Food and Beverage Manufacturing Top Stories

Pasteurization

The importance of maintaining nutritional and sensory quality in pasteurized food

While thermal pasteurization can affect quality in nuts and seeds, finding the right non-thermal process can render product with no noticeable product changes

Penny Clark

January 2, 2020

For nuts and seeds, non-thermal pasteurization is a must in preserving flavor, texture and appearance.

Dry Processing

Mini mixer reduces cycle time for supplement maker

Sharon Spielman

December 20, 2019

Ultra-marathoner Jeff Vierling started Tailwind Nutrition, Durango, Colo., for himself and fellow runners, cyclists and triathletes who rely on nutritional supplements to sustain energy during long-distance races.

Engineering R&D

Novel plastic formulation decomposes naturally

Wayne Labs

December 19, 2019

A new plastic technology developed by a startup company, Radical Plastics, has created a plastic resin that—depending on composition—can have a “preprogrammed” time to return to basic nonthreatening carbon compounds.

What processors need to know about environmental monitoring

Richard F. Stier

December 17, 2019

Do we need to establish a program for environmental monitoring for pathogens?

Robotics

Palletizing cobots handle tea, ease workload

Nestlé needed a robust, precise and user-friendly cobotic solution—one that could handle pallet stability.

Wayne Labs

December 17, 2019

Nestlé Suisse SA in Orbe, Switzerland, a facility producing tea in capsules under the well-known brand of Special.T, was in a bind as it looked for a cobotic palletizing solution. Not only was accurate placement of cartons necessary, the robots had to work safely among people.

Pet Food

Expectations for conveniently packaged specialty pet food create challenges

Wayne Labs

December 16, 2019

In this article, we look at how the growth of consumer demands and regulations is modernizing pet food operations.

Pet Food Series

Tomorrow’s pet food plant: What it takes to stay competitive

Plants of the future will rely on automation to produce consistent safe quality pet foods

Wayne Labs

December 13, 2019

What does the modern, competitive pet food plant of the future look like? What are its key design considerations to make it fast, efficient and safe (e.g., product flow, building, internal and external environmental considerations, waste streams, automation, equipment, etc.)?

Food Safety

Romaine E. coli update: Illnesses subsiding, FDA tracking 3 separate outbreaks

FDA awaiting final results from Salinas farm samples

Rose Shilling

December 13, 2019

As the FDA awaits final results from extensive E. coli tests of romaine lettuce farms in one California growing region, it says outbreak illnesses are slowing, though two separate outbreaks have popped up.

Automation

Are you and your control systems ready for Windows 10?

Microsoft will drop support of Windows 7 in January 2020

Wayne Labs

December 10, 2019

Windows 7 to 10 upgrades may not be so difficult—so upgrade to stay secure.

Fab Food Plants

How Prestage Foods of Iowa built a state-of-the-art pork processing plant

Sharon Spielman

December 9, 2019

Producing more than 1.4 billion pounds of pork and turkey annually, the Prestage Farms family of companies employs more than 2,700 associates and is affiliated with more than 470 farm families across the U.S.