Since 1932, Mepaco has been a renowned name in the meat processing industry. In the pet food sector, Mepaco has collaborated with some of the fastest-growing brands both nationally and internationally, providing equipment and systems for producing wet foods, canned food, kibble, and treats. PET FOOD PROCESSING EXPERTISE Thermal Processing Mepaco’s Mixer-Cooker is a popular … Mepaco: A Legacy in Meat Processing and Pet Food Production
Mepaco® continues to see a steady demand with CIP (clean in place) options on their cookers, mixers, stuffers, screw, and belt conveyor systems. CIP technology employs a series of rinses along with high-temperature caustic washes through high-pressure spray devices. Food processors who opt for CIP on new Mepaco® equipment and systems typically opt for electropolished … Food Safety and Sanitation Equipment Trends at Mepaco
Mepaco, known for grinding, blending, cooking and formulation systems, is proud to announce the launch of its latest Pallet Breaker equipment (PB3000). The robust machine (15 1/2 ft W x 10 1/2 ft D x 21 1/2 ft H) is designed to automate the frozen pallet-breaking process, offering numerous benefits to food manufacturers across North … Revolutionary Frozen Pallet Breaker Equipment Enhances Automation and Safety
Mepaco, a leader in innovative food processing solutions, is excited to re-release the meat processing guide, “Reduce Lean Give-away for Processed Meats: 3 Formulation Methods.” This comprehensive guide explores three key formulation methods—testing, pre-blend, and in-line—using lean point examples. Compare 3 Formulation Methods:– Type of equipment used in each method, including application customization used in … Re-Release: Reduce Lean Giveaway for Meat Processing eBook
Screw conveyors can be customized to improve efficiency and automation in food processing systems. The role of screw conveyors can help drive primary processing equipment to reach the highest throughput possible. Here are the top 10 efficiency highlights of screw conveyor solutions: 1 – Pivoting InfeedPivoting screw conveyors are designed with a track and/or caster … Video: 10 Screw Conveyor Solutions that Solve for Automation
Explore the latest e-book from Mepaco, “Processing Automation Trends,” which delves into a variety of cutting-edge solutions aimed at enhancing food processing efficiency and automation. The book showcases mechanical equipment add-ons, system layout and controls solutions, and focuses on the following key areas: 1 Mechanical options engineered to optimize efficiency, including seals with quick-release, air-purge … New ebook: Processing Automation Trends
Mepaco, part of Apache Stainless, a leader in grinding, cooking and blending food processing solutions, is excited to announce the launch of its latest product, the ETD3000 Electric Tote Dumper. Responding to the industry, this robust electric dumper solves for efficiency, reliability, sustainability and ease of maintenance. Electric Tote Dumper ETD3000: A Game Changer in … Mepaco Answers Food Processing Need with New Electric Dumper
The Mixer Cooker is an important equipment solution for achieving homogeneous batch consistency and efficient large-scale cooking. In the video example, the Thermal Screw Mixer Cooker demonstrates indirect cooking technology using hot water. Heat JacketHot water circulates in the jacket and transfers heat to the product in the Mixer Cooker. The jacket is designed to … Video: Thermal Screw Mixer-Cooker
Mepaco’s pumping systems convert traditional batching methods to continuous batching systems by providing low-profile surge with the ability to continuously meter product to downstream processes. As part of a system, the Pump Feeder offers an alternative to other conveying or manual product handling. The low-profile surge allows cookers and mixers to discharge quickly while gently and … Comparing Pump Feeder Applications
In a roundtable with field services, application engineers, and technical sales managers, these top 5 efficiency challenges are developed from experience with cooking, blending, and formulation projects in various food processing industries and installations. 1. Undersized equipment Large conglomerate customers with continuous demand for their products often work with Mepaco on scale solutions with automated … Top 5 Challenges that Impact Production Efficiency
In one versatile solution, the ThermaBlend® Industrial Cooker provides excellent cooking, searing, caramelizing, chilling, sautéing, and blending. CookingThe ThermaBlend® Cooker is designed with a steam or hot water (ASME) jacket with gentle agitation that evenly heats the product through forced convection. In some applications, culinary steam is directly injected into the product to accelerate the … Video: ThermaBlend Cooker Capabilities Tour
Processors upgrading production and processing equipment have a significant investment including machines, shipping, installation, and commissioning. To consider an upgrade of controls may also mean a change of procedures and processes. Food manufacturers must weigh their concerns, such as payback, capex budget, downtime, and life cycle costs. Mepaco® has helped customers with manual, entry-level, and … When is it Time to Invest in Integrated Controls?
A recent article, “It’s About Labor”, published in Food Engineering magazine, processors were interviewed about the ongoing difficulties finding and retaining workers, even beyond the post pandemic labor levels. Mepaco®’s customers, too, have been driving automation conversations, so we are developing resources to share our application expertise with solutions that are semi- or fully automated. … Are Labor Shortages Driving Your Automation Needs?
