Food Processors Clean Up Their Language.
As tech innovations improve the food & beverage industry’s ability to measure and control manufacturing processes, expectations for product safety and nutrition have increased. An important offshoot of this trend is the “clean label” movement, which spans efforts from eliminating artificial additives and chemical preservatives to using simpler, more comprehensible language on nutrition facts and ingredient lists.
In this Halloween-infused issue of Bytes & Insights, we’ll examine how the industry is responding to this grassroots movement, check out some success stories, and explore how data can drive the production of clean label products.
Label, Schmabel: Be Transparent
The world of consumer-facing food and beverage terminology can be ghastly to navigate. Words like “fresh,” “natural,” and even “healthy” may seem to be universally understood, but closer scrutiny can reveal the tricks within your treats: products advertising this language don’t always live up to the concepts they suggest. “Fresh” doesn’t mean free from chemical additives, and “natural” products may not offer any measurable health benefits over traditional products of the same kind. Conversely, some ingredients listed on labels may have spooky-sounding names that belie their wholesome nature. For example, consumers may balk at eating foods containing “pyridoxine hydrochloride” until they realize that said chemical compound isn’t witch’s brew, but vitamin B-6.
Among the most confusing terms in marketing food and beverage products is “clean.” Misused and abused to the point where it’s nearly a dirty word, “clean” has no set scientific or regulatory definition. So why is the clean label movement taking flight, and what does it all mean?
First, let’s establish what “clean label” is not:
So what is “clean label,” then?
It’s a consumer-driven movement anchored in some closely related goals:
How does it work?
Historically, consumers haven’t exerted much control over what businesses will or won’t say about their products. The clean label movement aims to change this by simplifying the cumbersome and confusing conventions of food and beverage labeling and by educating the public about the processes and substances used to manufacture their foods, thereby enabling consumers to make informed decisions that align with their individual values concerning health and nutrition.
Processors that embrace this change in consumer behavior can not only contribute to their customers’ long-term health, but also stand to gain market share as they build trust with the public. But these business benefits can only be realized when manufacturers make significant changes such as sourcing ingredients exclusively from responsible growers, transitioning away from heavy reliance on unhealthy fats and sugars, and prioritizing products containing whole foods over ultra-processed snacks and meals.
In short, food & beverage manufacturers should aim to be like Casper the Friendly Ghost: transparent and acting in our best interests.
Byte: Gaining consumers’ trust requires more than vaguely reassuring verbiage on packaging. It demands rigorous controls, transparency, and monitoring that begin with ingredient sourcing and continue through plant processes all the way to delivery to the end-user.
For a close encounter with clean label methodology, read the full article on gray.com
Lean, Clean Processing Machines
Before consumers can reach into the pantry for their clean label goodies, food & beverage processors must have facilities that support the efficient manufacture of such products.
An aspect of manufacturing rarely seen by consumers, hygienic plant design directly impacts “clean label” production by implementing initiatives that improve the health and safety of finished food & beverage products—and the workers who help produce them.
A recent pair of award-winning Gray customers exemplify the correct approach to hygienic design, with new facilities that streamline processes, implement strict controls and innovative equipment, and remove unnecessary chemicals and contact with products that can jeopardize food safety and quality.
Prestage Foods of South Carolina
Prestage Farms is a leading turkey processor and family-owned business. For its newest production facility in Camden, SC, the company decided to take a novel approach to turkey processing that would result in a cleaner, more flavorful product and far more efficient and cost-effective operations.
While the goal was lofty, thorough research and close collaboration between expert industry partners made the award-winning facility possible.
The plant employs the Western Hemisphere’s only air-chill processing model for turkey processing and uses extensive automation throughout the plant to prevent cross-contamination, ensure end-to-end traceability, and maintain the highest standards for food and worker safety.
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The facility’s automated shackle-chain air-chill processing system eliminates common chilling water, which can circulate pathogens from bird to bird and requires additional chemicals to destroy microbes and preserve product freshness. Consequently, air chilling results in a safer and more natural product, while the shackle chain system and process automation provide an easy way to trace each turkey from the moment it enters the system to finished product packaging.
