When a local food manufacturer had great success with a new instant rice product, its manufacturing process required upgrading to meet the demand. JNE provided a preliminary study looking at options to increase capacity for a sauce making system. The objective was to multiply production 50% while reducing current operator numbers.

Also evaluated were requirements for a proposed future addition of individually quick frozen (IQF) meats and vegetables to the recipes. Future freezer location and handling of the IQF ingredients was considered, as well as cGMP requirements should meats be handled.

To achieve the goal of increased sauce production, an automated sauce making system was proposed. The previous process had been almost completely manual and, as a result, was very labour intensive and time consuming. The automated system would allow one batch to be made while another was being fed to the packaging machines, with less operator intervention than had previously been required.

In addition, alternative processing equipment was evaluated to speed up the ingredient addition times and improve the quality of the mixture obtained. Material handling of the ingredients as well as the actual sauce mixing process were improved. JNE provided the following services: