Wayne Labs has more than 30 years of editorial experience in industrial automation. He served as senior technical editor for I&CS/Control Solutions magazine for 18 years where he covered software, control system hardware and sensors/transmitters. Labs ran his own consulting business and contributed feature articles to Electronic Design, Control, Control Design, Industrial Networking and Food Engineering magazines. Before joining Food Engineering, he served as a senior technical editor for Omega Engineering Inc. Labs also worked in wireless systems and served as a field engineer for GE’s Mobile Communications Division and as a systems engineer for Bucks County Emergency Services. In addition to writing technical feature articles, Wayne covers FE’s Engineering R&D section.
Though Cyclospora outbreaks in the US happen less frequently than those caused by typical pathogens, the recent salad mix outbreaks occurring in July and August of this year have a familiar ring.
Effective Oct. 9, 2018, the FDA has amended its food additive regulations to no longer allow for the use of a total of seven synthetic flavoring substances and flavor enhancers (adjuvants)—six due to health concerns, and one additional flavor that is being delisted because it’s no longer used by industry.
Kraft Heinz has launched a new venture capital fund to invest in emerging tech companies that are transforming the food industry. Kraft Heinz has committed up to $100 million to the fund, named Evolv Ventures, and has hired investor Bill Pescatello to lead the fund.
Tippmann Innovation of Fort Wayne, Ind. recently completed a cold-chain assessment for Wawa Inc., one of the nation’s leading convenience store chains. Over the last 60 years, Wawa has developed a reputation for the highest quality products in the country.
After two years of its five-year initiative to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, Crown Holdings has exceeded one of its two targeted 2020 sustainability goals. In 2016, the packaging company announced plans to reduce energy consumption by 5 percent per billion standard units of production from 2015 levels by the end of 2020.
From seed production to farming to food processing, agriculture technology (AgTech) is fast becoming an answer to growing global food shortages. The city of Atlanta has decided to get an early start on finding solutions to future food shortages.
Meat processors are increasingly packaging raw bacon using dedicated, high-throughput interleavers and card dispensers, which dramatically increase packaging speeds.
Meat processors are increasingly turning to newer, higher speed packaging solutions that include dedicated interleavers and card dispensers that maximize throughput of raw bacon.
Severin Weiss, CEO of SpecPage and an expert in integrated software process solutions for recipe-based food and beverage processors, thinks PLM (product lifecycle management) and PDM (product data management) are two sets of tools that can help food processors avoid using fraudulent ingredients from less-than-scrupulous suppliers.
Maybe you still have a legacy control system in your facility, and it’s been running just fine, thank you. But one day in the future, it’ll give you a big surprise when the ancient motherboard dies, and you’re left without a system.