Additional hygienic elements further reduce the potential for contamination, such as dry brushing the birds prior to scalding and using a clean-in-place (CIP) ozone skid system to sanitize surfaces and treat the water supply across critical processes. The result is an operation that’s measurably cleaner, less physically demanding for workers, and more productive than similarly sized poultry processing facilities.
Clemens Hatfield North Expansion
Headquartered in Hatfield, PA, Clemens Food Group is a family-owned pork processor that delivers a wide-range of high-quality products to customers across the U.S., including bacon, ham, lunch meats, smoked pork, and sausages (Hallowieners? We couldn’t help ourselves.). As a vertically coordinated company, Clemens commands its complete production chain, from feed mill and farm to shelf and table.
As demand has grown over the decades, stopgaps to renovate the company’s home manufacturing campus introduced challenges and a congested layout with no room for additional growth. Faced with constant capacity issues and smokehouses near the end of their service life, Clemens decided to tackle both challenges with one ambitious project—a greenfield campus expansion that would increase production capacity and provide all-new smokehouses.
But Clemens didn’t stop there. Rather than simply copy the current facility or scale up existing processes, the company sought to improve upon its design and add an unprecedented level of hygienic control and process automation for an operation that was bigger and better.
Innovative design reimagined how the plant would function, with a complete segregation of raw and ready-to-eat (RTE) processes. From separate employee entrances to color-coded flooring to exclusive HVAC and drainage systems, designers minimized the risks of cross-contamination while improving product flow and employee ergonomics. Gray integrated process piping and cure generation tanks into key equipment for easy draining and implemented CIP systems to make routine cleanings faster and safer for employees.
A supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system and isolated viewing corridor for RTE process lines provide unprecedented insight into production, while a 4,800-ton ammonia refrigeration system, maintenance service rails, weigh-in motion conveyor, and automated packaging systems keep the facility’s nine product lines running efficiently through every stage.
The finished 308,000 s.f. plant has increased the Hatfield campus production capacity by 50% to over 100 million pounds of smoked meat products per year—even more than The Blob could stomach.
Zeroes and Wons
To get ahead in food processing, businesses cannot underestimate the power of data. Not only does data provide insights for how to optimize efficiency, but it also charts a course toward a cleaner, safer operation.
In the bygone days when manufacturing equipment performed a simple mechanical function, manufacturers relied on human employees to collect observational data, assess quality, and manually chart sanitation and maintenance cycles. Compared to today’s technology, such an approach was ripe for human error, operational inefficiency, sub-standard plant hygiene, and freak accidents involving a certain Abby Normal.
When it comes to using data to drive processes and operational changes, modern food processing has long since passed the point of no return. Data has proven its ability to optimize every aspect of manufacturing, but it takes careful planning and comprehensive system integration before these systems can become the difference-makers they were designed to be.
“Data is the lifeblood of a smart factory…If it’s done correctly, you’ll end up with an agile facility that can adjust to its operational needs and the demands of its customers as well.”
Mark Adelmann
Director of Business Development
EN Automation
Such agility is necessary to meet consumers’ growing demand for clean label products. But fashioning your data stream into a sharp operational tool isn’t easy: new technology introduces new challenges. How can you coordinate separate systems to work together and avoid a Frankenstein of incompatible data streams? How do you effectively program robotics in a flexible operation? How do you protect newly interconnected technology from external cyber threats?
Many manufacturers have the funds to purchase technology with the capability to automate processes and provide useful data streams, but they lack the personnel to effectively integrate this new technology into their operation. An experienced system integrator can develop custom network infrastructure and controls that enable equipment from different vendors to communicate across critical processes and function safely and efficiently. Kind of like a mad scientist.
Byte: Cleanliness is about control, but you can’t control what you don’t measure. By tirelessly monitoring plant processes, equipment rates, and material flows, smart technology delivers reams of actionable data that far exceed what a human overseer can provide.
Hungry for more on Big Data’s growing role in food processing? Check out this related article on gray.com.
Guiding the food & beverage industry toward clearer messaging and cleaner products isn’t something that will happen over one full moon. It will take sustained diligence from consumers to communicate their needs and ensure that manufacturers adapt accordingly. Likewise, it will require commitment and continued innovation from industry stakeholders that recognize the business and societal value in producing healthier, safer products. Consider that as you dip in the cauldron tonight and drink to our health.