Dairy Crest consolidated its distribution from 14 manufacturing facilities into one 240,000-plus-sq-ft national distribution center that can accommodate its aggressive future growth. The DC includes a warehouse-management system, a monorail system for pallets, 17 automatic storage-and-retrieval cranes and radio-data terminals to guide the picking staff. Read more...
Hormel Foods, known for its Dinty Moore® canned stews, chili and Spam luncheon meat, has adopted a generously sized package for refrigerated fresh meats and roasts. Called the Show-pack® standup pouch, the handy package with a "no-goof" inner oven bag is being used for five different stockkeeping units. One of them is being sold at Super Target stores under Target's new Sutton & Dodge brand for Beef Prime Rib Roast. Hormel offers the other four, which include boneless, fresh pork-rib end roast, pork center-cut roast, rack of pork and beef prime rib roast, under its Oven Ready name. Read more...
Water, (bottled) water everywhere
The idea that people would pay hard-earned money to buy bottled water probably struck lots of people as ludicrous a couple of decades ago. The doubters, though, should have listened. They'd be a lot richer now if they had. Last year, according to Beverage Digest, average per capita consumption of bottled water in the U.S. surpassed that of milk. Americans quaffed an average of 21 gallons of bottled water, but only 19.5 gallons of milk. Not only that, Americans consumed almost as much bottled water as they did beer. Read more...
Cows can make skimmed milk, say scientists
Cows could be bred to produce only skimmed milk within the next five years, researchers have said, offering a new way of meeting consumer demand for lower fat dairy. Scientists in New Zealand say some of the country's four million cows contain genes that could be used to make them produce only skimmed milk. A first commercial herd "is likely by 2011", according to the scientists. As well as skimmed milk, the New Zealand researchers said they plan to breed cows capable of producing milk that is ideal for spreadable butter. Read more…
Regulatory developments
FDA says Frito-Lay unit will now apply claim based on use of unsaturated fats
The Food and Drug Administration has said that vegetable oils, salad dressings, crackers and other oil-containing foods made by PepsiCo Inc.'s Frito-Lay unit will now carry claims that products with unsaturated fat can curb the risk of heart disease. Frito-Lay unit brands include a number of potato chips, including Fritos, Lay's, Ruffles, Doritos and Tostitos, as well as Rold Gold pretzels, Grandma's cookies and Cracker Jack popcorn. It was not immediately clear which products would carry the claim. Read more...
New products
Thermoformer
The successor to the co.'s Powerpak thermoformer for food packaging, the new CFS PowerPak is said to be the basis for all of the co.'s future thermoformers. The flexible machine concept is set up on a modular basis, enabling machine retooling at any time, the co. says. Read more...
CFS B.V., 31 492 349349. www.cfs.com
Horizontal wrapper
The new Pack 201 horizontal wrapper is recommended for tray-packaged bakery items that require delicate handling, such as biscuit stacks, crackers, chocolate candies and frozen novelties. The new wrapper can operate as a standalone machine or can be integrated with other packaging systems. Operates at speeds from 10 to 250 packs/min. Read more...
Doboy, a Bosch Packaging Technology Co., 715/246-6511. www.doboy.com
Bander/labeler
The 75 Series shrink sealers apply tamper-evident banding and labeling at up to 400 containers/min and can incorporate tear-tab blades or slit-tab blades for easy opening by consumers and medical staff. The 75 Series also applies full-height body-sleeve labels at up to 300 containers/min, depending on sleeve dimensions. For tamper-evident body sleeves, the sleeve label encapsulates the cap with a horizontal perforations for consumer tamper-evidence. Read more... PDC Intl. Corp., 203/853-1516. www.pdc-corp.com
Introducing the ultra-compact RS20 SCARA robot for tabletop automation with speed, precision and a very
small footprint for compact, lean manufacturing.
Featuring a hardened AB plastic external housing, electric servo-driven motors and cables that run
internally in the arm,
including the electrical/ pneumatic user lines.
Booth 1811
Robotics & Vision Show
June 12-14 • Rosemont, IL
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