McCain Foods, 2012 Frozen Foods Processor of the Year
Refrigerated & Frozen Foods’ editor-in-chief Marina Mayer tours McCain Foods’ newly expanded Plover, Wis., facility.
Read cover story here.
Read plant story here.
Inside the Potato Cellar
(From left to right) Mark Schmaus, plant manager; Manuel Juarez, line operator relief; Faith Lovett, environmental control supervisor; and Deb Becker, quality supervisor, stand inside the potato cellar at the newly expanded Plover, Wis., plant.
On Potato Hill
Operators carefully and strategically sift through the mound of potatoes and feed them through a conveyor that leads into a truck.
Trucks Dump Potatoes
Once filled, the trucks transport the potatoes and dump them onto a conveyor that leads into the facility.
Inspecting Potatoes as They Come In
Operators inspect the potatoes as they travel along a conveyor.
Mounds of Potatoes
Roughly 60 loads, or 3 million pounds of potatoes, enter the plant each day.
Potatoes Coming In
The potatoes are sized, cut and cleaned before conveying into the feeder, where they come in dry, but leave wet.
Potatoes Soaking in Water
Polymers are added to the water to absorb the moisture and rid the potatoes of dirt, sand and debris, which sinks to the bottom.
200 Foot Pipe
The potatoes then travel into a 200-foot pipe that runs alongside the top of what is called the agricultural area.
Potatoes Dewater
The water de-waters, the pipes carry the potatoes back into the acetylene vents and then they fall into switch bins, which hold about two truckloads of potatoes each.
Row of Fries
Seventy percent of the site's raw material comes from nearly 33 growers within a 60-mile radius.
Flash Peelers
Potatoes travel into one of five flash peelers, which use steam to remove the peel.
Heading into Fryer
The strips travel into the fryer, where they remain for 30-120 seconds at 360-380°F.
Fries Head to Packaging
The potatoes feed into the packaging room through an optical sorting system that takes pictures of the strip.
Packaging Room
Strips feed up onto the scale deck, then feed down to the baggers to get bagged and then feed back up through the metal detector (a critical control point).
Fries on Tiered Conveyor
All nine processing lines in the Plover, Wis., plant feed through one conveyor via a Zipper that connects the conveyors into one.
Palletizing Room
The new robotic palletizing room consists of nine palletizers, which together, can run up to 18 different SKUs at one time.