Transcript
Food Processing: What top-line concerns do food and beverage processors need to address when introducing new ingredients to their facilities?
Todd Baker: Products are developed through a company's R&D process, and ingredients could be based on functionality, taste or a variety of other factors. The R&D teams come up with a perfect formulation in the lab, but there may not be any evaluation of whether that new product or new ingredients can be run inside a plant or factory environment. Plants end up on the receiving end of ingredients that their processes might not be able to handle. Thus, there are production issues from those changes that need to be addressed before the ingredients arrive.
FP: How often do you see equipment and production issues come into play with these new ingredients?
TB: I would say that we experience it on a very frequent basis. It's very common, and it seems that since everybody is competing for some advantage in the marketplace, there are a lot of product changes and ingredient changes being made. We're seeing it on a consistent basis in the food and pet food industries — really across all industries that have a large ingredient profile on their products.
FP: When a processor is considering replacing one ingredient with another or bringing in a new ingredient, what should they be focused on in terms of handling that new ingredient?
TB: One of the first things they need to evaluate is the overall ingredient properties. Some of the higher-level analysis that needs to be done includes: (1) Is it combustible? If it's a dry ingredient, they may have to have that ingredient tested to find that out. (2) It’s important to know the basic material-handling properties of an ingredient: flow-ability from hoppers; will they need to adjust air flows within existing systems, or if they're designing new systems to make sure they're designing those systems properly? (3) Are the new ingredients more hygroscopic than the current ingredient profiles, and is the plant environment conducive to handling that ingredient in bulk? We've had systems that are totally unusable because humidity levels inside the facility are not compatible with the products.
FP: Are any of those considerations more often overlooked than the others when it comes to processors swapping out ingredients?
TB: I would say the one that probably causes the most problems is the hygroscopic issue. There are some ingredients that in a normal, air-conditioned environment will almost turn liquid in some cases. That can lead to all kinds of issues as far as equipment operations, and it may also increase spoilage of those ingredients. We want to make sure that the plant environment is conducive to that new ingredient. One other large one that pops up is whether the new ingredient is an allergen, and if so, do you have the allergen separation available in your process to isolate that from your non-allergen ingredients or products.
FP: When a company is introducing a new allergen-containing ingredient, is there always a way to get that allergen handled properly in the facility, or do processors sometimes have to consider producing the allergen product elsewhere?
TB: If you're bringing an allergen ingredient into a facility that is not really handling any in their current ingredient structure, it may be a challenge to isolate that allergen. One of the big things is, if your current product structure is non-allergen based, how are you going to clean all the equipment? We see a lot of processors with lines and equipment in a facility that are dedicated to running allergen products, and others running a truly non-allergen product stream, that may never run allergen product in that particular facility. Cleaning and access for inspection both become super-critical when you're handling allergens — and especially if you're also producing non-allergen product. In the end, they may actually find it's not feasible to try to run allergen product in a given facility or on a given production line with the existing legacy equipment because of those challenges.
FP: What are the differences in this pre-planning process when it comes to ingredient replacement versus introducing a new ingredient?
TB: One of the first things that needs to be considered is that you'll probably need to meter, weigh or feed that ingredient in some type of automated system. If that ingredient is going to be a replacement for an existing ingredient, does it have properties that are different from the existing ingredient? You can work with the suppliers of the feed equipment, have them do testing and evaluate. If you haven't had the initial ingredient evaluated, it's recommended to do that to compare it to the new ingredient on the handling properties. In the case of an additional ingredient, you may need to evaluate what additional equipment you need based on how it interacts with the existing equipment and controls. You need these evaluations to feed that particular ingredient and meter it into the system correctly.
FP: What are some of the steps that processors can take now to prepare for some of these challenges?
TB: Some of the steps that can be done earlier in the process include working with a material handling person or lab to get the properties of the product ahead of time. Also, have it tested for combustibility. Some of this information may be available from the ingredient’s supplier, so ask questions of the ingredient supplier on how they handle this particular component in their process; they're a good source of information. If you can’t find that information, plan to work with a lab or an equipment vendor’s lab to get the required data so that you're prepared before you introduce an ingredient into your production plant.
