Meat + Poultry - May 2008 - 48

LAND O'FROST

Land O'Frost's Premium 1-lb. resealable deli pouches roll down a conveyor in preparation for
shipping. (Photo courtesy of Land O'Frost)

Maintaining food safety is paramount
at the facility - especially on the cooked
side. The easily cleanable white walls and
raised ceilings illuminate under bright
lighting. And the floors are kept unusually dry throughout the building. Movement of personnel and product is strictly
controlled between the raw and cooked
side to prevent cross-contamination.
Quaternary ammonia is applied to
the flooring on the cooked side every

day. And uniform color schemes aid
food safety. "Employees in yellow are
allowed to touch the meat, white-garbed
employees are the line operators and
the ones in green are maintenance personnel," David says.
There is plenty of space in each
department. "One reality in the meat
business is manufacturing equipment is
getting longer," David says. "The packaging lines used to be one-third their

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52

MEAT&POULTRY

May 2008

www.MEATPOULTRY.com

current size. When we designed the slicing room, we provided extra room," he
adds. "The old slicers were 6 feet long
versus our newer 14 ft.-long slicers."
After each day's production, equipment
is broken down, cleaned and sanitized.
Rooms on the cooked side are heated up
to 80° F in preparation for cleaning/sanitation, which prevents fogging and expedites the process, David says.
Positive pressure on the cooked side
prevents airborne contamination from
entering processing and packaging areas. All products have only one way to
pass from the raw side to cooked side and
that's through one of seven smokehouses.
A lighting system on the cookers prevents
ovens from opening on both sides at the
same time, which restricts air flow.
"We're working with our film suppliers to eliminate corrugated boxes," David
says of the company's drive to eliminate
waste plus reduce corrugated dust.
On the raw side, there is only one
way for employees to enter and exit,
requiring everyone to pass through a
sanitized foot scrubber.
Temperatures throughout the facility are kept cool. Refrigerated rooms
are kept below 40° F. The log holding
coolers are 33-34° F. Packaging runs at
38° F., David says.
Lot coding is essential to expedite
traceability. "When raw materials come
in, they receive lot codes," David says.
"When the spices come in, they, too, receive lot codes. When we put ingredients into a formulation, those lot codes
can get mixed into one but we know
the lot number coming from the emulsion tracks back to the raw materials and
spices used in that product. Once [batter] gets put into casings, it gets a new
code, which encompasses all the emulsion, meat, species and blends, and it
keeps that tracking system through the
entire process. The next day by start
of business, we can tell how many lbs
we made in the facility the day before,
our inventories, what lots went in and
out of the system...the whole gamut of
information."
Land O'Frost is proud of its 99+
percent on-time, in full delivery rate.

http://www.MEATPOULTRY.com

Meat + Poultry - May 2008

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