Learning from the community about process technology in high care
It was a strange feeling when I happened upon this website. The comments I read echoed the normal type of feedback I get from our QA and FS teams. I am interested to see what kind of answers this community can share with regard to some of the more difficult questions that a high care RTE facility faces. I may even be able to provide some insight of my own on relevant topics.
The driving question that brought be here was to find out how other facilities have found ways to incorporate new technology like scanners, tablets, or RFID in a food safe way. There are a large number of burgeoning technologies on the market that have the ability to help us pinpoint processing controls or improve yield, but they all seem to have way to many niches, or they aren't waterproof, or the whole darn thing is made of brittle plastic with tiny little screws holding it together.
Anyways, Hello.
Welcome to the forum :welcome:
I've looked at a few of these (albeit not for high care), and my experience has been that some of the more innovative ideas are thought up by inventors who have focussed on the "how do I make it do x?" question without being aware of, or stopping to consider, the more general requirements for food applications.
It can be done, but you'll need to find the right supplying partner who is either already aware of such things, or is willing to see it as an opportunity for them to develop their product to better suit this market, rather than taking the "we can't have all those fiddly little bits of plastic lying around in our plant" as a criticism of the concept itself, rather than the preliminary execution ;)
Welcome to the forum :welcome:
I've looked at a few of these (albeit not for high care), and my experience has been that some of the more innovative ideas are thought up by inventors who have focused on the "how do I make it do x?" question without being aware of, or stopping to consider, the more general requirements for food applications.
It can be done, but you'll need to find the right supplying partner who is either already aware of such things, or is willing to see it as an opportunity for them to develop their product to better suit this market, rather than taking the "we can't have all those fiddly little bits of plastic lying around in our plant" as a criticism of the concept itself, rather than the preliminary execution ;)
Thanks for the response pHruit. I have definitely seen this play out in a lot of ways so far. There really isn't anyone out there who is willing to put in the time to develop something with such a narrow scope. I've resorted to inventor-ing myself on occasion to try and solve this problem. I used metal powder, some food grade silicone, and plaster of paris in an attempt to make a stylus that would be suitable for our tablets last year. It did not go well. Hopefully I can find some suppliers who may see this growing need as an opportunity, just like you mentioned.