Wayne Labs

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.

Plant of the Year

Food Plant of the Year 2016: SugarCreek brings home more than the bacon

Though SugarCreek started out as a bacon processor, its newest high-tech plant is poised for growth as consumers demand more sophisticated RTE food products.

Wayne Labs

April 8, 2016

Yes, bacon has lately become a trend or fad, leaping its way out of the breakfast frying pan into food creations where it would have seemed an unlikely ingredient just a few years ago.

Automation

Are your control networks safe from cyberattacks?

Better safe than sorry since "sorry" could cost you downtime, product quality or safety and/or your brand’s reputation.

Wayne Labs

March 18, 2016

According to the ICS-CERT (Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team) fiscal year 2015 final incident response statistics, the food and agriculture segment reported only two cyberattacks last year.

Food Safety

TACCP: HACCP for threat assessments

Threat assessment and critical control point applies well-understood HACCP principles to protect food and beverage products from intentional and malicious contamination.

Wayne Labs

March 11, 2016

Nanjing, China, September 18, 2002: “Police have arrested a snack bar owner who confessed to spreading lethal rat poison into the food of his business rival on Saturday morning, killing 38 people and leaving hundreds seriously ill.”—China Daily.

Engineering R&D

Surgical knife turned food fraud investigator

With a little ingenuity, mass spectrometry technology has been teamed up with a surgical knife and proprietary software to find fraudulent food and/or beverages.

Wayne Labs

March 3, 2016

Sometimes, ingenious devices come about when seemingly disparate technologies are combined to create a new technology or instrument.

Engineering R&D

Making LIMS relevant to food processing today

LIMS (laboratory information management systems) software is often a generalized, "one-size-fits-all" approach, not fine-tuned for the food and beverage industry.

Wayne Labs

February 19, 2016

Your company makes food and beverage products. So, why would you use information systems designed for metals, plastics or chemical products?

Food Safety

VACCP: HACCP for vulnerability assessments

Vulnerability Assessment and Critical Control Point applies well-understood HACCP principles to protect food and beverage products from fraud and adulteration.

Wayne Labs

February 17, 2016

Endorsed by GFSI, VACCP (Vulnerability Assessment and Critical Control Point) is based on HACCP.

Green Series

Achieving Zero Waste

Food and beverage manufacturers continue sustainability efforts by minimizing byproducts, composting waste, recycling processing and packaging materials, and conserving energy and water.

Wayne Labs

February 10, 2016

Manufacturers looking to improve their sustainability are wise to remember the three R’s of waste management: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

Engineering R&D

Helping machines see more clearly

Machine vision systems work amazingly well, but high-speed cameras, along with intelligent lighting and enhanced software algorithms, make their sight even better.

Wayne Labs

January 25, 2016

When you pick up a plastic-wrapped package in a grocery store and can’t read everything on the label because of a reflection or crease, you probably turn or tilt the package until the lighting is just right. If only it were that easy for machine vision systems.

Tech Update: Collaborative Robots

Tech update: Don't fence them in

Some robots find new freedom as they become aware of their surroundings and act accordingly.

Wayne Labs

January 13, 2016

For good reasons, robots have been kept behind safety fences as they perform jobs that are potentially dangerous and back-breaking to humans.

Heat and Control fryer with external support module

Protein Processing

Solving meaty challenges

Protein processors can have trouble meeting production demands, if they’re working with out-of-date manufacturing spaces and equipment.

Wayne Labs

January 6, 2016

While many protein processors need to speed up their operations, there are many stumbling blocks thwarting their efforts.

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.