food processing

Nearly 400 from the dairy industry gathered in Minneapolis last week for the 2024 Dairy Sustainability Alliance Fall Meeting. And while dairy sustainability is evergreen, the first-ever sell-out crowd proved that the topic has never been more critical than it is today.

The fall gathering featured a day filled with sessions from dairy industry experts and leaders, and the Nelson-Jameson team was in attendance to participate in the discussions that will help shape the future of dairy sustainability and solutions.

We had an incredible time at the summit where attendees learned ways to evolve their strategies along with the evolution of dairy sustainability itself. Below are

Maxiren® XDS and Nelson-Jameson make a GOUDA couple!

You FETA BRIE-LIEVE IT!

And yes, we are together for the long haul.

Maxiren® XDS is a fermentation produced chymosin (FPC) that protects, preserves, and optimizes the required coagulant in the cheese process helping cheese reach its full potential of GRATE taste and big smiles. There is an increase of flexibility in the cheese production when Maxiren® XDS is involved. This extraordinary coagulant has a high specificity which lowers the amount of coagulant required, and aids in slowing the breakdown of cheese proteins, resulting in enhanced cheese textures. The enriched texture maintains a longer shelf life which allows shredding, slicing, and dicing to be smooth, natural, and more efficient through different cheese stages.

Have you ever missed one or two of your normal tooth-brushing sessions, and found your tongue traversing over a disconcertingly slimy layer coating your chompers?   Well, welcome to the disturbing and quite fascinating world of biofilms.  These hearty amalgams of microbiological activity provide both protection for microorganisms, as well as headaches for not only those avoiding plaque build-up, but most importantly for this blog, the food industry (allowing harborage and protection for bacteria and fungi).

Biofilms can form on a variety of surfaces in food processing environments, including stainless steel.  A supercell of harborage, “Biofilms are complex microbial ecosystems formed by one or more species immersed in an extracellular matrix of different compositions depending on the type of food manufacturing environment and the colonizing species” (Geaile, et al).   The

While whipping up a quick dinner recently, I decided to use my handy-dandy microwave to get the rice cooking portion of the meal done. Just below, the thrilling smells of cooking vegetables and fish wafted up as I did my best not to burn what was in the pan in front of me on the stove.  Feeling good about my culinary self momentarily, I casually glanced up at the microwave.  Torrents of foam cascaded out of the vessel I had put the rice in...in the end, I had cooked rice and a significant starchy mess to clean up. When on top of a freshly poured beer, a healthy level of foam can bring me great joy; in this instance, it brought me back to Earth in terms of thinking about my talents in the kitchen.  

Now, take that unfortunate incident and think about a food processing facility producing your favorite products. Foam happens in many food

Nelson-Jameson takes food safety very seriously, and we know that you do too. That is why we offer a wealth of products and solutions that can help your facility reduce the risk of foodborne illness and contamination. From Color-Coding and Metal Detectable to Hand Hygiene and Environmental Testing - we have many programs available to help ensure your processing facilities are compliant, providing safe, quality food to all.

To talk to one of our food safety experts about these programs or to receive

With constant eyes on profit margins, processors strive to make every dollar count on the processing line. Are you trying to figure out your next continuous improvement project aimed at maximizing profits for your operations? Turbidity monitoring from Anderson-Negele can help to maximize profits while saving money on wasted product going down the drain during cleaning cycles.

How it works:

Turbidity is defined as, "the phenomenon where by a specific portion of a light beam passing through a specific liquid medium is reflected by undissolved particles." Basically, the sensor acts like a flashlight into the light stream and senses the light that comes

Food safety concerns are on all food manufacturers’ minds (and, honestly, probably in their dreams too), so it is critical to know how bacteria grow.  Armed with that knowledge, we are better able to stay ahead of bacterial contamination in the food manufacturing facilities.

Often, when I was in the plant environment, I would refer back to a case study put together by the Royal Society for Public Health in 2010. It laid out some excellent basics on growth factors for bacteria in a concise manner that readers

What is the difference between water activity and water “moisture” content? Well, it all depends on what you want to achieve. Do you want to monitor the amount of water and dry matter present in a product? Or do you want to increase and monitor the shelf stability of a product?

“Water ‘moisture’ content is the amount of water contained in a product”. Measuring water “moisture” content is better used to determine quality of the process. For example, if the product is a cheese powder that is spray dried, it is common practice to measure the water “moisture” content to determine yield and to ascertain if your drying process is running according to the diagnosed plan.

For those of you in states buried under several feet of snow, navigating slippery roads, or simply trying to remember what the sun looks like, it may be hard to fathom, but warm weather is around the corner!

Along with picnics, baseball, vacations, and relief from seasonal affective disorder, spring and summer come along with some uninvited guests: a myriad of pests. In all fairness, cockroaches, flies, rodents, etc. are threats to food safety operations all year but with warmer weather food operations often see additional challenges when it comes to managing pests.

A good pest control program takes a good deal of planning and proper maintenance. Before the warmer weather hits, it might not hurt to examine your current program and anticipate the needs for your operation. Where to start though? Well, don’t “wing it.”

The following free sources provide some good, introductory insight into Pest Control in food processing environments: