Outside The Box
What Matters The Most
straight from the experts
Outside The Box is where Food Plant Engineering's creative team shares knowledge that'll help your business; perspectives on the latest food industry trends; and facility design and operation ideas that may be, well, a bit more inventive.
07 February 2023
What are Food Processing Facilities Doing Now?
Food must be produced, and processors are stretched to meet demand, making plans to expand, renovate and build. Pragmatic attitudes seem to be prevailing. Maybe we can ease up on that buckle a bit.
07 February 2022
Unpacking IPPE
The 2022 International Production & Processing Expo promised the usual: technology, equipment, supplies, and services galore, all revolving around egg, meat, and poultry processing. Boasting on its website that IPPE is “the world’s largest annual poultry, meat and feed industry event of its kind,” the annual show at the Georgia World Congress Center felt like something more this time around.
12 January 2022
Food Processors: Thank You!
We had leftovers for dinner last night. Turkey sandwiches and salad. Normally, that would be an unremarkable statement, but I find it extraordinary that fresh, wholesome food is still available despite the events of the past two years.
12 November 2021
Resourceful Food Processors Plan While Supply Chain Stalls
Supply chain woes may have limited your ability to meet a rising demand for your product. And labor shortages—already a problem pre-pandemic—have worsened the situation for everyone in the food...
20 October 2021
Food Companies Offer Lessons in Sustainability
“Improved performance through sustainability,” the achievement lauded by ProFood World’s Sustainability Excellence in Manufacturing Awards, sounds like a lofty goal. Yet after listening to the presentations of this year’s winners at PMMI’s PACK EXPO (Sept. 27-29), what struck me wasn’t so much the...
20 October 2021
How to Navigate Pack Expo Like a Pro
It is, in fact, the world’s largest packaging and processing show, with 2,500 exhibitors eager to showcase their equipment, services and expertise. So if you’re among the 5...
14 September 2021
USDA Appendices Updates, Straight from AAMP
When the USDA says that they’re moving toward a science-based approach for Appendices A&B revisions, you might think to yourself, “well, what the heck were we doing all this time?” The American Association of Meat Processors (AAMP) highlighte...
14 September 2021
Three Facility Fixes that Fail … and how to make things right
FPE project managers explain common pitfalls and provide alternative solutions to help maintain food safety in your facility. The good. The bad. And the ugly. If you’ve been through enough food processing facilities, you’ve seen it all. And we ha...
14 September 2021
5S Sanitation for Food Plants
Lean sanitation is more than just equipment hygiene; 5S, a five-step sanitation procedure, is intended to treat your plant’s work space as a second home through common housekeeping etiquette. If you’re managing a food plant, nothing is more impo...
14 September 2021
Blockchain for the business-minded: Food Trust is just the beginning
IBM Food Trust is designed to improve product traceability from farm to fork, but its most publicized applications have come from partnerships with big names like Walmart and Tyson. What about the rest of us stuck at “Blockchain for Businesses 101...
14 September 2021
Manufacturing Interest v. an Interest in Manufacturing
For manufacturing sectors like the food industry, now’s the time to capitalize on impending job vacancies and educate a new generation and current employees on automation. The food industry is the oasis in a manufacturing desert. As fewer sectors...
14 September 2021
Scaling Up Food Facilities
You’ve got a great-tasting product and you want to share it with the world. Perhaps you’ve been handling production yourself in a small kitchen, but you need more capacity because demand is increasing. Ho...