PET Food Processing - September 2022 - 14

PLANT PROFILE
Top: Scoular built its
Petsource facility in
response to the growing
demand for freeze-dried
pet food.
Right: Petsource by
Scoular was designed
to be a one-stop shop
for ingredient blending,
meat processing, freeze
drying and finished
packaging solutions.
More of today's consumers are searching for cleaner
products for themselves, as well as for their four-legged
family members.
" Freeze-drying is a cleaner process - it keeps the vitamins
and nutrients in the food, so you don't need added
ingredients, " Kucks said. " These are the healthier products
pet parents are looking for. "
Up and running
Scoular chose Seward - just 75 miles away from its
Omaha, Neb., headquarters - as the site of its new manufacturing
facility designed to develop, procure, freezedry
and package high-protein ingredients as a contract
partner for pet food manufacturers.
" The relatively close location to raw material sources,
availability of a solid workforce, community involvement
and incentives were all key factors in our decision
to choose Seward, " Heussner said. " The city of Seward
was expanding its manufacturing footprint and we were
able to become an anchor tenant in its newest economic
development site. "
Construction on the 105,000-square-foot plant in the
Seward/Lincoln Regional Rail Campus was completed
in early September 2020 and the facility was up and run " The
relatively close location to
raw material sources, availability
of a solid workforce, community
involvement and incentives
were all key factors in our
decision to choose Seward. "
Jon Heussner, Petsource by Scoular
14 PET FOOD PROCESSING | September 2022 | www.petfoodprocessing.net
ning one month
later. The plant
features six main
production lines:
raw meat blending,
ingredient blending,
forming and dicing,
freeze-drying, bulk packaging
and retail pouch packaging.
Currently staffed with 100 employees,
the facility
houses 63,000 square feet devoted to processing, 5,000
square feet of packaging space, and 25,000 square feet
and 12,000 square feet of warehouse and office space,
respectively.
The flow of product through the processing and packaging
starts with frozen proteins and dry ingredients
entering the receiving area of the plant. Petsource uses
beef, poultry and fish in its products, which are brought
into the plant in 30- to 50-lb blocks and boxes. Most of
the product is supplied from Midwest suppliers within
200 miles of the plant.
The plant features both raw and ready-to-eat (RTE)
entrances in order to keep product separated and safe
from contamination. Each side of the building is color
coded - red for raw and gray for RTE. The color coding
is represented from the floor to the sanitation sites
to the clothing the operators wear. The locker rooms,
break rooms and production rooms are also specific to
the workers' raw or RTE work zones.
After entering the plant, all products (both proteins
and dry ingredients) are evaluated through the company's
SafeFood 360 processes and entered into the enterprise
resource planning (ERP) system.
" Extensive pathogen testing of products at various
stages of our production process and throughout the
environment (i.e., food contact surfaces, non-food contact
surfaces, air and water) is a foundational pillar to
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PET Food Processing - September 2022

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