White Castle, 2014 Frozen Foods Processor of the Year
Find out how a family-owned business that started with $700 to open its first restaurant grew to become the $650 million company it is today.
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White Castle Logo
White Castle meat resting on racks
Frozen ground beef comes in 25-inch-long logs, are tempered for 3-4 days to 25°F and then placed on racks for slicing.
White Castle EIC explaining 5-hole technology
Brad Rife, assistant vice president of operations for White Castle (far right), explains to Refrigerated & Frozen Foods’ editor-in-chief Marina Mayer (middle) and James Strack, president and CEO of FDG Atlanta (left) how the frozen patties look when they come in already extruded with the five holes.
White Castle buns in bakery room
Buns are brought in daily from the company’s Evendale, Ohio, bun bakery, or are shipped from Nickels Bakery, Inc., Navarre, Ohio, as a backup.
White Castle bin of dehydrated onions
In the onion rehydration room, 75 pounds of onions are dumped into a large bin mixed with 210 pounds of water, then vacuumed and tumbled for 10 minutes before use.
White Castle onions on grill
An onion dispenser drops about 5 grams of onions for each burger.
White Castle putting meat in grinder
Tempered ground beef logs are manually loaded into the meat slicers to cut and dispense 16 patties at a time.
White Castle patties conveying on grill
Frozen 100% USDA-inspected ground beef patties come in already extruded from one of the company’s three meat processing facilities.
White Castle patties up close
The White Castle cheeseburger is said to be the No. 1 selling frozen sandwich in retail stores and vending operations nationwide, according to Nielsen, total frozen appetizers and sandwiches, ended Oct. 4.
White Castle buns conveying in
Product moves down a 65-foot conveyor, while the top buns convey in from the bun room next door.
White Castle human QC check
All 80 team members are cross-trained every 30 days on food safety, plant safety and OSHA as well as every position on the plant floor.
White Castle human QC check on buns
For every stretch of the machinery resides 2-3 sets of team member eyes and hands manually checking and re-checking the product, something the company describes as an insurance policy for food safety.
White Castle buns up close
The Vandalia, Ohio, facility produces close to 16,500 burgers per hour, or over 220,000 sandwiches a day.
White Castle burgers on conveyor
White Castle exports product to a number of countries, including many of the Caribbean Islands, South Pacific Islands and the Philippines, and just began selling to the U.S. military.
White Castle burgers on grill
White Castle’s 5-hole technology prompts a faster way to cook the patties because steam rises through the holes, cooking the patty all the way through vs. having to flip the patties over.
White Castle packaging burgers on conveyor
Burgers convey into an automatic flow wrapper that wraps two burgers into clear plastic film that is then code dated for traceability purposes.
White Castle operators in packaging
Operators bunch six- or 16-burger packages (depending on the order) into a carton, which then conveys under another code dater to receive its traceability markings.
White Castle 12-pack
Every pack of sandwiches is marked with lot and trace codes for traceability purposes.
White Castle packaged burgers entering freezer
Once the product has been deemed good to go, operators slide it into the -30°F freezer, which leads into the packaging area.
White Castle burgers down spiral conveyor
Packaged product empties down a corkscrew slide that loops down through a metal detector and into the packaging room.
White Castle code dating
In the 8,000-square-foot packaging room, product travels over a checkweigher, underneath a laser coder and is then manually packaged in a carton before being automatically sealed and sent into freezer storage.
White Castle warehouse
This dry storage warehouse holds 600 racks at -10°F.
White Castle loading dock
Product ships out daily out of the one refrigerated dock, however the facility was built to install two additional docking stations.