Baking&Snack - August 2012 - 51

TRENDS

FORMULATION

EQUIPMENT

OPERATIONS

SPECIAL REPORT

To ensure the quality of its flour tortillas and flatbreads, the Portland plant relies on Dipix and Lawrence vision systems to inspect and reject outof-spec products on all lines. Ceia and Goring Kerr metal detectors also are employed along packaging lines for quality assurances purposes. Lawrence and Arr-Tech counter/ stackers collate products as they move to packaging. Three Formost Fuji wrappers as well as Hartmann, Saxxon and UBE baggers package the flour tortillas and flatbreads.

R&D make the play
The Portland plant manufactures around 85 product codes, slightly more than the Sanford Mexican Original facility yet significantly less than the company’s Fayetteville operation, which produces several hundred different products. During Baking & Snack’s plant visit, the company was working with a customer on a new spinach-flavored wrap. While this product was destined for the retail channel, the majority of Mexican Original’s products end up in food service. Although the company serves as a contract manufacturer for its customers, it features an active R&D team that develops bench-top products as options.

However, Mexican Original performs its due diligence before scaling up production. “So much detail goes into a new product, and we make sure everything is right before we launch it,” Mr. Irvin said. In many ways, Mexican Original continues to set new standards. For example, the plant received British Retail Consortium Global Standard for food safety certification through a Global Food Safety Initiativerecognized audit. The rigorous 3-day audit covers a variety of subjects including the company’s Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) program, factory environment, process and product controls, and quality management system. While the Food Safety Modernization Act signed into law last year will require many bakeries to implement HACCP-like plans, Mexican Original launched HACCP programs nearly a decade ago at its tortilla facilities. “Because we are part of a large protein company, we do a lot of testing from a micro pathogen perspective typical of USDA-inspected plants that a lot of bakeries don’t do,” Mr. Blankenship said. If Mexican Original expands this field of dreams, will new business

Jon Blankenship, quality assurance manager, represents how the Mexican Original plant has been able to cultivate a leadership team internally.
Tyson Foods, Worth Sparkman

continue to come? That is a question the company will have to consider as it moves forward. Although no official plans have been announced, Mexican Original’s leaders suggested that to keep up with future growth the Portland plant will require additional space for manufacturing. Perhaps they are hearing a voice from the adjacent cornfields, urging them to “go the distance.”

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Baking&Snack - August 2012

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