Tag Archives: ingredients

Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) and Digital Scales

Posted on by

Food safety is extremely important to all of us. In today’s ultra competitive and fast paced world, it’s imperative that we have laws in place to ensure that the food we eat is as safe as possible.

We hope the article below helps you better understand information about the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). Ultimately we think this information will highlight the ability of Rice Lake’s washdown products to meet your requirements of commercial processing industries. The FSMA info below not only informs producers about how to meet compliance laws, but demonstrates how Rice Lake scales can help prevent food contamination by the integrity of their construction and design.

For all producers, from the farm to the table, purchasing equipment that meets Sanitary Design Principles (SDP) is considered a mandatory preventative measure by the FDA. Our product offerings that are microbiologically cleanable, hermetically sealed and compatible with hostile environments can greatly assist you in adhering to these strict guidelines.

On January 4, 2011, President Obama signed the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) into law. The FSMA brought a much-needed focus of food safety laws into the food processing industry as well as to consumers, and the general public as a whole.

The signing of the FSMA was arguably the largest reform to food safety in the previous 70 years. According to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA), the FSMA “aims to ensure the U.S. food supply is safe by shifting the focus from responding to contamination to preventing it.” The key focus being prevention versus reaction in regards to food safety, from all aspects and stages of food—from the farm to the table.

The FSMA was spurred into action from an increase in foodborne illnesses in the U.S. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report almost 1 in 6 Americans fall ill to food borne diseases each year. Foodborne illness became an issue of public health in the early 2000s, enabling the FDA to set higher preventative standards for food safety and elicit enforcement agencies to hold companies to these standards and contain any potential problems before they become a widespread risk of foodborne illness. To do this, the FDA under the FSMA can order companies to recall when needed.

The primary role of the FSMA is prevention. As noted by the FDA, “for the first time, FDA will have a legislative mandate to require comprehensive, science-based preventative controls across the food supply.” This legislative power ensures all U.S. companies that contribute to the food supply, no matter their size, are subject to the authority of the FDA and their preventative and responding agency.

Under the Prevention section of the FSMA, controls are given to the FDA for the following:

• Mandatory preventive controls for food facilities
• Mandatory produce safety standards
• Authority to prevent intentional contamination

These measures need to be qualified by scientific justifications by the FDA and are enforced by legislation. Under the mandatory preventative controls for food facilities is the addition of a preventative control plan that includes the following:

1 ) Evaluating the hazards that could affect food safety
2 ) Specifying what preventive steps, or controls, will be put in place to significantly minimize or prevent the hazards
3 ) Specifying how the facility will monitor these controls to ensure they are working
4 ) Maintaining routine records of the monitoring
5 ) Specifying what actions the facility will take to correct problems that arise.

Purchasing and using equipment that meets the Sanitary Design Principles (SDP) falls under these mandatory preventative measures as a control to prevent or minimize the possibility of foodborne contamination and disease. Continue reading →

Concrete Batching: NRMCA, Scale Company, and Calibration

Posted on by

In a concrete batching plant typically all of the ingredients that go into the concrete are measured by weight with certified digital scales. As you can imagine, those scales that are batching and mixing of concrete, need to be calibrated on a regular basis in order to maintain accurate weighing.

At Central Carolina Scale, we have checked and tested ready mixed concrete hopper scales for many years. Over all these years, concrete batching plant calibration procedures have evolved and we have also made changes to adapt to new guidelines and requirements. Whether it’s asphalt plant calibration or concrete batching, we have many years of experience repairing and calibrating these digital scale systems throughout central and eastern North Carolina.

While we don’t sell Command Alkon or Mettler Toledo indicators, we have worked on many systems that include those units. Popular instruments that we offer for sale include the Cardinal 205.

For concrete producers looking to achieve National Ready Mixed Concrete Association (NRMCA) Plant Certification, they need to adhere to the Guidance to Concrete Producers maintaining plant certification. This includes a list of Primary Requirements, Plant Inspector Guide and most importantly to us, the Scale Accuracy Verification guide.

