PET Food Processing - December 2019 - 49

EQUIPMENT

Harnessing

HEAT

Thermal solutions are top dog in managing efficiency and
profitability for pet food and treat processing.
By Richard Rowlands | petfoodprocessing@sosland.com

The thermal processes employed to cook and dry pet
food and treat products can be a major expense for processors. New technologies and equipment designs for
thermal processing systems offer increased consistency,
measurability and customization. Manufacturers are
also placing an emphasis on reducing processing times.
Together, these advancements can have a huge impact
on plant efficiency and profitability.

Automation and instrumentation
A lot of the improvements in modern thermal technologies and equipment are related to automation and
instrumentation. "When it comes to drying technology,
the focus is on reading airflow, reading moisture levels,
reading temperatures and maximizing the efficiency of
the air running through the system," says Daniel Tramp,
technical sales, companion animal division, Wenger
Manufacturing Inc., Sabetha, Kansas.
"Automated process control systems remove operator
error and provide consistency and security to the thermal processing of pet food," explains Eric Hanrahan,
vice president and general manager, Allpax, Covington,
Louisiana, a manufacturer of retort processing and sterilization equipment. "These systems provide control
and monitoring of the sterilization process to ensure
the sterility of the product. They also ensure compliance with the regulatory requirements for record keeping and management of critical control points (CCPs).
Additionally, these systems offer many line optimization

tools to manage and track OEE [overall equipment effectiveness], uptime, preventive/predictive maintenance,
and other production metrics to identify process improvements for the manufacturer," he adds.
Extru-Tech, a key supplier of extrusion solutions for
the pet food industry, strives to ensure that product
specifications define the process controls. "As the pet
food market continues to mature 'novel' products onto
the mainstream shelves, our process methodologies
have had to evolve to make these products commercially viable," says Rachel Ulreich, marketing specialist,
Extru-Tech, Inc., Sabetha, Kansas. "The ability to properly manage our CCPs through scientific validations and
tune them to the product (instead of tuning the product
to meet our CCPs) has been critical in the development
of specialty diets."
Sam Pallottini, director of cookie, cracker and
pet food sales, Reading Bakery Systems, Robesonia,
Pennsylvania, emphasizes the importance of automation and instrumentation in thermal processing. "When
designing our ovens, we utilize our industry-leading
SCORPION Profiling System, which measures the heat
flux, temperature, air flow, and humidity through a tunnel oven to guarantee we are providing the most efficient
and consistent bake," he says.

Often, a combination
of technologies offers
the most efficient,
controllable process.
Pictured here is a
band oven combined
with a Radio
Frequency heating
system for baked
pet treats.
Sosland Publishing

Reducing processing time
Reducing the time needed to bake and dry pet food
products is another focus for thermal processing system

www.petfoodprocessing.net | December 2019 | PET FOOD PROCESSING

http://www.petfoodprocessing.net

PET Food Processing - December 2019

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