PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 16

PLANT PROFILE

the equipment they purchased offered them the most
batch flexibility and gives them the ability to run up to
three formulas per cycle.
Trays of Individually Quick-Frozen (IQF) products go
into rolling carts and the carts fill the freeze dryer. Chad
says freeze-drying up to 2,500 lbs. of meat at one time
sounds fairly straight forward but it's more challenging
than they anticipated. "What we were told, and what has
proven to be true, is every protein and product size runs
differently," Chad says. "It's taken us almost 12 months
to get the machine dialed in to where we know exactly
what temperature and time the product needs to spend
in processing in order to make the perfect product."
The company has a small, tabletop freeze dryer that
Chad based his expectations on when they transitioned
to the large, in-house system. "We had to dig into why
it didn't work [as well as the small volume, tabletop system] and figure out what we needed to do differently on
the next run," Chad says.
Although blended formulas run more consistently
than single ingredient products, each batch requires
more problem solving than anticipated. Mitch says there
was a lot of trial and error building out the product profiles. "It turns into an art form really quickly," Mitch explains. "Weird things happen in a vacuum."
It also took time to get their protein suppliers on
board. The meat is sourced from US Department of
Agriculture (UDSA) facilities nearby where it is blended
and formed to Muenster's specifications before being
blast frozen and delivered to Muenster. Once received,
the frozen products are spread onto metal trays. The
trays go into carts and up to 10 carts go into the freeze
dryer. A vacuum is pulled on the chamber and the temperature inside lowers. After the target low temperature
is reached, the shelves in the carts are gradually heated.
As the trays warm up, the product goes through a sublimation process where the water goes straight from a
solid form of ice to a vapor and the vapor collects on the
cooling plates.
"At the end of the batch you have a dried product that
you haven't cooked, and all the water is in the form of
ice," Chad says. "We may put 2,000 lbs. of meat in and
pull 600 lbs. of dry meat out and have 1,400 lbs. of ice."
The trays gradually heat up over the course of the run
cycle until the products reach the desired moisture level.
Each cycle of the system can accommodate 2,000 to
2,500 lbs. depending on the product mix and will yield 28
to 32% of that weight in freeze-dried product. Items can
overlap slightly on the trays but it's key that all product has
Top: Brothers Mitch (left) and Chad Felderhoff went to kindergarten with some of the farmers they are buying from now.
Bottom: Each batch requires problem solving and some trial and
error to build out the product profiles.

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PET Food Processing - September 2019

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