4 Reasons You Need a Block Breaker for Your Plant
More and more large food service companies, like McDonald’s and Wendy’s, require the meat in their beef patties to be treated with a citric acid spray to reduce or eliminate bacteria in the product — putting pressure on meat processors to find ways to effectively and efficiently treat beef trim pieces.
Meat processors that adapt to include a treatment spray on trim pieces will benefit greatly from getting ahead of this new processing trend.
The problem arises in that most trim pieces are frozen in blocks. Spraying the outside of the blocks isn’t enough to meet the treatment requirements set by the food service companies. Only one side of a few pieces of trim are treated.
In order to effectively treat all trim pieces, the frozen blocks need to be broken back down into their original pieces without cutting or grinding, so as to avoid re-labeling requirements set by the USDA.
So, what’s the best solution?
Introducing the Tempered Block Breaker
Enter the Tempered Block Breaker.
This piece of machinery was designed to break frozen blocks of beef trim back to their natural state without cutting or grinding to allow for a treatment of citric acid, per the requirements of a food service company. You can learn more about the process in our case study.
Tempered beef trim blocks enter the Block Breaker, which gently breaks the block, and leaves the machine as the individual trim pieces that were originally frozen together. You can see the Block Breaker in action in a client’s facility below.
Why You Need a Tempered Block Breaker
The Tempered Block Breaker is the solution to take frozen blocks and break them apart for further treatment. Here’s why:
Avoid USDA-Required Labeling
The USDA requires any product broken down into 1 inch or smaller pieces to be labeled as processed — even if nothing else but cutting was done to the product.
With the current consumer trend of desiring minimally processed food products, grinding the frozen blocks will ultimately harm your bottom line, as companies find someone else to purchase their meat from.
As mentioned above, the Block Breaker was designed to take tempered trim blocks and gently break them apart back into the original trim pieces — meaning, there is no cutting, no grinding, no processing done of any kind.
When your product goes through the Tempered Block Breaker, it does not need to be labeled as processed.
Easily Treat Product to Eliminate Bacteria
Bacteria that leads to consumer illnesses and costly recalls, grows on the outside of a muscle.
When meat product is ground, rather than broken apart, bacteria is spread throughout the entire batch, causing significant contamination and product waste.
The Tempered Block Breaker allows you to break the trim blocks apart without causing the bacteria on the outside of the muscle to contaminate more of the product, and prepare it to spray all sides of the muscle with citric acid (or other agents) to reduce or eliminate bacteria.
Reduce Your Workforce
The entire Tempered Block Breaker System, consisting of opening the cardboard box containing the frozen block that has gone through a microwave, removing the bagged frozen block trim, removing the block from the bag, and placing the block into the Block Breaker only requires 4 operators.
Some clients who purchased the Tempered Block Breaker system reported a reduction in work force from 22 employees down to 7 — and a reduction from a 2-shift to a 1-shift operation while meeting the same production goals.
That’s savings you can bank on!
Save Product Purge
As any meat processor knows, a drop in product purge and weight is a drop in the ultimate selling cost of your finished product, driving down your profits.
The design of the Tempered Block Breaker system captures up to 99% of product purge — meaning the product maintains its weight when leaving the block breaker, saving you money and eliminating product waste.
Discover the Benefits
The Tempered Block Breaker is helping processors to break tempered trim blocks back to their natural states to allow for further treatment — and giving them a list of benefits they couldn’t find in any other solution. Discover how the Tempered Block Breaker can benefit your operation. Download the brochure today!
