Mike Weber, President of Smith Provision Co. needed to start from scratch. The producer of premium quality wieners, sausages, deli meats, bacon and hams had outgrown its Erie, PA facility. Built in 1957, Weber admits the original structure—“a conglomeration of rooms” --was not designed with food safety as a priority. With this issue becoming an increasing concern, Weber came to Food Plant Engineering for help. “We wanted to design food safety and an efficient layout into the whole package,” he says. Food Plant Engineering’s knowledge of the industry and attention to detail helped Weber achieve his goal on time and on budget.

Food Plant Engineering’s team designed a hygienic facility by reducing the risk of cross contamination through air flow, improving product flow, segregating personnel, and closely controlling the post-cook environment, says Weber. “It’s a very, very clean environment,” he notes, and he has the data to prove it. “The number of aerobic bacteria and mold has gone down dramatically,” he says. Spoilage complaints dropped, and “we’re getting an extended (product) shelf life,” he adds.

Smith Provision products are carried by groceries and specialty retailers than desire quality products and service. When prospective and current customers visit the Smith facility, they feel good about carrying Smith products. “The impression we’re leaving is a higher level,” Weber states. “You can talk the premium game but you have to see that in action. We blew our competitors out of the way,” he says of the company’s record-breaking year since moving into the new facility. He attributes a boost in private label customers largely to “the plant and food safety systems in place.”

Food Plant Engineering boasts a strong team, notes Weber. They “just had a great feel and understanding of the industry,” he adds. “We didn’t have to educate them about what’s important and what’s not.” Additionally, Food Plant Engineering’s engineers, architects and designers helped Weber plan for the future. “They worked with us on where we wanted to be in five to 10 years,” he says.

Weber also cites the specificity of Food Plant Engineering’s construction drawings and exemplary follow-up even after construction as strengths of the design team. The most tangible benefit to working with Food Plant Engineering, however, is the new facility. “It’s efficient from a labor point of view and from a utility point of view,” says Weber. “Were we to expand, our first phone call would be to Food Plant Engineering. We’ve had a great relationship.”

Superior Catfish faced a growing demand for their products as the market for their farm-raised catfish flourished. While making the decision to expand their operation for increased capacity was easy, formulating the details of how to do so was more complicated. The existing operation could not be shut down for any length of time because live catfish must be processed continuously. In addition, the original plant was constructed before the catfish industry came under USDA inspection, so the existing operation needed upgrades to better adhere to new regulatory oversight. Thus, the company faced the dilemma of how to increase production and upgrade the processing space without shutting down the operations. After searching for a partner, Food Plant Engineering was selected to help solve this dilemma.

Superior Catfish came to Food Plant Engineering with an initial concept for expanding the facility. Clever thought had been put into their layout, but roadblocks on sequencing the implementation existed, so the company asked for our input. We approached the problem by asking company leaders to prioritize their goals for the expansion, both from short-term and long-term perspectives. The primary goal—to remain in operation during the expansion—was critical, but improving food safety, adding processing lines, and increasing refrigeration capacity were all essential as well.  

After listening to their priorities and concerns, we decided to take a less conventional approach. Rather than upgrading the existing processing areas, Food Plant Engineering worked with Superior Catfish to repurpose these areas to provide ancillary functions that did not require upgrades. Thus, a plan was developed for creating a new addition for the critical hygienic aspects of the operation while reusing the older areas for noncritical functions, such as dry storage, case erection, palletizing, and employee amenities. The new processing areas also includes space for more processing lines, new and improved refrigeration, spiral freezing, and upgrades to the hygienic environment. This configuration allows for allocating capital where it has the greatest impact in the operation.

The processing of catfish requires a great deal of water. During the scaling, filleting, and cutting operations, water is continuously sprayed on product to enhance processing. In addition to the water that is discharged from the operation, the trimmings and scraps are conveyed to inedible storage. This facility was continuously dealing with fat build-up in the drainage system and trimmings making their way into the drains. Our firm was able to devise a wastewater system to allow for improved cleaning of the drain system and provided solutions for containing the trimmings and scraps before being discharged to treatment ponds on the property. 

The existing plant faced numerous issues with condensation forming on the ceiling and overhead pipes. Various openings through the walls into the cold production space were necessary, yet problematic. For example, the transporting of the fish from the receiving/unloading necessitated an opening into the outside environment. Overhead horizontal pipes also created condensation points as water vapor rose from the processing lines and became trapped in the airstream from the evaporators and condensed on the pipes. This overhead dripping created issues with the USDA inspectors.  

Food Plant Engineering determined that these spaces should be repurposed, and the process area redesigned as part of the new addition. This allows for transportation of the fish into the processing area without a direct opening to the exterior of the plant. An interstitial space was also created to isolate the utility pipes above the ceiling; only vertical drops into the space were needed.