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.

Senior Contributing Technical Editor

Plant Construction

36th Annual Plant Construction Survey

The push for ROI

Wayne Labs

June 12, 2013

FSMA, energy reductions and efficiency are changing the way plants operate, and some older sites may need more than a facelift.

High lead or heavy metal levels in spices, such as cinnamon, typically come from three potential sources

Food Safety

Minimizing risk from raw materials

The ingredients you use reflect the quality of your product, so keep close tabs on your suppliers

Wayne Labs

June 8, 2013

Food manufacturers are launching new efforts to improve ingredient quality, make use of newer technologies and generally push greater innovation into their product offerings.

Sustainability

Energy management: crunching the numbers

Reducing energy usage is an ongoing practice, requiring education and continuing efforts by everyone in the organization.

Wayne Labs

May 13, 2013

There are many paths toward reducing energy and utility usage at plants—some are obvious, but some are not and require the help of consultants and suppliers.

Food Safety

Inline monitoring aids in food safety and quality

What you don’t measure could kill your brand.

Wayne Labs

May 13, 2013

While it may be said that food safety and food quality are not necessarily interrelated, get lax about either, and you probably won’t have a brand for long.

Tech Update: Meat & Poultry Processing

Employing energy savings as a competitive edge

Wayne Labs

May 13, 2013

Known for their heavy use of energy, the meat and poultry industries need to cut usage wherever they can.

Plant of the Year

Plant of the Year 2013: Chobani

Chobani's brand-new Twin Falls facility continues to evolve while keeping up with the American public's insatiable demand for Greek yogurt.

Wayne Labs

April 9, 2013

Chobani time might be defined as the time it takes a new company, which started in 2005, to rise to the top in US Greek yogurt sales in 2012, claiming 47.3 percent of the US market, according to AdAge, June 6, 2012.

Tech Update - Pumps

Look before you leap into pump selection

While there may be more than one pump solution for a specific application, it pays to do some homework first to find the most efficient solution.

Wayne Labs

April 9, 2013

Increase efficiency. Improve product handling characteristics. Meter ingredients or cleaning chemicals more accurately. Cut maintenance time and downtime. Decrease energy usage.

Dry Processing

Organic grain packager fills it to the limit

Taking the load off the backs of operators, this automatic bag filler also has increased production rates by 40 percent.

Wayne Labs

April 9, 2013

Grain Millers, based in Eugene, OR has been packaging conventional organic whole grain products for more than 30 years.

TECH FLASH

Pomegranate juice: Is it real?

While California is now a major supplier of pomegranate juice, the rest of it originates in Middle East countries, but is not likely to be purchased directly from them.

Wayne Labs

March 26, 2013

Are consumers getting what they’re supposed to when they buy pomegranate juice?

Tech Update: Wireless Applications

Eliminate wires and legwork with radio communications

Wireless systems help alleviate plant installation obstructions and provide cost efficiencies. With FSMA looming, it’s time to get moving to support electronic recordkeeping with wireless capabilities.

Wayne Labs

March 6, 2013

Look around you. You probably have operating parameters you’d like to measure and track to satisfy the requirements of regulators, especially with FDA getting serious about implementing parts of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).

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.