Scale Accuracy Verification
There are some differences in what the scale companies are accustomed to doing in accordance with NIST Handbook 44 and what is required by the NRMCA plant certification and ASTM C94. Some of these differences are described in the Plant Inspector’s Guide.

Minimum quantity of test weights should be at 10% of scale capacity. Aggregate scale capacities will generally govern the minimum amount of test weights required – about 4000 lbs is typically needed. (There may be situations where the plant configuration does not permit the minimum test weights to be used and that has to be verified by the plant inspector).

Test weights should be certified to be accurate to 0.01% of their indicated load within the last two years. This is typically not a problem with commercial scale companies.

Scale checks should be done through range of use of the scales. Scale companies may only verify it through 50% of the scale capacity.

Up through 50% of the scale capacity, scale checks should be done using a build-up test load using a combination of product and test weights in a process called a substitution loading. Scale increments should not be skipped. In substitution loading, product in the scale should only be to the load previously verified – as close as possible.

Over 50% of the scale capacity, strain test loading is permitted. An unknown quantity of product is charged and the incremental weight indication with the test weights is verified. At least two points should be tested in this portion of the scale – through typical range of use.

Scale accuracy requirements (ASTM C94) is the greater of
● ±0.15% of scale capacity (governs at the lower end)
● ±0.4% of applied test load
● If it’s not accurate the scale has to be adjusted.

Maintenance tolerances in accordance with Handbook 44 are stated on the basis of scale divisions (min grad) but are generally more restrictive than those in C94 that state tolerances based on applied load or scale capacity.

A copy of the scale verification data sheets should be obtained to indicate details of the test loads used, test load increments, load indications and load error. A certificate just indicating a scale is OK is not acceptable.

Definitions of load testing, concrete batching plant calibration format, discussions and numerical examples of the scale accuracy verification are available in the NRMCA Plant Inspector Guide.

concrete batching scale calibration

Batching Plant Calibration Frequency

Accuracy checks of measuring devices (scales, water meters, admixture dispensers and moisture probes) should be performed at least once every 6 months.

State DOTs may have a requirement for these to be performed more frequently. The requirement with the greater frequency governs. Documentation of these verifications should be maintained and made available to the inspector during the plant inspection.

Also, scale accuracy should be verified anytime the plant is moved (portable plants), maintenance activities on the plant impact the weighing systems, or when there is a concern on scale accuracy determined from the batch man operating the batching process or the quality of concrete.

For customers throughout the central part of North Carolina, adhering to the NRMCA requirements can be accomplished with the help of the experienced service technicians of Central Carolina Scale located in Sanford, NC.

We have the trucks to handle these requirements and we have the large certified test weights (and small weights too) needed to accurately test your digital scales.

And we also stock a huge amount of replacement load cells, digital weight indicators, load cell cable, and other scale accessories to keep your batching plant up and going year round.

Contact our service department today (919) 776-7737 or fill out the RFQ button on our website for additional information.

Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) and Digital Weight Scales

Posted on by

Maintaining a pristine environment is absolutely critical to the success of food manufacturers. Unhygienic conditions within food manufacturing plants can have a potentially catastrophic impact on public health, not to mention the public relations and revenue impact on the company in question. It is not surprising, therefore, that increased consumer awareness and demand has seen safety standards become increasingly rigorous.

It is vital that companies manufacturing weighing equipment for the food industry ensure that the products they supply comply with best practices and meet strict legislative requirements. On a food production line, fast and accurate check weighing is vital to a company’s bottom line – the visibility of weighing data and statistics can help maximize performance and profitability – but the equipment chosen must meet stringent design requirements when it comes to construction and ease of cleaning.

With U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) deadlines for small and medium sized companies to meet requirements of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) hitting in late September 2017, the industry is under pressure to deliver high quality food while also meeting the requirements of this new legislation.

The date for registered companies with greater than 500 employees to comply with the first FSMA rule Preventive Controls was September 2016. For companies with fewer than 500 employees, the compliance date was September 2017.

Why is the FSMA being implemented?

