nenad Ivezic provides a more detailed view of the progress made in standardizing data communications in the food supply chain—including sensors and IIoT at the farm and industrial levels

Wayne Labs

January 17, 2020

While much of the work involving the standardization of communication in the overall food supply chain is finished, there is still work needing to be done regarding the standardization of IIoT sensor data. I asked Nenad Ivezic, leader of the Process Engineering Group in the Systems Integration Division of the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) Engineering Laboratory, to fill us in on the particulars.

On Demand Kelley Rodriguez, Editor in Chief of Refrigerated & Frozen Foods, will be joined in this 60-minute webinar by industry experts to help unpack the latest research.

On Demand Driven by climate goals, business risk, client interest, and resilience considerations, food and beverage companies are increasingly turning their attention to decarbonizing their production processes.