BakingBusiness.com |  November 5, 2018 | by Dan Malovany.   What’s good for some is bad for others. Isn’t that always the case? Take protein. For most people, the latest better-for-you craze is great for muscle building and enhancing athletic performance. For others, the protein found in undeclared allergens often causes a mild to severe […]

BakingBusiness.com | April 26, 2018 | by Joe Stout.     When bakers think of sanitation as a “must do,” they think of routine cleaning initiated when a plant stops a production run or does a product changeover. However, there are areas of equipment and a facility that are not accessible during routine cleaning. Hard-to-reach […]

BakingBusiness.com | November 13, 2017 | by Joe Stout.   With the ever-growing demand for ready-to-eat (R.-T.-E.) foods, some processors are faced with the decision of converting their raw, par-baked or ready-to-cook (R.-T.-C.) process to R.-T.-E. This could be a daunting choice, and knowing where to start is the first major challenge.

BakingandSnack.com | June 5, 2017 | by Joe Stout.   In my last column, I commented on the challenge of cleaning in the baking industry. Simply put, there is a war on water that focuses heavily on, unless absolutely necessary, reducing or stopping its use for cleaning in dry facilities. The use or presence of […]

BakingandSnack.com | April 10, 2017 | by Joe Stout.   Prior to working in a bakery/snack food plant, I spent several years in a Coca-Cola Enterprises bottling facility. I had responsibility for sanitation as quality manager. With this background, my experience entering the baking and snack industries was cleaning with water and detergents to ensure […]

BakingBusiness.com | June 3, 2016 | by Joe Stout.   Does the following sound familiar to you? We are a mid-sized, privately held company, and business is doing great. We have a good, loyal customer base and great management team with a solid, committed workforce. Our existing product volume has been expanding 10% annually for […]

BakingBusiness.com | May, 2016 | by Laurie Gorton.   Welcome to the brave new world of food safety and all the audits that populate it. Actually, food processors have been living the audited-and-inspected life all along to meet Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requirements, but it has become all that more intense during the past […]

Bakingandsnack.com | April, 2016 | by Joe Stout.     In today’s highly competitive environment, food processors wage a constant battle between maximizing production throughput and minimizing downtime. Because bakeries and snack facilities cannot manufacture products during a line cleaning, they are always looking for ways to reduce sanitation time to increase the number of […]

Bakingandsnack.com | October, 2015 | by Joe Stout.   During a Christmas past, one of my daughters received a knitting kit with several rolls of yarn and needles accompanied with knitting directions. This daughter was actually quite intrigued by the thought of making herself an attractive scarf for the approaching cold, windy months in Chicago. […]

BakingandSnack.com | August, 2015 | by Joe Stout.   In the food industry, many manufacturers make products with different formulations on several lines in the same production room. This presents a challenge since most of these lines are in close proximity or even adjacent to one another.