The new rules are intended to minimize the serious illness and death that can be caused by unsafe food products, by focusing on preventing food contamination throughout the entire production process.

The link between HACCP, HARPC and FSMA

Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) is a systematic, preventive approach to food safety from biological, chemical and physical hazards in production processes that can cause the finished product to be unsafe. It focuses on the hazards that are unique to the product being manufactured, so the concerns for a seafood processor will be different from those of a coffee roasting company.

With the implementation of FSMA, HACCP becomes a part of a food manufacturer’s compliance to Hazard Analysis and Risk-Based Preventive Controls (HARPC). In short, the FSMA act aims to ensure the U.S. food supply is safe by shifting the focus from responding to contamination to preventing it.

Digital Weigh Scales

This risk-based, preventive approach to food safety relies on data and expertise to pinpoint potential food safety issues along the production, distribution and supply chain. The FDA has advised that facilities should set up a thorough system for documenting internal processes and record keeping, so that they can clearly demonstrate that legal standards are being met.

As a crucial element in most industrial manufacturing processes, weighing equipment for the food industry, can play an important role in FSMA adherence procedures, including, for example:

  • Updating weighing equipment to more hygienic options, such as stainless steel and a fully enclosed cover for easy and efficient washdown.
  • Ensuring that weighing equipment is used effectively: for instance, using checkweighers at appropriate points in the production process to obtain and record production data.
  • Weighing solutions such as the ZQ375 or IP rated bench and indicators can help food suppliers to achieve both backward and forward traceability (be able to identify where all the ingredients came from and where they went).
  • Using the right scales to provide the most accurate, legal for trade weights, to avoid mislabelling and eliminate costly mistakes or re-works.
  • IP69K enclosures ensure instrumentation protection in heavy washdown environments.

Many companies, regardless of size, need to be looking for digital scales and weighing systems to help them to align their current HACCP and HARPC processes in order to meet FSMA requirements.

Heavy wash-down: IP69K

Equipment used in the food processing industry must be able to withstand rigorous wash-down procedures. Designed specifically to kill micro-organisms and bacteria, this heavy duty cleaning process typically uses high temperature, high pressure jet sprays and detergents. The combination of water, chemicals, high pressures and temperatures used in this cleaning process can prove fatal for electronic circuits and instrumentation.

food safety scale weight indicator

The Ingress Protection (IP) rating system is an internationally recognized scale that relates to proven protection against environmental factors such as liquids and solids. A product with the highest rating available, IP69K, offers complete assurance that it has been subjected to a challenging set of tests to ensure protection against penetration of high pressure, high temperature water and dust particles – making it ideal for use in conditions where equipment must be carefully sanitized.

Scales designed to resist extreme temperatures

In the food industry, equipment such as check weighing scales may be subject to rapid temperature change, whether due to operating conditions or wash down procedures. Extremes of temperature inside and outside the enclosure can result in expansion and contraction of gases, which in turn can lead to moisture and humidity becoming trapped inside.

When selecting a piece of weighing equipment for use in the food industry, ensure that the manufacturer has not only recognized the challenges posed by this stringent environment, but also risen to them by incorporating design elements into the structure of the product that will counter issues such as humidity and condensation

 

Eliminating bug and food trap areas

The process of welding two pieces of stainless steel together can have implications for the corrosion resistance of the metal. Ideally, the surfaces of your equipment/scale should be continuously welded within an inert gas atmosphere – helping to ensure that the metal remains corrosion and crack resistant and that there are no edges or un-leveled surfaces that could trap food particles or impede cleaning.

Areas of the product that have internal corners and angles of less than 135° – and which come into contact with food – should have a smooth, rounded finish to minimize food trap areas.

Scale designs should, where possible, avoid flat horizontal areas to stop water from collecting. However, in some applications, offering a flat under structure base design can be more hygienic than open tubular base frames where high pressure cleaning can cause food particles to bounce off the work surface and lodge deep inside the loadcell area, making it harder to clean.

