Meat + Poultry - September 2016 - 20

COVER STORY

Pete Barreras

Pre-rigor pork is utilized to
manufacture links and chub
sausage products at the
Bob Evans plant in Xenia,
Ohio, where capacity is
up to 500 sows per day.

"The biggest
upgrade
would be the
link-loading
capabilities.
It just makes
a very goodlooking link
that's put into
the tray."
- AARON ESKRIDGE

and processing plant was the second fresh
sausage processing plant in the Bob Evans
system in a city long remembered as ground
zero for a devastating tornado in 1974 as well as
a reputation for being a manufacturing hub. It
has been expanded significantly twice through
the years with another renovation being planned
for the next 12-18 months. The throughput
of the facility, Townsley says, "is pretty
phenomenal," with a capacity of approximately
500 head per day. Approximately 100 workers
are employed at the 77,000-sq.-ft. plant. Nearly
mirror images in terms of operations, the plants
in Xenia and Hillsdale are the only surviving
pork-processing operations since the closure
of six other facilities, the last of which was its
Richardson, Texas, plant shuttered in 2013. The
Xenia facility's production is primarily focused
on 1-lb. rolls and link sausage for retail, as well
as Bob Evans restaurants. The plants both make
whole-hog, pre-rigor combo meat that is used in
house for production requirements, and some
shipped to Bob Evans' Sulpher Springs, Texas,
plant for production of precooked links, patties
and in meat used to make its sausage gravy.
The Xenia plant operates three link lines, two
of which have been largely automated over
the course of the past three years. Earlier
this year, two lines were integrated to offer
flexibility in what is known as Line 2, with the
consolidation being based on the investment
in a tray loading system.
"The biggest upgrade would be the linkloading capabilities. It just makes a very goodlooking link that's put into the tray," Aaron
Eskridge, plant manager, says with pride. "It's

MEAT+ POULTRY | 09.16 | www.meatpoultry.com

like my second child," he says with a smile.
The automated technology means that as few
as 5 percent of the links have to be handled by
human hands to situate them in trays. The end
of the line is equipped with a robotic picker,
which further automates the process.
The exact same link products are run on
two different lines, (one for foodservice and
one for retail) and the difference in appearance
is apparent most notably in the uniformity of
the automated line's packaged product.
Overall, though, "The quality of our links
today vs. what they were 10 years ago is night
and day," Townsley says.
The system of stuffers, linkers and cutters
used on the two link lines were purchased
through Reiser while the plant's other line is
dedicated to making chub products, using
two, Kartridge Pak (KP) Fillers that feed the
finished chubs to a single glycol chiller.
"About 50 percent of our total production
goes through the KP machines," Eskridge says.
Farther upstream, the sausage is mixed
using four mixers, all of which use CO2 chilling.
For the production of the plant's 1-lb. chubs,
which constitutes about half of the production
at Xenia, hot-boned, unchilled pork is used
while the link meat is chilled during mixing.
The seasoning blend used to produce the links
and Bob Evans rolled sausage, is blended at
the Xenia plant.
A total of 100 employees work at the Xenia
plant. In the harvesting area where sows are
slaughtered, up to 38 workers process about
50 sows per hour, which translates to 425-450
head per day, or about five truckloads per day.

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Meat + Poultry - September 2016

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