thermal mapping

How to Perform Thermal Mapping and Balancing of Your Industrial Oven

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Thermal mapping of an industrial oven is an important procedure to enhance your product in the cooking cycle.

Mapping and balancing your oven will help you troubleshoot product issues and improve product consistency, yields, and throughput.

It’s the not-so-secret step to ensuring your industrial oven produces the results you want.

In this article, we’ll walk you through how to conduct thermal mapping and balancing of your ovens.

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Starter Cultures

Starter Cultures for Making Fermented Sausages

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Starter cultures are a key element in the production of fermented sausages at scale.

They create a desirable environment for good bacteria to grow, aid in producing the sausage’s flavor, texture, and color, and can shorten the fermentation process by weeks if not months.

Getting the right results, though, can be tricky.

In this article, we’ll explore what starter cultures are, how to choose the right starter culture for your product, and give you a breakdown of the various cultures and the flavor they produce.

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single-wide vs double-wide oven

Single-Wide vs Double-Wide Ovens: Which is Better for Throughput, Labor, and Yields?

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If you are in the meat processing business, you know that cooking and smoking meat is an essential step in producing high-quality products. But when it comes to choosing the right smokehouse, the options can be overwhelming.

One of the biggest decisions in this regard is whether to opt for a single-wide or double-wide oven.

Most larger processors immediately opt for a double-wide oven — double the capacity means you’ll make more product, faster, right?

Not necessarily.

There are other factors to consider, such as the difference in throughput, labor, and yields between a single-wide and double-wide oven.

Often, a double-wide oven is going to slow production and decrease yields.

We’ll explain why that is in this article.

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producing meat sticks

A Step-by-Step Guide to Producing Meat Sticks

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The popularity of producing meat sticks is on the rise.

According to NielsonIQ, processors sold $718M worth of meat sticks in the 52 weeks ending on August 28, 2021 – which was up 3.8% from the previous 52-week time frame.

That trend continues to rise, causing meat processors to consider adding meat sticks to their production lines.

The only problem: many small to medium-sized processors don’t know to effectively and efficiently produce meat snack sticks.
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Smokehouse

6 Construction Aspects to Consider When Purchasing a Smokehouse

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The success of smoked meat products has significantly increased over the last few decades. As one of the oldest methods of food preservation, the smoked meat industry continues to grow as does the demand for dried and smoked protein products. For processors, that means that industrial smokehouses are becoming vital to their lifeline.

Yet industrial smokehouses are one of the biggest investments a processor can make. Making sure to understand what to look for before the buying stage is crucial to the longevity of the investment.

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How to Properly Probe Product in a Smokehouse

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Accurate temperature readings in your smokehouse are essential for improving yields, consistency, and food safety.

Unfortunately, a lot of smokehouse operators don’t know how to properly use a temperature probe. This means that temperatures are not being measured precisely — which gives way to varying degrees of product yields and consistency on the same truck and can result in a costly recall.

Proper probing is a relatively simple task, but it needs to be done consistently every single time.

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beef sticks

How to Step Cook Beef Sticks for Improved Yields and Consistency

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Despite supply issues, the popularity of meat sticks remains on the rise.

In 2021, processors made a combined total of over $1.83 billion in sales for meat snacks at convenience stores alone– with meat sticks as the leading category. That’s up from $466 million in 2015 – almost a 1.5 billion dollar increase in six years!

Clearly, Americans love their meat sticks.

This sudden growth in popularity has left processors looking for ways to optimize their meat stick operation — to grab a larger share of the industry, outprice the competition, and make more money.

More specifically, it has put a lot of pressure on processors to improve yields and consistency in order to compete for those dollars.

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Step Cook Beef Jerky

How to Step Cook Beef Jerky for Improved Yields and Consistency

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The popularity of beef jerky is at an all-time high.

According to research done by the Simmons National Customer Survey (NHCS) in 2019 and the U.S. Census, approximately 50% of the U.S. population, which is nearly 160 million people, eat meat snacks and beef jerky regularly.

Americans love their beef jerky! So much so that, according to data from IRI, dollar sales of jerky increased 18.2% year-over-year at the start of 20211. Compare that to last year, the category had only grown about 1% year-over-year2.

This increased growth has put a lot of pressure on processors to improve yields and consistency in order to compete for those dollars.

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pork belly comb remover

The Best Way to Remove Belly Combs

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Americans love bacon.

According to Statista, 18.31 million Americans used 5 pounds or more of bacon in 2018 alone. If you drop that amount down to 2 pounds, the number skyrockets to over 60 million.

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