Fully welded tubular designs can also be hard to clean. A welded structure can result in bacteria becoming trapped within the tube and thriving in the constantly changing atmosphere often found within the food industry. Conversely, base designs with flat bases and open corners ensure that any food particles can be quickly and easily washed away during high pressure cleaning.

Threads should be covered and small components such as rubber feet should be well secured and bright blue in color, allowing them to be easily located should they become detached from the scale.

Safeguarding your business

Investing in a new digital check weigher scale is all about safeguarding quality and, fundamentally, profits – underweight packages can lead to unhappy customers, while overweight packages lead to costly giveaway and overweight shipments. When it comes to the food industry, safeguarding quality, profit and reputation must go one step further – selecting a piece of equipment that is fit for purpose is vital.

To maintain food safety and meet the requirements of the act, it may be necessary for many businesses to upgrade to equipment that is more sanitary.

Contact the sales team at Central Carolina Scale, (919) 776-7737 to discuss the products that we recommend.

Reducing Food Waste is Becoming an Important Source of Increased Revenue for Commercial Kitchens

Posted on by

According to the USDA, every year the United States wastes an estimated 30 to 40 percent of its food supply. Statista reports that, in 2015, of the USDA estimates, roughly 16 percent of all food waste is attributed to restaurants and foodservice institutions-nearly one-fifth of all wasted volume! This is a huge source of overhead costs, but also a great source of improvement for food service entities to leverage in retaining their hard-earned profits. With food costs rising, waste reduction systems are becoming more important to reduce strain from front-end costs.

Waste reduction companies are taking advantage of this need for tracking inventory and getting more accurate weight counts. DETECTO Enterprise series scales, PS portion control scales, and PZ series wireless ingredient scales are all very important tools to aid the fight to increase inventory efficiency, and ultimately, creating increased profits. The accompanying advances in connectivity-Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth-create a more streamlined process for saving inventory data and yield a precise representation of a facility’s inventory strengths and weaknesses.

detecto food service scale

DETECTO’s foodservice scales are the first line in establishing a solid reduction program. High weight-resolution scales deliver highly precise weights and the associated costs. The ability to audit cooking processes and concomitant prices concretely establishes hard data to analyze. This analysis implementation forms the possible paths to be executed by foodservice management and personnel.

Facilities can track reduction areas, foodstuffs to be saved or discarded, and foodstuffs that can be repurposed. Knowing the usage levels of each product determines which products to reduce and where businesses waste capital. Product usage levels can help businesses push certain menu items and discard those that don’t sell well.

Businesses can more accurately spot and predict trends in their kitchens in a highly responsive manner. With the power to trend waste areas, kitchens can adjust their cooking implementation, labor cycles, use more efficient recipes, and utilize batch cooking to match customer trends. This knowledge can better serve the needs of their customer base and attract new clientele.

The power of an efficient waste reduction system yields amazing results with effort and consistency. Businesses can expect to save significant amounts of front-end revenue, revenue that can be circulated back into other costs and investments. Foodservice businesses large and small can now bolster their earnings and alleviate one of the most costly factors in their respective operations. And it all begins with a weight measurement of the wasted food combined with a digital tracking system for recording that measured waste.

Learn more about DETECTO foodservice scales by contacting the sales team at Central Carolina Scale, call (919) 776-7737 or visit the site at  https://www.centralcarolinascale.com/Detecto.htm

Our Scale Helps us to Reduce Waste, Accurately Weigh our Meat, and Ensure Customer Gets What was Ordered.

Posted on by

We dare you to read this blog post and not crave a big juicy burger! The pictures and the write up tell the story about how a restaurant uses the Kilotech counter top dial scale for simple and consistent check weighing. Whether you’re weighing ingredients for gourmet burgers or pizza, the ingredient costs can really add up and customers love consistency when it comes to their foods they order on a regular basis. So let’s take a look at Notre-Boeuf-de-Grâce, cleverly named after Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, the Montreal neighborhood where it resides.

weigh meat and food ingredients

Do you ever crave a burger where the flavor explodes the minute you sink your teeth into it? Top the burger with super fresh ingredients and it is like a party in your mouth! Well two years ago, in my quest for gourmet burgers, I chanced upon a new upscale burger place called Notre-Boeuf-de-Grâce. The décor is a mix of brick, wood and glass, designed to enhance your culinary experience. The music is excellent and covers most tastes.

