Mepaco Blog

DUAL COOK SYSTEM SOLVES PRODUCTION FLEXIBILITY & CAPACITY

THE CHALLEGE
A multi-recipe prepared foods manufacture required an increase in cooking production and the flexibility to add more varieties of soups and sauces to their product offerings.  The application required cooking and blending of viscous food product with limitations in available floor space.

THE SOLUTION
The solution, provided by Mepaco, was a side-by-side ThermaBlend cooking system, sharing a maintenance and sanitation platform. This system utilizes minimal footprint and allows two different batches or doubling of batches.

THE EQUIPMENT

Column Dumper Two column dumpers are used to add ingredients to two ThermaBlend cookers.  The Mepaco Column Dumper offers a very heavy-duty design and are engineered for ease of maintenance.  Mepaco often makes modifications depending on the application such as column heights, dump angles to 60 degrees, dumper capacity, extended chutes, and stainless upgrade kit.

ThermaBlend Cooker In the system, there are two ThermaBlend Cookers, that support quick batch turns in their multi-recipe production needs.  A versatile unit, these cookers are capable of cooking, searing, caramelizing, sautéing and blending. ThermaBlend Cookers are designed for large scale operations, featuring:

• A wrap-around steam jackets providing large heating surfaces for optimal heat transfer
• Application-specific agitator designs for quick homogeneous blending, while minimizing shear
• A bi-directional scraper system that aids in processing efficiency
• Customization that drives production goals including vacuum and cooling

Buffering Mixer – The batches are discharged into a heated Buffering Mixer that maintains product temperature and consistency until required by downstream operations.

The Mepaco team of long-standing technical sales managers, engineers and project leaders work with customer teams on solving the best solution that fits the application and production goals. Our equipment and systems uphold increased yield performance, optimal designs for ease of maintenance and operation, single-source manufacturing capabilities, the highest sanitary equipment finishes available and vigilant compliance of food safety criteria.

With so many videos and animations added to the website, we have created a video channel just for Mepaco systems and equipment.  Among the new videos are:

• An animation of a New Mixing System for the Prepared Foods Industry
• An EZL Pallet Lift Demonstration
• A Plant Walk-Through of a Meat Processing Line
• An Articulating Screw Elevator Demonstration and Animation
  
  

Visit the channel and check out the new videos!

The night shift has completed their work and the sanitation team begins flooding the process room with cleaning chemicals, water and spray to soak and sanitize every nook and cranny.  And what often gets blasted away? The drain plug often goes missing.  Sometimes the cleaning crew doesn’t even know it went down the drain.  Sometimes the production staff starting up the next shift also doesn’t know it is missing.

Many food processing people have a similar story, so Mepaco invented a tool-less self-containing plug that is impossible to lose and easy to appreciate.

Mepaco’s plug ejects far enough to release the waste, but is restrained against a solid welded restrictive barrier that holds the plug in line, without limiting performance, or enabling escape.  

Other plug designs don’t hold up to rigorous cleaning and aren’t designed to prevent the harboring of bacteria.  While sanitation teams want easy to clean solutions that will pass inspection, production wants efficiency with no loss of product.  Losing plugs are no longer a concern with these self-containing plugs.