With the complex demandsin food processing and production, safety, and quality, performance of every component within food equipment is critical. The bearing type and style for your Mepaco equipment has been determined by application and plant preference. Many food processing facilities utilize stainless bearings which provide corrosion resistance in wet environments. Here are some tips … 5 Ways to Increase the Life of Bearings
Our service techs, engineers, and application experts have pinpointed the five most congested production areas in food manufacturing plants. Here are their tips for mitigating these delays, starting with the loading of a system: #1 Bottleneck: Inefficient and Ineffective Loaders A common bottleneck is slow loading times preventing the start of batch mixing or … Overcoming the 5 Most Common Processing System Bottlenecks
This featured system doubled cooking batches within a minimal footprint used well-planned equipment selection, floor layout, and controls customization. Mepaco®’s cooking system featured side-by-side ThermaBlend® cookers, with a shared maintenance and sanitation platform. SYSTEM FLEXIBILITY The multi-recipe prepared foods processor benefited from flexibility in production scenarios. The system can run two batches at once, staggered, … Doubling Cook Batches without Doubling Footprint
Case Story: What can happen when an agitator problem is ignored? A high-volume pet food processor utilized a Mixer/Cooker in their operations which produced 45-minute batches. The application called for 28 RPM and mixing cold product at 35 – 45 degrees. During the process of loading different ingredients into the Mixer-Cooker, a Vmag buggy fell … Case Story: What Can Happen When an Agitator Problem is Ignored?
Large-volume automation in the meat processing industry brings a higher risk of foreign material contamination. Foreign material can include metal shavings and shards from grinders, mixers and dicers, wood and nails from pallets, and numerous other materials like plastics and glass. The following are equipment options and proper maintenance practices that can help mitigate foreign … Practical Equipment Strategies to Remove Foreign Contaminants from Processing Lines
Apache routinely conducts tests for customers and in-house studies on the benefits of electropolished surfaces on food contact surfaces. Highlighted above, is a study that compares high-end finishes under 200X magnification: 304 Stainless Steel Bead Blast Finish with readings from 35 – 45 RA 304 Stainless Steel 2B + Electropolished Finish with reading from 5 … Compare EP Food Contact Surfaces under 200X Magnification
We’ve developed an interactive PDF that includes industry news and best practices, paired with Mepaco’s solutions and videos to help processors solve food safety challenges. Discover: USDA, FSIS and FSMA Compliance and Validation as it relates to processing equipment design and recommended construction Removal of foreign contaminants using modifications to system layouts and equipment Acceptable … Interactive PDF Highlights Food Safety Compliance and Processes
Safety guarding is recommended on equipment like the dumper shown in the animation. Relays control the e-stop position and if personnel trips the switch, the equipment will cease operation. This PRS (Pallet Retention System) shown on a DP3000 Dumper, and allows the combo to complete the dump cycle by separating from the pallet, limiting the … 10 Food Processing Equipment Designs that Drive Safety
If you would like to learn more about food safety and sanitation equipment innovations trending in food processing equipment and systems, we are offering a Lunch & Learn presentation. Discover: Food processing equipment that is customized to specific applications and to scale System examples with animation and video that solve processing throughput Sanitation design options … Lunch & Learn Customized to your Business
RMS (Root Mean Square) is a standard used to diagnose machining operations and surface finish. The fineness of the finish and ultimate success of sanitation effectiveness is called RA, the roughness average, measured by height in millionths of an inch or microinches. A profilometer device determines RA values of small surface variations and calculates … What is Your Stainless Finishes IQ?
With rising energy and labor costs, there is a continuous need to improve operational efficiency, cut expenses, and increase uptimes. One area of improvement is to increase the life and sanitation performance of motors, gear motors and bearings. In consideration of the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership), some processors choose food safe stainless motors. Stainless … Coating Technology Improves Component Sanitation Performance
An equipment safety and sanitation audit can provide direction for implementing improvement procedures and specifying equipment updates that mitigate risk and solve for safety and production goals. Here’s an excerpt from our audit checklist: Are all parts of the equipment readily accessible for inspection, maintenance, sanitation? Is there any evidence of premature wear on parts? Does the … Sanitation and Safety Checklist: Time for a Review?
1. Pull more out of your grinder Ask your grinder experts about an upgrade kit to address a different plate configuration to increase throughput. If you do not have a level sensor, contact your controls partner to add controls to turn off the grinder before it runs dry. A continuous flow of meat product will … Quick Upgrades that Increase Production Right Now
Mepaco’s screw conveyors are engineered to the requirements of the food processing application. In the photo, these screw conveyors transported pet food. The conveyor in the foreground was placed after the grinder and transported ground product. The conveyor in the background was utilized before the grinder. It featured a trough design that handled large meat … Horizontal Screw Conveyors Provide Bulk Handling for Many Industries
Mepaco has recently published a new white paper, “Comparing Agitator Solutions for Food Processing Applications”. The paper, developed in collaboration with sales, engineering and applications teams, is a guide for agitation solutions in Cookers, Mixers, Blenders and Drop Tanks. In the white paper, there are many details about the technology of agitators, highlighting: ribbon, paddle, … New White Paper: Comparing Agitator Solutions
Are you planning on going to Process Expo? Click here to see our show page! We are highlighting systems and showing you how smart system designs and modified-to-order equipment, customized to specific applications, solves for processing goals: – Increased Yield Performance – Optimal designs for maintenance and operation – Increased sanitation efficiencies – Vigilant food … How can custom modified equipment solve for process efficiencies? Ask Mepaco Experts