Their menu offers something for everyone and most certainly will not leave you hungry. Fresh meat is ground daily and is always gluten-free because there are no fillers. There are also vegetarian options for the non-carnivores. Choose from their fresh cut fries (they really are fresh as we brought some home and two days later they were still intact, not soggy or hard!), beer battered onion rings, sweet potato fries and potato skins to complement your burger. Also available and made in-house are their gravies, sauces, milkshakes and cocktails. Notre-Boeuf-de-Grâce also supports local suppliers and serves locally-grown food as much as possible.

A couple of weeks ago, while dining at the Notre-Boeuf-de-Grâce Côte-Vertu location, the manager Dennis Mandros approached us and asked us how we were enjoying our meal. Considering how busy the restaurant was that night, we were surprised to see that the manager was going from table to table providing that personal VIP touch! I took the opportunity to ask him if he used a scale to weigh his patties. When he replied, “Yes, absolutely!,” I just had to know if it was a Kilotech scale.

countertop dial scale

Dennis immediately went to the kitchen and like a proud father of a newborn child, held a Kilotech scale in his hands to show me! I knew then and there I had to write a blog about Dennis and his restaurant. When a restaurant uses a scale to ensure that their customers get what they paid for you know that they have the customers best interest at heart.

A few weeks later, on a beautiful Monday afternoon, I showed up at the restaurant. Dennis Mandros and Zakria Dehghani, the owners of this franchise, were hamming it up with their customers on the terrace. When they spotted me, they both greeted me with the kind of warm smiles you reserve for your long lost friends.

I sat down with Dennis and we talked business. I quickly cut to the chase and asked him what his Kilotech scale meant to them. Without hesitation Dennis said that it helps them to reduce wastage, accurately weigh their patties, and more importantly, ensure that the customer gets exactly what was advertised and ordered.

Their burgers come in three sizes: 3, 6 and 9 ounces. Dennis asked one of the cooks to grab a 6 oz. patty. He placed it on the scale and immediately the scale showed 6 oz. Dennis beamed! He is proud of his restaurant and the integrity with which it operates.

If you operate a restaurant, bakery or some other type of food related business; contact us at (919) 776-7737 and let us assist you with your weighing needs. It could be that you need a simple way to make sure your hamburgers weigh the same. Or it could be something else, either way, the odds are we can find a solution for you that will save you time and save you money.

Restaurant Owners: Portion Control Is Very Important To Keeping Your Ingredient Costs Under Control

Posted on by

If you are in the restaurant business then you understand how much your ingredients like cheese really cost, since you purchase them from your suppliers on a regular basis. Think about this for a second… Let’s say you’re making your best selling pizza or your most popular sandwich. What if you could cut back on your most expensive ingredient by just a smidgen. Actually, a better way to say it would be — what if you could develop a consistent way to add your ingredients so that every large pizza had exactly eight ounces of cheese or six ounces of pepperoni. The results would hopefully lead to more profitability and a consistent product your patrons could enjoy each and every visit.

This outstanding must read article that is referenced below goes into great detail about portion control and why it’s so important to a company’s bottom line.

“You can have the best pizza in the world. But you can lose your shirt if you’re not careful,” he said. “If you ain’t weighing it, you are winging it.” While many operators habitually weigh dough balls, nothing provides a pizza operator with more margin/cost control than weighing their cheese portions.

…. it’s important to keep cheat sheets for employees to remind them how much cheese to use, and even have the cheese pre-weighed in cups for them. This allows an operator to ensure consistency and to know the cost of every single pizza. The difference, for example, of 7 ounces and 10 ounces of cheese can be 60 cents per pizza. He also suggested adding a weighing scale that is easy for employees to use. Training and incentivizing is important for employees, who may free throw either through habit or to save time.

…. At the end of those 30 days, the concept saved about 200 pounds of cheese totaling $1,200, which was then split between the four employees as a bonus.

I like how the author wrote this article since it’s always great to see real world examples. As you can see from reading the entire article, your business can really benefit by adding some type of weighing functionality into your kitchen. Not only does this help control costs but it should also help restuarants increase their consistency. How many times have you gone to a restaurant and had one pizza with too much cheese or too little sauce, then you go back a couple weeks later and it’s the opposite problem. Customers love a consistent sandwhich or entrée (just ask my in-laws).

If you need some guidance on choosing the correct scale for your restaurant or prep kitchen please contact our sales department at 919 776-7737 or visit our site centralcarolinascale.com which has many scales posted for you to view. We also have a Youtube channel that shows a few of our scales in video format.

Bakery Manager says “I am giving away $52,000.00 per year”

Posted on by

The positive reviews just keep pouring in regarding the Doran FC6300 scale. What would it be like to be in total control? Imagine saving at least 1.8% of your yearly minor ingredient costs. What would that be worth to you? Picture having an extra supervisor watching over your employees’ shoulders monitoring and controlling the formulation process while the employee hand scales ingredients. What effect would that have on your product consistency and production efficiency? Doran’s FC6300 Formula Control System puts you in total control and can pay for itself in just four months or less. Just take a look at a few of the scale reviews.

“Based on your report, I calculated our costs. Within the three days of the FC6300 being on, it saved us $600.00. That equals $200 per day, $1000 a week means I am giving away $52,000.00 per year out the door!! I am going to put in for 2 units.”

 

“The FC6300 on average has saved us 200 lbs of ingredients a week and our average ingredient costs are around $5.00 a lb. We feel this has paid for itself in about 10 weeks. Mock recalls used to be a major hassle, but with the FC6300 and Formula Loader what used to take hours now literally takes seconds.”

 

“Within five days of install, with over 11,000 lbs of minors scaled at 2% tolerance, my scalers are now scaling at 99.992% accuracy which reduces our ingredient costs and we now have consistency in our batches. The ability to store lot numbers electronically and search for specific lot numbers with a touch of a button has shaved off at least 75 minutes of my QA’s time during a mock recall.”

Bakery Reduces Ingredient Waste and Bad Batch Costs by Over $39,000

Posted on by

A large national baking company realized that improving the performance of their minor ingredient scaling could lead to a significant impact on their profitability. Additionally they were averaging one bad batch a week due to errors in the minor ingredient hand adds. They looked to Doran Scales to provide the solution to reduce costs from wasted ingredients and bad batches.

THE SOLUTION was a Doran FC6200 Formula Control Scale. A Doran FC6200 is installed at the ingredient scaling station. Ingredient batching is automated, stepping the user through the formula and ensuring the correct ingredients are accurately scaled every time. Formula Loader software is installed on a PC. This recipe software is used to create and maintain minor ingredient batches. Recipes, formulas and production schedules are then uploaded to the FC6200 through USB flash drive or through an Ethernet connection. Increase accuracy is achieved through user programmable ingredient target weights and tolerances giving management effective control of the batching operation. Multi-tasking Operators who are distracted by other production responsibilities can now return to the partially scaled formula assured that the scale will pick up right where they left off, prompting them through the remainder of the formula without error. Ingredient Lot Numbers are automatically recorded for traceability during formula scaling while ensuring each ingredient meets the desired weight tolerance.

What you don’t know about your food manufacturing process could cost thousands of dollars

Posted on by

Add one of our Doran Bakery Scales to your process to improve efficiency. Bakeries, snack food processors, foodservice, makers of cakes, muffins, brownies, tortillas, pizza dough, and donuts are realizing cost savings from adding digital portion scales to their process. Just read a few of the case studies about everything from Mushrooms to Margarine.

From scaling and mixing areas for minor and major ingredients, to the manufacturing and finishing area and to final packaging and shipping, these high quality Doran Continue reading →